A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, first published in 1980, has proven to be one of the most influential books of the last 50 years. It became something of a standard textbook in U.S history classes in universities across the country. I never read it; my own college history textbook was the two-volume A History of the United States to 1877 and The History of the United States Since 1865 by a group of historians led by T. Harry Williams. (It probably didn’t hurt that Williams taught at the university I attended.) What I didn’t know was that the Zinn history reflects a Marxist perspective, emphasizing the struggle of oppressed peoples against their oppressors. As Paul James Macrae points at Front Porch Republic, this kind of “history” is still being published.
There is something to be said for classical poetry. At the Society of Classical Poets, poet Andrew Benson Brown reads Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare,” Michelangelo’s “Sonnet XVII,) and Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”
Following the events this week at Harvard University, and following the events last week at University of Pennsylvania, I ask myself a fundamental question: is it even possible for our elite universities to recover from this state of affairs? The cost to the county is incalculable, and it’s my children and grandchildren who are going to pay it. Bill Ackman, the financier and hedge fund manager who helped lead the charge against Harvard’s president, has a plan to fix Harvard.
More Good Reads
Life and Culture
The Element of Crime, Part Two – Brian Patrick Eha at City Journal.
Why Good Men Are Hard to Find – Joshua Herring at Law & Liberty.
The Least Resolution for 2024 – Peter Mead at Biblical Preaching.
Art
The imagination of Ensor – William Cook at The Critic Magazine.
No-one has ever made photographs like these – Andrew Eberlin at Photos, photographers, and photobooks.
News Media
Can Evangelical Journalists Say Anything Good About Evangelicals? – Andrew Walker at National Review.
Faith
Open Letter – The family of Ravi Zacharias.
Storms or Doldrums: Which Is More Dangerous? – Helen Louise Herndon at The Aquila Report.
Poetry
The Bird in the Tree – Ruth Pitter via Malcolm Guite.
T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets Lecture Series – James Matthew Wilson.
Undecorating on Twelfth Night – Jody Lee Collins at Poetry & Made Things.
Writing and Literature
Bombs Away, a short story – Etgar Keret at Alphabet Soup.
I Will Follow Him – Valley Rock Voices, South Wales
Painting: The Fireplace, oil on canvas (1901) by Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940); St. Louis Art Museum.
1 comment:
Quite an open letter from the Ravi family. Disappointing and distressing. All in the name of the Father? He must be cringing at the lack of integrity displayed. I realize there are two sides to every story, but...
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