Howard Zinn: Difference between revisions

File:Howard zinn.jpg

Howard Zinn speaks at Marlboro College on February 16, 2004.

Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American historian and political scientist, whose political philosophy incorporates ideas from Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and social democracy. Together with Noam Chomsky (with whom he has collaborated on several books and speaking engagements), Zinn is among the most well-known figures of the radical Left in the United States.

Author of more than fifteen books, Zinn offers a radical re-telling of United States history in his most popular work, A People's History of the United States, first published in 1980 and often updated. Zinn is also a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy, arguing that the U.S. military often commits acts of terrorism, and that since World War II "there has not been a more warlike nation in the world than the United States."Template:Fn

Biography

Zinn was brought up in a blue-collar immigrant family in Brooklyn, worked in the Brooklyn shipyards, and flew bombing missions in Europe during World War II, an experience that shaped his opposition to war. Zinn was a B-17 bombardier with the 490th Bomb Group, and in April, 1945 he participated in the napalm bombing of Royan, France, which was occupied by German troops. Nine years later, Zinn visited Royan, examining documents and interviewing residents, and wrote an account of the bombing of Royan, which was published in his book The Politics of History, and is also included in The Zinn Reader.

Because of the immense number of civilian casualties that resulted from U.S. bombing of cities such as Dresden, Royan, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Zinn argues that the role of the U.S. military in World War II was wrong. He contends that Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers could have been opposed through popularly organized acts of nonviolent resistance. He writes: "The term 'just war' contains an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is to how to deal with evil, tyranny, and oppression without killing huge numbers of people."Template:Fn

Zinn does not call himself a pacifist: to him the term suggests passive — rather than active — resistance. For example, he offered the following alternative to bombing Kosovo: "I think of South Africa, where a decision to engage in out-and-out armed struggle would have led to a bloody civil war with huge casualties, most of them black. Instead, the African National Congress decided to put up with apartheid longer, but wage a long-term campaign of attrition, with strikes, sabotage, economic sanctions, and international pressure. It worked." [1]

After World War II, Zinn attended New York University on the GI Bill, graduating with a B.A. in 1951 and Columbia University, where he earned an M.A. (1952) and Ph.D. in history with a minor in political science (1958). His doctoral dissertation LaGuardia in Congress was a study of Fiorello LaGuardia's congressional career. It favorably depicts LaGuardia representing "the conscience of the twenties" as he fought for public power, the right to strike, and the redistribution of wealth by taxation. "His specific legislative program," Zinn wrote, "was an astonishingly accurate preview of the New Deal." It was published by the Cornell University Press for the American Historical Association.

In 1956, Zinn was appointed chairman of the department of history and social sciences at Spelman College (now Atlanta University Center, Spelman College) a school for black women in Atlanta, where he participated in the Civil Rights movement. Zinn served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Of his experiences at Spelman, Zinn says, "Those seven years at Spelman College are probably the most interesting, exciting, most educational years for me. I learned more from my students than my students learned from me." [2]

Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd at Spelman and mentored young student activists including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. A tenured professor, Zinn was fired in June 1963 after siding with some students in their desire to challenge Spelman's traditional emphasis of turning out "young ladies" when, as Zinn described in an article in The Nation, Spelman students were likely to be found on the picket line, or in jail for participating in the greater effort to break down segregation in public places in Atlanta. A full account of Zinn's years at Spelman is contained in his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times.

In the early 1960s, Zinn wrote frequently about the historic struggle for Civil Rights, both as a participant and historian. [[3]] and in 1963–64, he took a year off from teaching to write SNCC: The New Abolitionists and The Southern Mystique.

In 1964, he joined the faculty at Boston University where he taught history and civil liberties until 1988. He was a leading critic of the Vietnam War. Zinn's diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Rev. Daniel Berrigan during the Tet Offensive in January 1968 resulted in the return of three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. Zinn remained friends [4] and allies [5] with the Berrigan brothers, Phil and Daniel over the years.

Daniel Ellsberg entrusted "The Pentagon Papers" to Zinn (and others) before they were finally published in The New York Times. Called as an expert witness in Ellsberg's criminal trial, Zinn was asked to explain to the jury the story of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II to 1963. Zinn discussed that history for several hours. Later he reflected on his time before the jury. "I explained there was nothing in the papers of military significance that could be used to harm the defense of the United States, that the information in them was simply embarrassing to our government because what was revealed, in the government's own interoffice memos, was how it had lied to the American public.… The secrets disclosed in the Pentagon Papers might embarrass politicians, might hurt the profits of corporations wanting tin, rubber, oil, in far-off places. But this was not the same as hurting the nation, the people," Zinn wrote on pp 160–161 of his autobiography. Ellsberg was acquitted.

Howard Zinn is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Boston University. He has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in the Auburndale neighborhood of Newton, Massachusetts with his wife Roslyn in the United States. The couple have two children, Myla and Jeff, and five grandchildren. Roslyn is an artist and editor who has a role in editing all of Howard's books.

Zinn's autobiography is You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. A biographical documentary film of the same name was produced in 2004 and shown in select theaters, and is now available on DVD.

A People's History

Among his many books, Zinn is best known for A People's History of the United States, a detailed work presenting American history through the eyes of ordinary people struggling to improve their lives, including striking workers, Native Americans, African-American slaves, women, African-Americans struggling against racism and for Civil Rights, Populists, and others whose stories are not often told. Since its publication in 1980, "A People's History" has been assigned reading both as a high school and college textbook, and has sold well over a million copies, becoming one of the most widely known examples of critical pedagogy.

When Matt Damon, his mother, and brother moved next door to the Zinns in West Newton, MA, the families became friends, and the Zinns sometimes sat with the Damon boys. After Damon became an actor, he included a reference to "A People's History" in his film "Good Will Hunting," and read the latter half of "People's History" for an audiobook released February 1, 2003 (ISBN: 0060530065). "People's History" was also referenced in a Columbus Day episode of the TV show The Sopranos.

In the Spring of 2003, to commemorate the sale of the millionth copy of A People's History, a dramatic reading from the book was held at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The reading featured Danny Glover, Andre Gregory, James Earl Jones, Myla Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, Alfre Woodard, Harris Yulin, Jeff Zinn, Producing Artistic Director of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater [6], and Howard Zinn as narrator. [7] The result was published as The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known.

In 2004 Zinn published Voices of A People's History of the United States with Anthony Arnove. Voices expands on the concept and provides a large collection of dissident voices in long form. The book is intended as a companion to A People's History and parallels its structure.

Published works

Books

• A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present (1980, revised 1995) ISBN 0060528370
• A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition Abridged (2003 updated) ISBN 1565848268
• A People's History of the United States: The Civil War to the Present Kathy Emery Ellen Reeves Howard Zinn (2003 teaching edition) ISBN 1565847253
• Artists in Times of War (2003) ISBN 1583226028
• Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991) ISBN 0060921080
• Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order (1968, 2002 re-issued) ISBN 0896086755
• Emma: A Play in Two Acts About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002) ISBN 089608664X
• Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993) ISBN 0896086763
• Howard Zinn on Democratic Education (with Donald Macedo, 2004) ISBN 1594510555
• Howard Zinn On Democratic Education Donaldo Macedo, Editor (2004) ISBN 1594510547
• Howard Zinn on History (2000) ISBN 1583220488
• Howard Zinn on War (2000) ISBN 1583220496
• Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works (editor) (1974) ISBN 0896086771
• Justice?: Eyewitness Accounts (1977) ISBN 0807044792
• La Otra Historia De Los Estados Unidos (2000) ISBN: 1583220542
• Laguardia in Congress (1959) ISBN 0837164346, ISBN 0-393-00488-0
• Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999) ISBN 0896085937
• New Deal Thought (editor) (1965) ISBN 0872206858
• Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003) ISBN 0060557672
• Playbook by Maxine Klein with Howard Zinn, Lydia Sargent (1986) ISBN: 0896083098
• Postwar America: 1945–1971 1973) ISBN 089608678X
• SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) ISBN 0896086798
• Terrorism and War (2002) ISBN 1583224939 (short book of interviews edited by Anthony Arnove)
• The Cold War & the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years" (Noam Chomsky (editor) Authors: Ira Katznelson, R. C. Lewontin, David Montgomery, Laura Nader, Richard Ohmann, Ray Siever, Immanuel Wallerstein, Howard Zinn (1997) ISBN 1565840054
• The Future of History: Interviews With David Barsamian" (1999)ISBN 1567511570
• The Pentagon Papers: Critical Essays (editor, with Noam Chomsky) (1972)
• The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (2004) ISBN 0060578262
• The Politics of History (1970, 1990) ISBN 0252061225
• The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace Editor (2002) ISBN 0807014079
• The Southern Mystique (1962) ISBN 0896086801
• The Twentieth Century: A People's History (2003) ISBN 0060530340
• The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy (1997) ISBN 1888363541
• Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century (with co-authors Dana Frank and Robin Kelley)(2002) ISBN 080705013X
• Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967) ISBN 089608681X
• Voices of a People’s History of the United States (with Anthony Arnove, 2004) ISBN 1583226478
• You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994) ISBN 0807071277

Forewords and introductions

• A Gigantic Mistake by Mickey Z, (2004) ISBN 1930997973
• A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter H. Irons (2000) ISBN 0140292012
• A Political Dynasty In North Idaho, 1933-1967 by Randall Doyle (2004) ISBN 0761828435
• American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts by Stephen M. Kohn (1994) ISBN 0275944158
• Broken Promises Of America: At Home And Abroad, Past And Present: An Encyclopedia For Our Times by (Douglas F. Dowd, (2004) ISBN 1567513131
• Deserter From Death: Dispatches From Western Europe 1950-2000 by Daniel Singer (2005) ISBN 1560256427
• Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples by Donald Grinde, Bruce Johansen (1994) ISBN: 0940666529
• From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985–1995 by Ward Churchill (1996) ISBN 0896085538
• Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary by Gino Strada, (2005) ISBN 8881584204
• Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear And The Selling Of American Empire by Sut Jhally editor, Jeremy Earp editor, (2004) ISBN 1566565812
• If You're Not a Terrorist…Then Stop Asking Questions! by Micah Ian Wright, (2004) ISBN 1583226265
• Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader by Alexander Berkman Gene Fellner, editor, (2004) ISBN1583226621
• Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years by Clara Nieto, Chris Brandt (trans) (2003) ISBN 1583225455
• Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated by James Mann, editor (2004) ISBN 3283004870
• Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-9-11 Anti-terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights (2002) ISBN 1583224947
• Soldiers In Revolt: GI Resistance During The Vietnam War by David Cortright, (2005) ISBN: 1931859272
• The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman Intro by Norman Mailer, Afterword by HZ (2000) ISBN 1568581971
• The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam, a History of U.S. Imperialism by Sidney Lens (2003) ISBN 0745321011
• The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and Reform by Henry David Thoreau Wendell Glick, editor, (2004) ISBN 0691118760
• The Iron Heel by Jack London, (1971) ISBN 55305969095
• The Sixties Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America by Edward P. Morgan, (1992) ISBN 1566390141
• You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want by Micah Ian Wright, (2003) ISBN 1583225846

Compact discs

• A People's History of the United States (1999)
• Artists in the Time of War (2002)
• Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, and the Revolutionary Struggle (2000)
• Stories Hollywood Never Tells (2000)

Notes

• Template:Fnb Terrorism and War, p. 52.
• Template:Fnb Terrorism and War, pp. 22-5. See also [8]

External links

• Howard Zinn's homepage
• Critical Resources: Howard Zinn
• G7 Welcoming Committee - A record label that has put out several Howard Zinn spoken word albums.
• Howard Zinn's articles for ZNet and Z Mag
• Howard Zinn's articles for The Progressive

Online interviews and video

• Transcript of interview by Bill Moyers on PBS (January 10, 2003)
• C-SPAN Book TV In Depth (RealVideo) (3-hour interview)
• Interview with Howard Zinn (MP3) on Air America Radio's The Majority Report (April 16th, 2004)
• "The Myth of American Exceptionalism" (April 13, 2005) Videolecture published by MIT World and sponsored by MIT SPURS/Humphrey Program.
• Public Reading of A People's History of the United States (RealVideo) with Howard Zinn, Jeff Zinn [[9]], James Earl Jones, Harris Yulin, Andre Gregory, Marisa Tomei, Danny Glover, Myla Pitt, Kurt Vonnegut, Alfre Woodard, Alice Walker
• Interviewed by David Barsamian (November 11, 1992)
• Gray Matters Interviews Howard Zinn (December 3, 1998)
• Interviewed by Harry Kreisler (April 20, 2001)
• A-Infos Radio Project: Talks by Howard Zinn (MP3)

Links to criticism of Howard Zinn

• "Master of Deceit" — a conservative review of A People's history of the United States
• Review of Howard Zinn, A Radical American Vision from www.intellectualconservative.com
• A critical review of A People's History, from the left ("Dissent Magazine")