Howard Zinn

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Howard Zinn Speaking 16 February 2004

Howard Zinn (born December 7, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York) is an influential leftist historian. Zinn is retired from a professorship 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 Auburndale, Massachusetts, U.S.

Zinn was raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in the Civil rights movement. Zinn collaborated there with historian Staughton Lynd and mentored a young student named Alice Walker. When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War. He is perhaps best known for A People's History of the United States, which presents American history through the eyes of those he feels are outside of the political and economic establishment: Native Americans, slaves, women, blacks, Populists, etc. His autobiography is You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

A reference to A People's History was made in the movie Good Will Hunting; Matt Damon grew up next door to Zinn. Another pop culture reference to the book, which has become an bestseller, was in a Columbus Day episode of the TV show The Sopranos. Zinn, together with Noam Chomsky is one of the most respected icons of the libertarian left in the U.S.

Published Works

• Laguardia in Congress (1959) ISBN 0837164346, ISBN 0-393-00488-0
• The Southern Mystique (1962) ISBN 0896086801
• SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) ISBN 0896086798
• New Deal Thought (editor) (1965) ISBN 0872206858
• Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967) ISBN 089608681X
• Disobedience and Democracy: nine fallacies on law and order (1968) ISBN 0896086755
• The Politics of History (1970, 1990) ISBN 0252061225
• The Pentagon Papers: Critical Essays (editor, with Noam Chomsky) (1972)
• Justice in Everyday Life: the way it really works (editor) (1974) ISBN 0896086771
• Justice?: eyewitness accounts (1977) ISBN 0807044792
• A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present (1980, revised 1995) ISBN 0060528370
• Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991) ISBN 0060921080
• Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993) ISBN 0896086763
• You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994) ISBN 0807071277
• The Zinn Reader: writings on disobedience and democracy (1997) ISBN 1888363541
• The Future of History (1999)
• Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999) ISBN 0896085937
• Howard Zinn on History (2000) ISBN 1583220488
• Howard Zinn on War (2000) ISBN 1583220496
• Terrorism and War (2002) ISBN 1583224939
• Emma: a play in two acts about Emma Goldman, American anarchist (2002) ISBN 089608664X
• The Power of Nonviolence: writings by advocates of peace (2002) ISBN 0807014079
• Three Strikes: miners, musicians, salesgirls, and the fighting spirit of labor's last century (2002) ISBN 080705013X
• Artists in Times of War (2003) ISBN 1583226028
• The Twentieth Century: a people's history (2003) ISBN 0060530340
• Passionate Declarations: essays on war and justice (2003) ISBN 0060557672

• Postwar America: 1945–1971 (with Jack P. Greene, 1973) ISBN 089608678X
• The Sixties Experience: hard lessons about modern America (with Edward P. Morgan, 1992) ISBN 1566390141
• From a Native Son: selected essays in indigenism, 1985–1995 (with Ward Churchill, 1996) ISBN 0896085538
• A People's History of the Supreme Court (with Peter H. Irons, 2000) ISBN 0140292012
• Silencing Political Dissent: how post-9-11 anti-terrorism measures threaten our civil liberties (with Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights, 2002) ISBN 1583224947
• You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want (with Micah Ian Wright, 2003) ISBN 1583225846
• The Forging of the American Empire: from the Revolution to Vietnam, a history of US imperialism (with Sidney Lens, 2003) ISBN 0745321003
• If You're Not a Terrorist…Then Stop Asking Questions! (with Micah Ian Wright, 2004) ISBN 1583226265

External Links

• Critical Resources: Howard Zinn
• C-SPAN Book TV In Depth 3 Hours Long Interview - RealVideo format.