Zinn compared the demand by a growing number of contemporary U.S. military families to end the war in Iraq to parallel demands "in the Confederacy in the Civil War, when the wives of soldiers rioted because their husbands were dying and the plantation owners were profiting from the sale of cotton, refusing to grow grains for civilians to eat." [ 58 ] Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University , told the Yale Daily News in May 2007 that Zinn’s historical work is "highly influential and widely used". [ 59 ] He observed that it is not unusual for prominent professors such as Zinn to weigh in on current events, citing a resolution opposing the war in Iraq that was recently ratified by the American Historical Association . [ 60 ] Agnew added: "In these moments of crisis, when the country is split—so historians are split". [ 61 ] Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist , something of a socialist . Maybe a democratic socialist ." [ 62 ] [ 63 ] He suggested looking at socialism in its full historical context as a popular, positive idea that got a bad name from its association with Soviet Communism. In Madison, Wisconsin , in 2009, Zinn said: Let's talk about socialism. I think it's very important to bring back the idea of socialism into the national discussion to where it was at the turn of the [last] century before the Soviet Union gave it a