This very interesting article about the historiography of the Haymarket Square riot—or, rather, the lack thereof—brings back a lot of memories. When I was a student at Chaffey Community College in Rancho Cucamonga, California, I took an American history class with a dyed-in-the-wool communist professor (who, sadly, still “teaches” there). It was my first encounter with the religion that is Progressive historiography. That religion comes complete with its own holidays, its own doxology and scripture, and a full set of taboos and rituals. It seems ridiculously out of date, in light of all that has changed in the world since 1989 or 2001, and yet it persists.

The scripture, of course, is Howard Zinn. His witness is that American industrialism and capitalism are the great sin that has corrupted the purity of the propertyless Edenic life. With Rousseau as his Isaiah, Zinn preaches that the North American continent was one of harmony and peace before the arrival of westerners in the 15th century. What followed was a series of sins and catastrophes, heroically resisted in some cases by “radicals,” who preached to little avail of a better life.

What’s striking about this religion is the way that historical episodes are sculpted to fit the prophesy—with actual facts disregarded, and eventually forgotten, until the episodes become a sacred mythology. This happens throughout the teaching. Some incidents of relatively little significance are boosted out of all proportion into major turning points—while crucially important moments in history are treated as if they were trivial. Major historical figures are regarded as relatively unimportant, while insignificant actors are given the spotlight for solo roles. (And, of course, if one complains that the result seems distorted, Zinn and his supporters can answer that they’re “just asking questions,” or only trying to focus on unjustly disregarded personages.)

In consequence, the Arawaks are made out to be 15th century hippies, living in bliss without mine or thine distinct; the Salem Witch Trials were really an example of class struggle; union leaders are given long scenes in soft focus, while Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are treated as crypto-fascists who hated black people. America was the bad guy in the Cold War, and the Soviet Union never really threatened the safety and freedom of the world—that was all just propaganda. And, of course, the rioters at Haymarket Square were innocent victims of the Capitalist Imperialist Machine. Anyone who says otherwise is just part of the conspiracy against the masses, and should be disregarded.

Now, imagine that this way of looking at the world persists and is elaborated for generation after generation. What would you get? And suppose that the propagators of this way of thinking were given the power to censor and persecute their rivals. What would be the result, after a thousand years? Textbooks would present a wildly distorted notion of what happened and when; historical personages would be absurdly mischaracterized, incidents that never occurred would be treated as fact, and major moments in history would be disregarded or completely misrepresented—in short, you would get something like what is taught as history in Sunday Schools today. You’d get the “census of Caesar Augustus”—which never happened; you’d get the “Massacre of the Innocents”—which probably never happened. You’d get “Nero’s torches” and Pilate washing his hands; you’d get fringe religious movements treated as though they were the central fact of the age, and alleged historical figures who never appear in the writings of mainstream historians treated as though they were of primary concern to everyone involved. You’d get holidays commemorating events that never occurred, or celebrating people who probably didn’t do what they’re said to have done. And you’d get a deeply ingrained cultural taboo against questioning the historical basis of any of it. You’d have contrary evidence disregarded or rationalized away. You’d have scientific research treated as if it were just evil propaganda. You’d get emotionalistic overreactions whenever you disputed the basis for people’s “faith” in, say, the “Haymarket Square Massacre of The Innocents.”

It’s easy to see how an extreme political movement could, over the length of two millennia, evolve into a mainstream religion, and all for want of a nail.