Conservative Media Finally Gets Dander Up Over Philly’s Zinn Mandate

You knew they'd eventually get angry about A People's History of the United States.

We’d already told you that City Council had passed a resolution calling for Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States to be included in the curricula of Philly high schools. Now: The backlash. And you knew it was coming, because Zinn’s far-left revisionist take of American history as basically a looting operation by rich white guys is more than some conservatives can abide.

Here’s a roundup of  some opinion. From Townhall.com:

If anything, inculcating high school students with anti-American works of propaganda undermines the very purpose of studying U.S. history in the first place — which, of course, is first and foremost to foster an appreciation for one’s country and its democratic institutions. Thus I see no tangible benefits in teaching this socialist screed to teenagers, especially when there are plenty of other good books to pick and choose from.

So the writer isn’t against propagandistic indoctrination…just the wrong kind. OK. Moving on to the Daily Caller:

Zinn’s book is lauded in far-left circles, but many conservative thinkers believe his self-described “history” is really social activism masquerading as fact. Former Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels believed strongly that the book had no place in K-12 classrooms–an opinion that landed him in trouble with liberal academics when he started his new job as president of Purdue University. 

“We must not falsely teach American history in our schools,” said Daniels in a statement defending his opposition to Zinn’s work. “Howard Zinn, by his own admission a biased writer, purposely falsified American history. His books have no more place in Indiana history classrooms than phrenology or Lysenkoism would in our biology classes or the `Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ in world history courses.”

There has been no word yet on whether district officials plan to turn Philadelphia students into apologists for mass-murdering dictators.

Finally, there’s BizPacReview:

For this to be happening in Philadelphia, of all places, the city of origin for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is an indication of just how far we have devolved as a society — our Founding Fathers have to be rolling over in their graves.

We doubt this’ll be the end of the commentary.