[Marxism] Re.: fwd: "Blackshirts and Reds..." by Parenti

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

?sks? presents what appears to be an academic elitist critique of
Michael Parenti?s  popular history.  Popular histories are not written
for experts in the field, nor need they go into great scholarly depth
and detail, with reams of footnotes, citations, etc., and thus alienate
the very readership they aim to enlighten.  The prime purpose of popular

history should be to provide the essential utility of raising working
class consciousness and contributing to its development.  To be
accessible such works must attract and be readable, that is accessible,
by literate workers and youth.

A prime example of current popular history is Howard Zinn?s ?A People?s
History of the United States.?  I have heard academic historians
criticize Zinn?s wonderful history because it is not ?useful.?  What
does that mean?  I believe it does have a utility.  It has been read by
thousands with pleasure.  It has significantly elevated their
understanding of the economic nature of the history of the United
States.  It has provided inspirational examples of how people?s
organization(s) can move and improve history.  The problem academic
historians have with his work is its lack of page numbers cited for
specific references.  Nonetheless, the integrity of his history remains
unquestioned by the consensus of  leftist  historians.  Need I get into
the politics of history?  (That could be a source of attacks on Parenti
who has been more sympathetic of the Third International than the
mainstream.)

Zinn told me that one of his inspirations was a best-seller during the
Depression: We, The People by Leo Huberman (1932).  Huberman later wrote

an economic world history Man's Worldly Goods (1936) that is still read
the world over.  Huberman had an intuitive grasp of the culture of
ordinary Americans beyond the rarified abstractions of Marxist
intellectuals.

A precursor to Huberman? work was Britisher Alfred Barton, author of A
World History for the Workers: A Story of Man's Doings from the Dawn of
Time, from the Standpoint of the Disinherited (1922).  Another example
of popular history noted by Zinn was A People's History of England by A.

L. Morton (1938).  Louis Adamic wrote the popular and timely eye-opener
in the Great Depression: Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence in
America  (1934).

Zinn mentioned Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History

Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen (1995).  I retain an antipathy to
Loewen?s vilification of Marxists and Marxism, but his incisive
iconoclastic revelations are generally a positive addition to popular
history.  Another weighty contributor is, of course, Noam Chomsky.  What

Uncle Sam Really Wants comes to mind.

 I certainly do not mean to disparage the contribution offered by
?sks?.  His/her contribution, however, is on a wholly different level.
I continue to insist, as well, that if we could make our contributions
additive rather than reductive, they would do more to enhance our
movement.