In the introduction to his 1990 second edition of his famous book, ‘The Politics of History”, Howards Zinn’s main argument is against the treatment of history as private enterprise. Howard claims that it is a historian’s social responsibility to do work that will be useful in unraveling some of the problems that plague humanity. Zinn delves into the American history to support his argument and draws many important aspects from this history. For instance, he dedicates a significant chunk of his writing to exploration of Ronald Reagan’s administration where he tries to show how this administration glorified the rich and essentially worsened the condition of the American lower class. He refers to Reagan administration’s budget increases on military activities and budgetary cuts on social services such as healthcare, children’s lunches, , housing for the homeless, food stamps for the poor and payment for the unemployed. Zinn cites Reagan’s use of the conservative philosophy (used historically by many American governments) and the administration’s praise of “free enterprise” as hypocritical and one that seems oblivious to the historical part depicting it as failed system. Zinn gives an example of the Great Depression of the 1930 is that brought hunger and homelessness to many Americans. To support his argument further, Zinn refers to the troubled history between America and the Caribbean and tries to show how the United States has for a long time inaccurately used inaccurate justifications to conduct military intervention in some of the Caribbean nations like Nicaragua. Zinn claims that there exists a limit for the use of history for solving current problems. However, the evidence presented in this scenario is enough to make one question the government statements at face value and indeed scrutinize the situation more. According to Zinn, such history “makes us more competent, watchful citizens”.
In the introductory part of “The Politics of History”, Zinn outlines the role of a historian and claims that historians should be able to use the history they are studying or exploring to solve current problems. He cites some of worldly problems such as children starvation and war as some of the issues that could personally touch historians in the course of writing history and prompt them to explore how this history can find application in solving some of these problems.
Zinn’s arguments in both sections are indeed very effective because apart from just presenting an argument, he delves into details and uses historical illustrations to prove his point.
According to Zinn, history is the accurate recording and representation of facts or events that happened in the past and which when used or utilized in the correct manner can help to alleviate some current world problems. I personally agree Zinn because as already proven; history can have a significant role in solving current problems. For instance, war history is a testament to the fact that war only brings destruction, and there are better ways to solve conflicts. In addition, history helps people to scrutinize their governments past decisions and question these governments should they decide to make similar decisions in the future.
Zinn believes in social responsibility of historians. In my internship, I believe that I have significantly been socially responsible. My duties at my internship entail educating the public about issues such as proper investment knowledge and honest reporting of on goings to clients amongst others. Through this, I am socially responsible because I am able to use the information that I have to better the society and improve it from its status or condition.
Works Cited
Zinn, Howard. The Politics of History. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Print.
Zinn, Howard. The Politics of History. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1970. Print.
