Howard Zinn on History

by Zinn, Howard; Lynd, Staughton

• ISBN13: 9781609801328
• ISBN10: 1609801326
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-14
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

Howard Zinn began work on his first book for his friends at Seven Stories Press in 1996, a big volume collecting all his shorter writings organized by subject. The themes he chose reflected his lifelong concerns: war, history, law, class, means and ends, and race. Throughout his life Zinn had returned again and again to these subjects, continually probing and questioning yet rarely reversing his convictions or the vision that informed them. The result was The Zinn Reader. Five years later, starting with Howard Zinn on History, updated editions of sections of that mammoth tome were published in inexpensive stand-alone editions. This second edition of Howard Zinn on History brings together twenty-seven short writings on activism, electoral politics, the Holocaust, Marxism, the Iraq War, and the role of the historian, as well as portraits of Eugene Debs, John Reed, and Jack London, effectively showing how Zinn's approach to history evolved over nearly half a century, and at the same time sharing his fundamental thinking that social movementspeople getting together for peace and social justicecan change the course of history. That core belief never changed. Chosen by Zinn himself as the shorter writings on history he believed to have enduring valueoriginally appearing in newspapers like the Boston Globe or the New York Times; in magazines like Z, the New Left, the Progressive, or the Nation; or in his book Failure to Quitthese essays appear here as examples of the kind of passionate engagement he believed all historians, and indeed all citizens of whatever profession, need to have, standing in sharp contrast to the notion of "objective" or "neutral" history espoused by some. "It is time that we scholars begin to earn our keep in this world," he writes in "The Uses of Scholarship." And in "Freedom Schools," about his experiences teaching in Mississippi during the remarkable "Freedom Summer" of 1964, he adds: "Education can, and should, be dangerous."

Author Biography

The visionary historical work of professor and activist HOWARD ZINN (1922–2010) is widely considered one of the most important and influential of our era. After his experience as a bombardier in World War II, Zinn became convinced that there could no longer be such a thing as a “just war,” because the vast majority of victims in modern warfare are, increasingly, innocent civilians. In his books, including A People’s History of the United States, its companion volume Voices of a People’s History of the United States, and countless other titles, Zinn affirms the power of the people to influence the course of events.

Table of Contents

Howard Zinn, Historian	p. 7
Freedom Schools (1964)	p. 19
Nonviolent Direct Action (1966)	p. 33
Historian as Citizen {1966)	p. 43
The New Radicalism (1969)	p. 51
The Uses of Scholarship (1969)	p. 69
Jack London's The Iron Heel (1971)	p. 81
The Marines and the University (1972)	p. 91
The Spirit of Rebellion (1975)	p. 107
Beyond Voting (1976)	p. 111
Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest (1977)	p. 115
"A University Should Not Be a Democracy" (1980)	p. 131
Discovering John Reed (1982)	p. 145
"Je Ne Suis Pas Marxiste" (1988)	p. 155
Failure to Quit (1990)	p. 161
How Free is Higher Education? (1991)	p. 169
Columbus and Western Civilization (1992)	p. 179
The Optimism of Uncertainty (1993)	p. 205
The New History (1996)	p. 211
On Presidential Liars (1998)	p. 215
Eugene Debs and the Idea of Socialism (1999)	p. 219
Words of Encouragement (1999)	p. 225
Respecting the Holocaust (1999)	p. 229
A Little Disquisition on Big Government (1999)	p. 235
The Great Silence (2000)	p. 241
Seattle: A Flash of the Possible (2000)	p. 247
The Greatest Generation? (2001)	p. 251
The Limits of Denial (2002)	p. 257
America's Blinders (2006)	p. 261
Beyond the New Deal (2008)	p. 269
Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire (2008)	p. 273
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 281
About the Authors	p. 283
Also by Howard Zinn	p. 285
About Seven Stories Press	p. 287
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