Indiana’s Anti-Howard Zinn Witch-hunt

[HarveyDarkey]

by Bill Bigelow

Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, one of the country’s most widely read history books, died on January 27, 2010. Shortly after, then-Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels got on his computer and fired off an email to the state’s top education officials: “This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away.”

But Gov. Daniels, now president of Purdue University, was not content merely to celebrate Howard Zinn’s passing. He demanded that Zinn’s work be hunted down in Indiana schools and suppressed: “The obits and commentaries mentioned his book ‘A People’s History of the United States’ is the ‘textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.’ It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?”

We know about Gov. Daniels’ email tantrum thanks to the Associated Press, which obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Scott Jenkins, Daniels’ education advisor, wrote back quickly to tell the governor that A People’s History of the United States was used in a class for prospective teachers on social movements at Indiana University.

Daniels fired back: “This crap should not be accepted for any credit by the state. No student will be better taught because someone sat through this session. Which board has jurisdiction over what counts and what doesn’t?”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/19

[olddots]

1. I wish I hadn't learned this about this ultra turd maggot

[NuclearDem]

2. Read it, and cited it in several papers for my IUPUI poly-sci class

Bite me, Daniels.

[niyad]

3. go to the purdue website, and read his lying, self-serving denial, along with that of the board.

truly disgusting.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

5. That little shit was so out of his league on the Daily Show

He is a miserable little man who lives to hate. It says a lot about Purdue that they would hire such an anti-intellectual as their president.

[NuclearDem]

6. I read it. Daniels is a loathsome piece of shit, and Purdue should be ashamed of itself.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[azurnoir]

7. perhaps Daniels would find 'Birth of a Nation' at least as a visual aid

more in line with his historical beliefs

[cyclezealot]

8. To think Daniels now heads Purdue University .

And his influence on Higher Education: There is no limit to the number of insults inflicted on our educational system by the goobers. Be interesting to see what he's done to Purdue's Library.

[gtar100]

10. Time to write Perdue off as an institution of higher learning.

They are clearly more interested in an agenda than actual facts.

(His statement about Zinn's People's History shows he never read it carefully enough. It is packed with writings and accounts of people as close to the source as anyone is going to get on the subject. He (this Daniel guy) I'm sure has a real problem with its many "inconvenient truths" to paraphrase another book title I'm sure he's never read but has a strong opinion about. Daniels sounds like another self-righteous blowhard who felt compelled to be put in a position of power but will only mess everything up.)

[ReRe]

9. Fuck Mitch Daniels

Let's rip all history of him having been a Rep in Congress, Governor of Indiana, and now the President of Purdue University. Deep 6 that SOB. He's nothing more than a winger propagandist. Words stand and fall on their own merit. And Howard Zinn's words will stand the test of time. In a hundred years, who do you think will be remembered and quoted? Howard Zinn or dumb-ass Mitch Daniels? I wonder how proud Purdue Univ. is of their new President? I hope they kick that Putin-looking POS out ASAP! Aristocrats don't "own" our history anymore. THE PEOPLE do! The people who BUILT this country, fought and died for this country, who live every day of their lives in this country and are buried in our ground.

[NealK]

11. “This terrible anti-American academic...”

Talk about irony.