The phrase “highly recommended” intrigued me. I was able to find a couple of lukewarm blog entries from one Anthony Gregory, and a youtube clip from Rockwell, but not much else. This seems to capture the Zinn sentiment:
While he was a bit of a pinko on labor issues, he was courageous and consistent in his condemnation of the worst thing the state does: murder innocent people in large numbers. His A People’s History of the United States is thus a refreshing alternative to the nationalist supremacism that dominates the conventional left and right historical narratives. […] He’s also a pacifist anarchist, so he’s not by any means the worst kind of socialist.
“Not the worst kind of socialist.” Great. Kind of like Bernie Madoff wasn’t the “worst kind” of thief. I will grant that Zinn “taught a couple generations of young people to question their history teachers and the civic religion of US governmental supremacy”…but I wouldn’t be surprised if any positive effect he had was negated by the other notions he put in the impressionable minds of young people. And Kinsella reposts something of a different sentiment.