Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Goodbye Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People's History of the United States, died today at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.
Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible. 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."
Watch these videos to get a sense of what we've lost.
On three holy wars, from 2008:
On human nature and aggression, from 2004:
On civil disobedience, from 2002:
And read this report from Atlanta from the August 6, 1960 issue of The Nation for a sense of the struggles that animated the young Zinn.
- Posted in
27 Comments so far
Show AllHe was among the best. RIP
He'll be missed
"Howard Zinn made Rosa Luxemburg’s maxim 'The first revolutionary act is to call things by their true names' his daily practice. In respect for him on his death perhaps we can learn to do the same."
The report from Atlanta is priceless. Classic.
From the chapter in A Peoples History "Or does it explode", this to me reflects something of Zinn's vision (p.447):
"...A nineteen-year old black student from Illinois named Carver Neblett, working for SNCC in Terrell County, Georgia reported:
I talked with a blind man who is extremely interested in the civil rights movement. He has been keeping up with the movement from the beginning. Even though this man is blind he wants to learn all the questions on the literacy test. Imagine, while many are afriad that white men will burn our houses, shoot into them, or put us off their property, a blind man, seventy years old, wants to come to our meetings "
****
One instance of reportage, so rich in dimension and spirit as to be poetry.
Zinn had a real problem, for in a world where most feel they
deserve to be rich, his conscience was quite the reverse.
For grasp he did the reality that this day of life was more
then any man deserved, and content was he only after he
had done all he could do, and could give no more.
In Portuguese there is a word 'saudade' for which there is no simple translation. It is definitely not nostalgia, but more the vitality of a presence in absence.
Damn.
Oh man. I just came across this. Well he was up in years, and it was to be expected I suppose. A People's History Of The United States remains the greatest book I have ever read. Thank you Howard. You will be missed, not forgotten, and will continue to serve as an inspiration to anyone that believes in positive social change.
A better world is possible. Howard Zinn fought for Utopia like a warrior fighting for Valhalla.
He even saved my life in a way.
Mine, too.
"I wanted more than ‘objectivity'"
The term 'objectivity' had been hijacked by elites so that the views of a tiny majority must have equal weight as the views of the vast majority.
But true objectivity considers the view of each individual with equal weight so there's no privileged view. And further, true objectivity accepts no view supporting privilege.
As you can see, in order for elites to support privilege under a delusion of justice they had to hijack the meaning of objectivity. Ayn Rand played a big role hijacking this word in service to privilege.
But the people can recover the true meaning of objectivity. The people's achievement of universal equity/justice DEPENDS on the people's embrace of TRUE objectivity.
A beloved giant of the Left is gone. Long live Howard Zinn.
This man changed my world view (and my life) completely, he will be greatly missed. RIP Mr. Zinn.
Mr. Zinn,
Your 'People's History' has done more to influence my life than probably any other book I've read. It was you who affirmed for me that anarchists have played such a vital role in progress for real folk. You taught me about Sacco and Vanzetti and about the real Christopher Columbus. You took a poot butt ghetto gangster and helped turn him into a revolutionary. You, nor your work, will ever be forgotten. Rest easy, my brother.
Da Black Anarch
We have lost one of our most cherished guiding lights. Never afraid to speak his mind, Howard Zinn "got it" and tried to enlighten as many people as possible. I feel like a little piece of me died today with him.
Total inspiracion ! Cada dia... recuerdo....se espiritu vive !!!! amor, tioche; mexico
Thank you, Howard Zinn! RIP...
Go to www.radio4all.net and do a search for "ZINN".
They have scores of his lectures in MP3 format, free for the downloading.
Burn a few onto a CD, write "LISTEN, COPY, AND SHARE" on them, and send them out into the world.
After wasting a perfectly good hour + being underwhelmed by
an obviously in over his head politician kowtowing to corporate interests, the loss of Howard Zinn completely
blindsided me. He will be sorely missed. The best way to
honor his memory is to simply tell the TRUTH in our daily
lives. Whenever you encounter an ignorant jingo anywhere, let them know how idiotic they are. You'll quickly acquire
a reputation as an anti-American lunatic, but it could be
worse. You could become a Republican!!
Howard Zinn ...
we are better humans
because of him.
i met him once here in Baltimore, Md. He talked to me as a family member. What a great mind and a great person. He will be missed. Peace and love eternally, Howard.
We've lost one of the very best moral leaders of our time. May his inspiration live on in all of us.
Like others have commented, A Peoples History was the antidote for the koolaid for me. It made me re-evaluate my views and relationships with my fellow human beings and the with the planet we all must share.
How fortunate I feel to have been exposed to his knowledge and wisdom. We all carry his spirit forward when we "organize, act, risk and persist to change the world around us, even if a little".
Thank you Mr. Zinn
Zinn was a greater American hero than any soldier or athlete.
His Earthly work is done. Let's pick up his torch.
Absolutely!!!! We must. Now!!!
i just watched the third video above, on civil disobedience.
i strongly encourage everyone here to take it to heart.
Zinn:
"The law is made by very mortal people, very limited people, very opinionated people, and people who have very special interests: They make the law, they tell us what the law is, and then they act as if it's Holy Writ."
"We may break those petty laws, we may interfere slightly with business as usual, but these are not terrible crimes. There are terrible crimes being committed, but sitting down and locking arms, that's no terrible crime: War is the great crime of our age."
i also appreciate very much the introduction by the narrator:
"Nonviolence does not mean acceptance, but resistance; not waiting, but acting. It is not at all passive. It involves strikes, boycotts, noncooperation, mass demonstrations, and sabotage, as well as appeals to the conscience of the world, even to individuals in the oppressing group who might break away from their past. Direct Action does not deride using the political rights, the civil rights, even the voting mechanisms in those societies where they are available. But it recognizes the limitations of those controlled rights, and goes beyond them."
Thank you for your great work Howard Zinn.
If there is any semblance of democracy still left in the USA, it's because of people like Howard Zinn, whose lives are proof that it's possible to remain a human being, uncorrupted and uncoopted by the system and unafraid to speak the truth.
So Howard is gone but we still have Hannity, Rush, Clarence Thomas. We are losing ground.