Posted by
Daniel Crandall on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 12:39:51 AM
And even the Lefty graphic novel fans are not happy. It seems even the Left has its limits.
Howard Zinn, the historian perhaps most loathed by conservative Americans, has top billing on a graphic adaption of
A People's History of the United States, titled
A People's History of American Empire.
Here is part of the Amazon.com description:
Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then
jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee
to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America,
Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution.
Noticeably missing from this list of American Imperialism is WWII. However, Zinn is not even willing to say that
what America did, to get rid of Hitler in WWII, was moral:
Dennis Prager: ... there are historical examples of where war is the only way to achieve a moral end.
Howard Zinn: Well, I'm not sure that's the only way.
DP: Was there another way to have gotten rid of Hitler?
HZ: In the case of WWII, I don't know what it would have taken to get
rid of Hitler. We certainly had to resist him, we certainly had to get
rid of him. . . . What bothers me most today is that people use WWII as
an example for what we should do today. It's a very different situation.
DP: No, we use it as an example of where war is the moral choice. Are
you prepared to say that war is ever the best moral choice?
HZ: No.
DP: Never. Not even against Hitler?
HZ: Well, I'm not sure about WWII
DP: Wow.
Maybe even Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki know that American people, even Left-wingers, have their limits.More than likely it was the editors who put the kibosh on the idea that WWII was not a moral war.
But what really amuses me is that Left-wing comic fans are not finding this book all that appealing. Commentor FZ was kind enough to inform me of
this review at ComicsWorthReading.com, where I was rather tickled to read this, by Johanna Draper Carlson:
I should be smack in the middle of the target audience for this
book. I love graphic novels, including non-fiction ones, and popular
history, plus I have grave misgivings about the choices made by the
current government of this country in the name of security.
Thus, I was stunned to discover that I couldn’t force myself past
the second chapter. It’s much too hectoring and didactic, even to those
already inclined to be interested in reading a “greatest hits of
America’s sins”.
Tom Spurgeon, another Lefty comics review, also
doesn't like the graphic adaption of Zinn's anti-American screed. But, for some reason, Spurgeon's review can no longer be found at his own website, TheComicsReporter.com. You have to go to the Google cached page in order to read Spurgeon's own words:
This is a crushing disappointment of a book, a smart list of criticisms of American foreign policy presented in hamfisted fashion.
While I won't agree with Spurgeon or Carlson on matters political, I will give them credit for not letting their passion for the graphic novel and non-fiction art form be overtaken by their Left-wing politics.