Deconstructionist History

Howard Zinn argues that the telling of America in terms of heroes and their victims, which entails " the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress," functions as "only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders." If On the Road is about defining America, it is also about staging an intervention into official definitions of history and nationhood.


-Penny Vlagopoulos. "Rewriting America." in Jack Kerouac. On the Road: The Original Scroll. (60-61)

The grizzled, gray head of Howard Zinn once again raises its angry countenance. Zinn had a point in that there is not one history but histories. A German's view of World War II would certainly be different than a Frenchman's. But Vlagopoulos takes the Zinn perspective to an extreme, a malady not uncommon to literature professors in this era. Before staging her intervention perhaps she should give the "official definitions of history and nationhood" so we have some idea of what she means.