Former U.S. Senator and potential presidential candidate Rick Santorum brought up a book debate at the National Rifle Association. At the group’s annual convention last month, the republican took aim at the late Howard Zinn, an author of A People’s History of the United States. Santorum claimed:
"Do you know the most popular textbook that's taught in our high schools in America is written by a man named Howard Zinn, who is an anti-American Marxist, and that is the most common textbook?"
PolitiFact rated the claim for its truthfulness. According to PolitiFact writer Joshua Gillin, it rates MOSTLY FALSE. Gillin said, there’s one critical difference.
“The problem is, it’s not a textbook,” Gillin said. “It’s considered what they call a trade book and historians do seem to like it.”
Zinn was born in Eastern Europe in 1922 and grew up in Brooklyn. It’s difficult to prove Zinn ever officially joined the Communist Party, but his politics were definitely left-leaning until his death.
Zinn received a Ph.D. in history and taught for more than 20 years at Boston University. He also authored several books, including A People’s History of the United States. The book has sold more than 2 million copies since its publication in 1980. The book is pretty pointed in its recollection of U.S. history and more often than not, the United States is painted in the wrong.
The book has its fair share of critics, both conservatives and liberals, including negative pieces in The New Republic and the American Federation of Teachers.
But, there’s no evidence that the book is the most popular textbook that’s taught in high schools. Popular could mean best liked, instead of most widely used, but one expert said that’s impossible to measure. There is also little evidence to support the core claim, that Zinn’s book is taught more than any other book. Because of those facts, PolitiFact rated it MOSTLY FALSE.
SOURCES: POPULAR SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS
- PolitiFact's rating
- Rick Santorum, speech to the National Rifle Association, April 10, 2015
- David Greenberg, "Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn’s Influential Mutilations of American History" (inThe New Republic), March 19, 2013
- Sam Wineburg, "Undue Certainty: Where Howard Zinn's A People's History Falls Short" (in The American Educator), Winter 2012-2013
- Dan Cohen, "By the Book: Assessing the Place of Textbooks in U.S. Survey Courses" (in the Journal of American History), March 2005
- Eagle Forum, "What's Happened to Public School Curriculum?" November 2010
- Daniel J. Flynn, "Howard Zinn’s Biased History," June 9, 2003
- Alison Kysia, "Bashing Howard Zinn," November 2011
- Chris Beneke and Randall Stephens, "Lies the Debunkers Told Me: How Bad History Books Win Us Over" in The Atlantic, July 24, 2012
- Email interview with Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the New York City-based American Textbook Council, April 14, 2015
- Email interview with Susan Griffin, executive director of the National Council for the Social Studies, April 14, 2015
- Email interview with Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, April 14, 2015
- Email interview with Dan Cohen, founding executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, April 14, 2015
- Email interview with Sean Wilentz, Princeton University historian, April 14, 2015
- Email interview with David Greenberg, Rutgers University historian, April 15, 2015
- Email interview with Sam Wineburg, Stanford University professor of education and history, April 15, 2015
- Email interview with Matt Beynon, spokesman for Rick Santorum, April 15, 2015