Howard Zinn, the Musical

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Twelve years after name-dropping Howard Zinn in Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon was back at it on Sunday with the world premiere of his spoken- word adaptation of Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. For the production, which aired on the History Channel, Damon assembled a lineup of celebrity all-stars, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Lupe Fiasco, and Glenn Beck-adversary Viggo Mortensen. He also recruited Benjamin Bratt, which just goes to show that no matter what the Founders told you, all celebrities are not created equal.

There are some bright spots—Dylan and Ry Cooder’s performance of Woody Guthrie, for instance—but structurally, the program is a bit of a mess. After a while, the recitation from the journals of slaves, labor leaders, and women’s suffragists (but no Mother Jones!) that comprises the bulk of the program starts to blur into an overbearingly earnest version of that early YouTube classic, “The Evolution of Dance.”

But the biggest problem with The People Speak isn’t the people who speak; it’s Howard Zinn. Damon’s tribute to his childhood neighbor Zinn is strung along with voice-overs from the historian himself, informing us that the Constitution was a tool of peasant-loathing aristocrats, that the Civil War was fought for the pleasure of Northern business interests (Lincoln was just a pawn), and World War II was a waste of everyone’s time.

 

A People’s History will always be worth reading as a counterweight to more conventional texts—if new generations are introduced to Chief Joseph and Sojourner Truth as a result of Zinn’s writing, then he has achieved a noble goal. But for a work so deeply ingrained in the progressive consciousness, bursting with stories of individuals and movements who pushed the nation to live up to its unfulfilled promise, Zinn’s overarching thesis of American oppression seems beyond cynical; it’s downright conspiratorial.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate