Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Mary Grabar’s Debunking Howard Zinn arrived a few days after the New York Times’ plan to “publish essays demonstrating that nearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery” was made public. So I was especially eager to see how Zinn’s treatment of slavery might hold up. It turns out that the Times is just continuing the lies and distortions of Zinn’s fake history. With extensive and meticulous scholarship, Grabar debunks Zinn’s claims that racism has been more important in the United States than in any country in the history of the world, that American slavery is the most cruel form of slavery in history, and that America invented racism. She exposes not only his lies but also his omissions and his practice of selective quotation. For Zinn, she argues, “the very real horrors of slavery are simply more fodder for his war against America and Western civilization.” So also, his lies about Columbus’ treatment of the Indians which are now taken as fact by an entire generation of young people. How could they fail to hate their country whose origin is stained with such blood and cruelty? Grabar’s book is a remarkable and extraordinary achievement of scholarly integrity and engaging writing. She wrote this book, she says, because “America deserves better than slanders. . . .She deserves. . . the truth about her history.” And that is just what Mary Grabar has given us.