Wish I hadn’t just said that; now I feel even more ashamed. What an amazing guy – and I’ve only skimmed a couple of bios.

Come to think of it, I’m sure Chomsky referred to Zinn in an audio file I downloaded last year. In fact, Zinn must have crossed my radar before but my memory failed me. Never again!

Btw, from your comment, did you ever attend any of Zinn’s lectures?

“…there is a qualitative difference in hanging out in the halls of history departments in China versus the United States.”

When I was young I was fond of reading an encyclopedia belonging to my grandparents. Its rosy view of Britain’s role in world history would be laughed out of the classroom today. But it was fun to read that the French were to blame for nearly everything

Whether it’s exclusive to any nationality or not, there is a qualitative difference in hanging out in the halls of history departments in China versus the United States. US historians love nothing more than to cut the wrists and let the blood flow—African slavery, Native American genocide, imperialism, degradation of workers and women…these are things PhD dissertations are made of (in the US).

Not so much in the PRC. Granted there are still political reasons for this, scholars and grad students do get waved off subjects, but I also think the concept of history as being as much about the darkness as the light is something that is still not common currency, and this is especially true as we move outside of the academic realm into the world of official, media, and popular discourse.

Tongue firmly in cheek: Whenever I hear ‘my country right or wrong’, I think ‘there but for the grace of Howard Zinn go I.’

Precisely the reason why China needs all its ‘uncles’ to step forward.

I believe highlighting wrongs done by foreigners and downplaying those committed by their own is not something exclusively Chinese. Don’t you hate your nasty neighbor who beat you up more than your uncle who spanked you?