In July 2013, Associated Press reporter Tom LoBianco revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request these emails. They showed how current Purdue University president Mitch Daniels targeted Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" for deletion during his tenure as governor.
These revelations helped inspire me to write the following stories and columns:
2013-09-18 – “House of Burgess - Read a banned book” [Page: A4]
[This column was re-published on the Stanford Graduate School of Education website.]
[This column was re-published on the Stanford Graduate School of Education website.]
2015-04-29 – “House of Burgess - An open letter to Mitch Daniels” [Page: A4]
2017-03-08 - "House of Burgess - Arkansas bill would ban Zinn books" [Page: A4]
I also later had both Tony Diaz and Tom LoBianco as guests on my podcast, "The Rob Burgess Show."
In my Aug. 8, 2013 column, "A People's History of Mitch Daniels," I issued the following challenge: I would read one chapter per day of "A People's History" and tweet about it using the hashtag #zinnbookclub with each post. Since I purge my social media accounts from time to time, I wanted to preserve an archive of these tweets. I would challenge everyone to try a similar experiment. You can find the complete text of the book on the website History Is A Weapon by clicking here.
This project was cited in my winning Second Place entry for Best General Commentary for Division 5 in the 2014 Hoosier State Press Association Foundation Better Newspaper Contest.
18th July, 2013
01:57 - The difference between
@purduemitch and me: He wants to ban Howard Zinn and I would make his work
mandatory reading for students.
22nd July, 2013
7th August, 2013
14:40 - Starting Thursday, I'll
be reading and discussing a chapter per day of "A People's History"
using the hashtag #zinnbookclub
14:42 - If you don't have a copy
of "A People's History," the full text is available here. Care to join us,
@purduemitch?
8th August, 2013
14:57 - Powerful Christopher
Columbus quote: "With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them
do whatever we want." #zinnbookclub
15:10 - A few grafs into this
book and Columbus has already lied, killed and stolen multiple times. I hate
this guy all over again. #zinnbookclub
16:37 - The destruction of the
natives peoples was so immense. Just terrible. #zinnbookclub
16:54 - Spaniards "rode the
backs of Indians if they were in a hurry." Excuse while I vomit.
#zinnbookclub
19:25 - Zinn: "To emphasize
the heroism of Columbus and his successors ... is not a technical necessity but
an ideological choice." #zinnbookclub
9th August, 2013
14:57 - It seems like racism is
almost a byproduct of slavery in some ways. Much easier to subjugate those you
consider subhuman. #zinnbookclub
10th August, 2013
19:40 - Same old story: divide
those whom you oppress, let them fight each other and rule unopposed. Simple.
#zinnbookclub
19:43 - Zinn: "The House of
Burgesses in Jamestown declared war on the Indians." Not cool, Burgesses!
Not cool! #zinnbookclub
12th August, 2013
15:17 - Just some light pool
reading... #zinnbookclub http://t.co/S9FDuWsUUV
20:35 - I bet what @purduemitch
hates about APHOTUS is the acknowledgement of U.S. class warfare. Not a lot of
"soon-to-haves" here. #zinnbookclub
13th August, 2013
18:10 - The rich declare war. The
poor fight it. #zinnbookclub
19:26 - Zinn: "[Alexander]
Hamilton suggested a President and Senate chosen for life." Nightmarish
thought. #zinnbookclub
23:10 - RT @IU06 @robaburg Well,
he was a pro-British, pro elite-class Federalist!
14th August, 2013
11:03 - Zinn: "[The Founding
Fathers] did not want balance, except one which kept things as they were."
#zinnbookclub
11:21 - Zinn: "It was
assumed men ... would sin, but women must not surrender." Not exactly
fair! #zinnbookclub
11:54 - Took a break from reading
about women's historical oppression to fold laundry and vacuum. This is what progress
looks like. #zinnbookclub
14:38 - Thanks to @purduemitch,
"People's History" is hard to find. Are you
reading it? All the cool kids are. #zinnbookclub
19:10 - The term "Indian
Removal" is the ultimate in unsatisfying euphemisms. #zinnbookclub
19:20 - Chief Black Hawk:
"The white men do not scalp the head; but they do worse - they poison the
heart." #zinnbookclub
16th August, 2013
18:56 - Zinn: "Cherokees
could not testify in court against any white." Yikes. #zinnbookclub
19:36 - Henry David Thoreau:
"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for
the right."
#zinnbookclub
19:42 - Horace Greeley: "Is
not Life miserable enough, comes not death soon enough, without
resort to the hideous enginery of War?" #zinnbookclub
20:33 - RT @IU06 @robaburg
Cherokees went to SC to fight removal. Marshall said they could
stay, Jackson says SC is a joke. Jackson wins, natives
gone.
17th August, 2013
12:16 - Zinn: "As often in
war, battles were fought without point." He's talking about
the Mexican-American war, but could be any war. #zinnbookclub
18th August, 2013
19:48 - No offense to anyone who
went to Lewis Cass High School or is from Cass County,
but the real Lewis Cass was not a great guy. #zinnbookclub
19th August, 2013
14:04 - Zinn: "The United
States government's support of slavery was based on an
overwhelming practicality." The banality of evil...
#zinnbookclub
14:50 - Frederick Douglass:
"If there is no struggle there is no progress." Hero.
#zinnbookclub
14:52 - Harriet Tubman:
"Liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for
no man should take me alive." Hero.
#zinnbookclub
15:10 - Zinn: "[Abraham
Lincoln] opposed slavery, but could not see blacks as equals."
Lest we forget... #zinnbookclub
21st August, 2013
00:08 @IU06 indeed. Still one of
my top five presidents, but certainly not perfect...
00:11 - RT @IU06 @robaburg
Conundrum. A man passionate about Declaration and
Constitution and what both stood for.
10:22 - RT @IU06 @robaburg One of
my favorites as well.
#zinnbookclub
22nd August, 2013
01:39 - Zinn: "The Horatio
Alger stories of rags to riches were true for some men, but mostly a
myth, and a useful method for control." #zinnbookclub
02:07 - Zinn: "Laws passed
by states barred certain kinds of textbooks." Reminds me of
someone. Any ideas, @purduemitch? #zinnbookclub
24th August, 2013
10:38 - Mary Ellen Lease:
"Wall Street owns the country." #zinnbookclub
17:06 - Zinn: "The supreme
act of patriotism was war." #zinnbookclub
25th August, 2013
16:26 Henry Cabot Lodge to
William McKinley: "Big corporations here ... all would
welcome [war] as relief to suspense" I'll bet...
#zinnbookclub
26th August, 2013
18:51 - "Rules for Female Teachers" circa 1800s. #zinnbookclub
20:10 - Zinn: "The strongest
Socialist state organization was in
Oklahoma." Who knew?
#zinnbookclub
27th August, 2013
19:04 - Henry Ford in March 1931:
"The average man won't really do a day's work unless he
is caught and cannot get out of it."
#zinnbookclub
30th August, 2013
14:29 - Chelsea Manning quoting
Howard Zinn: “There is not a flag large enough to cover the
shame of killing innocent people.” #zinnbookclub
1st September, 2013
17:11 - "Draftee's Prayer," black newspaper, Jan. 1943 #zinnbookclub
17:18 - Henry Kissinger, 1957:
"With proper tactics, nuclear war need not be destructive as it
appears..." #zinnbookclub
17:30 - Rosa Parks: "The
driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his
demand." Hero. #zinnbookclub
17:48 0 Malcolm X: "When you
stay radical long enough and get enough people to be like you,
you'll get your freedom." #zinnbookclub
17:50 - MLK: "When the guns
of war become a national obsession, social needs
inevitably suffer." #zinnbookclub
6th September, 2013
00:40 - Miguel Unamuno, Spanish
philosopher: "Sometimes to be silent is to lie."
#zinnbookclub
00:50 Ever wonder WWJD in
wartime? Here's your answer:
http://t.co/RqK4C4fF6Q
#zinnbookclub
7th September, 2013
00:24 - Zinn: "Before 1970,
about a million abortions were done every year, of which only about
10,000 were legal." #zinnbookclub
13th September, 2013
19:45 - Did no one in the Nixon
administration realize the acronym for Committee to Re-elect
the President was CREEP? #zinnbookclub
19:51 - Claud Julien: "The
elimination of Nixon leaves intact all the mechanisms and all the false
values which permitted [Watergate]."#zinnbookclub
17th September, 2013
14:30 - Shout out to Bill Breeden... #zinnbookclub
18th September, 2013
20:16 - RT @DavidLTharp @robaburg
Great column today. I started celebrating Banned Book
Week when I was in high school. I would tape list of
banned books to my locker and have folks sign their name next to the ones
they had read. The most common reaction: "Why
is X banned?"
20:14 - @DavidLTharp Thanks,
David! Appreciate it. It sounds like we would have been friends
in high school. That's awesome...
25th September, 2013
15:56 Zinn: "In a two-party
system, if both parties ignore public opinion, there is no place voters can
turn." #zinnbookclub
17:31 George Keenan, US
ambassador to USSR: "The general effect of Cold War extremism was to delay
rather than hasten ... change." #zinnbookclub
22:13 Zinn on his book: "We
need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission." Biased?
Yeah. And? So, what? #zinnbookclub
22:20 Zinn: "How skillful to
tax the middle class to pay for the relief of the poor, building resentment on
top of humiliation!" #zinnbookclub
22:32 Zinn: "Most histories
understate revolt, overemphasize statesmanship, and thus encourage impotency
among citizens." #zinnbookclub
22:43 If you only read one
chapter of "People's History," make it this one. Dude is still ahead
of his time. #zinnbookclub
27th September, 2013
13:16 Zinn: "There is no
such thing as pure fact, innocent of interpretation. Behind every fact ... is a
judgement." #zinnbookclub
13:18 Today, I finished
"People's History" for the second time, just in time for Banned Books
Week. Thanks again for the inspiration @purduemitch!
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