The Left and Historical Knowledge

One of my frustrations for a very long time is the lack of historical knowledge on the left. Those who have gone on for advanced degrees have avoided this problem generally, but for the most part the majority of progressives I have known have a scary lack of historical knowledge. The reason this is scary is that we try so often to couch our arguments in historical terms, even if they are as vague as "blacks have always been oppressed in this country" or "I don't want to go back to the days of coathanger abortions." At best, many progressives have only read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. That's a fine book in it's own way. Just one problem--it's not very good history at this point. It's extremely dated for one thing. Even though it's updated, almost all of the scholarship Zinn based his history on is well over 30 years old and the updates are really just discussions of his thoughts on recent administrations and major events. In addition, it's a very simplistic book that offers simplistic explanations for the inequalities of the American past.

What is particularly frustrating is the argument you always hear from people who have read the book who say, "This is history they don't teach in school." That is just patently untrue. Maybe into the 1970s you didn't hear a lot about gender, race, and class in the classroom but that's just not true today. If I had to guess, I would say that 80% of professors under the age of 50 are teaching history from a left of center perspective with a great deal of emphasis on traditionally oppressed peoples, power structures in America, etc. And probably 60% of professors over the age of 50 are doing the same thing. A lot of high school teachers are too.

So yes, this history is being taught. Problem is, most people are probably too hung over from going out the night before or too busy textmessaging in class to pay attention.

The reason I am so concerned about this lack of knowledge is that we need to use history to bolster our arguments. The right uses a form of history for their arguments that has little or no basis in scholarship and a lot of basis in falsehood and mythology invented for their points. But it seems effective. We need to know more about environmental destruction, the ways capitalism works, what the framers of the Constitution wanted to do and how and why the Constitution has changed over time, and the ways that women and racial minorities have been oppressed in America and how they have fought back in order for us to fight back today against forces that aim to oppress us.

Zinn's a fine start I guess for people on the left interested in American history but it's only a start and people need to follow up with a lot of additional readings. To some extent this is me as a historian talking, but I think it's also an important point outside of that. Progressives simply must get a better grasp on history in order to bolster their points. In this spirit, let me suggest 12 books that I find particularly excellent and that I would suggest for anyone looking to expand their historical knowledge of America.

1. Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. I think we all know that America has screwed over Latin America. People might read some kind of biography of Che to get their knowledge about this. No doubt there is knowledge to be gained there. But if you want to know the shit, this is where you find it.

2. Gordon Wood, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. Something of a classic work in American history. Did you ever wonder why slavery started? This book gives a provocative opinion as to that process and it doesn't have a whole lot to do with racism. Read it to find out why not. You may also find it interesting to know about forced labor of whites in early America.

3. George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. I can't say enough for how cool this book is. Among the things you'll find out is how the meanings of gay sex and being homosexual have changed over time and a little about what it was like to be gay 100 years ago.

4. Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. Worster thinks hard about water use in the arid West and places it in a global perspective. People have tried to disagree with his analysis, but it's damned hard to come up with a convincing counterargument. A key book for understanding America's overuse of resources and destruction of ecosystems in order to have cheap lettuce in February.

5. Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor. If you think the phenomenon of companies moving around the world and screwing people over for joining unions is a new thing, guess again. A devastating critique of one powerful company's frequent moves to cut labor costs. Very important for understanding the background of globalization.

6. Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. What relevant thing can you learn from a book about a time so long ago? A hell of a lot. See how not all whites treated Native Americans the way the United States did. See how Indians worked not only in wartime, but in peace, to further their interests and how they did so successfully for over 100 years. A long book but a wonderful one.

7. Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. Really borderline history as it came out in 1980 and was talking about the 60s and 70s. Nonetheless, it shows both how men in the social movements of the 60s were shockingly sexist but also how women constructed the feminist movement in the face of direct hostility from male activists.

8. Rickie Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade. A really interesting book about how single pregnant women received very different treatment depending on their race. It also shows how this society has valued certain bodies more than others and how those values affect social policy.

9. Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. An amazing work of history. A depressing story too as Sugrue explores how cities fell apart after WWII because of the racism of white residents of these cities and government indifference to racial harmony and keeping cities alive.

10. William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. This is perhaps the best book of environmental history written as of this date. Cronon explores how the burgeoning capitalist system of America transformed how Americans viewed the products they consumed and how in order to keep up with these rates of consumption, radical intensive uses of the environment became necessary. This is only a very brief and perfunctory description of a complex and wonderful book that is a necessary read for understanding the history of capitalism and our historical use of the environment. Absolutely my favorite American history book.

11. William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and Rise of a New American Culture. A very provocative look at the rise of consumer capitalism in post-Civil War America as well as how advertising began to play an important role in American culture. Some criticize Leach for not giving people enough agency in resisting the bells and whistles of capitalist culture but it's hard for me to accept this as, well, how many people are truly immune to advertising?

12. Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Many in the Republican party today claim that they are the true civil rights party because they freed the slaves. If you plan on countering this argument, an understanding of the ideology behind the early Republican party is a must and this is where you are going to get it.

This is only a short list. I notice I have almost nothing on slavery or civil rights and very little on pre-Civil War America. I may from time to time suggest a few books to fill this list out. In any case, reading a few of these books will take your mind to a level beyond a reading of Zinn will. It will also prepare you to argue against Republican ideas in a much more convincing and effective fashion.

I should finish my saying that I certainly have nothing against Howard Zinn. He is a good historian and has done more for the human race than most people ever will. He was a hero of the Civil Rights movement and People's History has taught a lot of people a lot of things that they didn't know before about America. The book is just very dated is all and I think we need to move on to newer books to teach us about American history. Incidentally, I had an interaction with Zinn once and he was very kind. I sent him an e-mail out of the blue inviting him to a labor conference I was helping to organize. He couldn't come but he sent a very nice e-mail back to me suggesting some other people to invite to speak, some of which did come. To say I was happy that he would even respond to me is a huge understatement.