Author News
R.I.P. Howard Zinn
Gawker is reporting, via Boston.com, that Howard Zinn has died of a heart attack. He was 87. From the Boston.com piece-
For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. Dr. Zinn’s best-known book, “A People’s History of the United States” (1980), had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers — many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out — but rather the farmers of Shays’ Rebellion and the union organizers of the 1930s.As he wrote in his autobiography, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” (1994), “From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity’; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.”
Tags: Howard Zinn
man… a peoples history changed my brain in ways that i dunno if any book will ever again…
im still telling my friends or getting into discussions which i pull from that book.
man… a peoples history changed my brain in ways that i dunno if any book will ever again…
im still telling my friends or getting into discussions which i pull from that book.
RIP
RIP
RIP
RIP
ditto.
i am constantly saying the phrase, “no, seriously, it’s all in a people’s history by zinn…” in conversation.
ditto.
i am constantly saying the phrase, “no, seriously, it’s all in a people’s history by zinn…” in conversation.
Sucks to lose such an important citizen and amazing thinker. For anybody interested, there’s a documentary on Zinn that came out in ’04 called Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. It gives a fairly good introduction to his life’s work.
Sucks to lose such an important citizen and amazing thinker. For anybody interested, there’s a documentary on Zinn that came out in ’04 called Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. It gives a fairly good introduction to his life’s work.
Sad news. There’s also a fascinating film inspired by ‘A People’s History’ called ‘Profit motive and the whispering wind’ that’s well worth checking out.
Sad news. There’s also a fascinating film inspired by ‘A People’s History’ called ‘Profit motive and the whispering wind’ that’s well worth checking out.
More than anything one gets the sense that Professor Zinn was a fantastic teacher. In the documentary mentioned above (I think) Alice Walker, a former student, is interviewed and the influence he had on her is palpable. Undoubtedly, she is one of very many. Spelman College, 1956-1963. Activist. Critic.
In his AP obit they quote from the final piece published while he was alive, from the Nation, on Obama’s first year. “I’ve been searching hard for a highlight,” he wrote, adding that he wasn’t disappointed because he never expected a lot from President Obama. “I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.”
I tend to agree.
More than anything one gets the sense that Professor Zinn was a fantastic teacher. In the documentary mentioned above (I think) Alice Walker, a former student, is interviewed and the influence he had on her is palpable. Undoubtedly, she is one of very many. Spelman College, 1956-1963. Activist. Critic.
In his AP obit they quote from the final piece published while he was alive, from the Nation, on Obama’s first year. “I’ve been searching hard for a highlight,” he wrote, adding that he wasn’t disappointed because he never expected a lot from President Obama. “I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president — which means, in our time, a dangerous president — unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.”
I tend to agree.
RIP, Zinn. All his stuff has shaped and informed my writing and work, but one in particular that stands out: Artists in Times of War. If you’ve never read it, read it now. It’s from a few years ago (ten, maybe?) but more relevant than ever today.
RIP, Zinn. All his stuff has shaped and informed my writing and work, but one in particular that stands out: Artists in Times of War. If you’ve never read it, read it now. It’s from a few years ago (ten, maybe?) but more relevant than ever today.
Might be of interest:
Howard Zinn (1922–2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/28/howard_zinn_1922_2010_a_tribute
Might be of interest:
Howard Zinn (1922–2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/28/howard_zinn_1922_2010_a_tribute