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Mark wrote: > >I wasn't even going to respond on this, and >get into the fish-slapping silly shit >about who is and isn't a Marxist. Next time don't even read my post. You'll sleep better >But who is and isn't a "Beardsian" may cost >me sleep. I've never heard of a "Beardsian, > but I suspect that, in this day and age, >most people wouldn't know one if it bit them >in the ass." ...and I never used the term. I said that Zinn was the 'Charles Beard' of our time. Now, let this bite you in the ass. Charles Beard was enormously popular in the 1920's and 1930's, He was, I believe, the best selling historian then, well loved and respected by many people. His 'An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution' was an enormously influential work that had a similar impact as "People's History.' Zinn, in fact, singles Beard out for praise and acknowledges the influence on his own work. This is the only acknowledgement that I am aware of that Zinn ever made to another historian. You are quite right that most people are ignorant of Charles Beard and his work has been forgetten by the public and repudiated by almost all other American historians. The only other contemporary writer invoking Beard that I can recall is Andrew Bacevich, who is not a historian. As far as the simple observation that I made, that Zinn was not a Marxist, why does that upset you so much? We can certainly agree that Foner was an important Marxist historian and that his work on American labor is under appreciated. You are also quite right to dispute some of the well meaning obituaries to Zinn that give him credit for singlehandedly inventing social history or that he was the first person to use his work as a political weapon. Let us leave it at that and you can go back to sleep. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
