Howard Zinn has written a powerful and unique book that exerted a great influenced on thousands of readers. He proclaims his desire at the outset to represent the voices of those groups typically left out of regular textbooks: minorities and women in particular as well as the American working class.
In doing so, Zinn has chosen to focus on social history at “street level”, basing his narrative on quotations and contemporary descriptions that allow the reader to see what living and working conditions were truly like for ordinary people. Zinn chooses not to cover political history in the usual way, such as the story of our presidents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, various and sundry acts of Congress, or even landmark Supreme Court judgments.
While Zinn’s text provides the basis for much of the class, my lectures will also include material not covered by Zinn. We must understand what is in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution before we can appreciate the kind of radical critique of American society that Zinn offers us. At times my lectures will appear supportive of Zinn’s approach and yet at other times my remarks may appear quite critical of his ideas.
This “duality” is healthy for a history class, for students need to hear more than one interpretation of historical events. The challenge for you is to make sense of what you read and hear, to construct your own meaning from America’s story, and to make sense of both the good and the bad in our nation’s past. This is something neither Zinn nor I can do for you. You are free to agree or disagree with both Zinn and myself. The more ideas, the merrier!
This class is not about memorizing answers so much as it is about you developing critical thinking skills in order to express your ideas clearly. This skill includes supporting your point of view by the judicious use of historical evidence. You need facts to support your beliefs so in the end good writing in a history class must seek a balance between facts (names, dates, details) and a coherent, reasonable interpretation of historical events. Why did the colonists rebel against England and create a new government? What principles of government did they adopt?
Understanding the beginnings of America will go far toward understanding America today as well as everything transformational that occurred since the Revolution–including subsequent social, political, and economic development.
The Constitution is rightly called a “living document”. It is not an “antique” that needs to be archived and hidden away somewhere because it is outdated. To the contrary, it retains tremendous vitality! It certainly has as much relevance for all of us living today as it did for the people living at the time of its adoption in 1789.
These two documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, comprise the “birth certificate” of the United States of America; it is incumbent upon all of us to develop a basic understanding of why they were written and what they say. Together, they define our democratic and moral principles of self-government.
The rebellious-colonists-turned-patriotic-Americans carefully created a new kind of nation, one based on self-rule and elected government with guaranteed individual rights and liberties written into law. These principles must be understood before one can discuss intelligently the degree to which subsequent generations of Americans have remained true to the original guiding spirit of our revolutionary documents.
It is now our turn to learn these principles and to decide for ourselves to what extent they will continue to inspire and guide us in our own lives!
