Howard Zinn

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Howard Zinn
Image:Zinn.jpg
Howard Zinn
Born August 24, 1922 (1922-08-24) (age 85)
Brooklyn, New York
Occupation Professor, Historian, Playwright
Spouse Roslyn Zinn

Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922) is an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller[1] A People's History of the United States.

Zinn has been active in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in the United States.[2]

The author of some 20 books, Zinn is currently Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University. He lives in the Auburndale neighborhood of Newton, Massachusetts. His wife, the artist Roslyn Zinn died[3] May 14, 2008 at home. They were married for 64 years. The couple have two children, Myla and Jeff, and five grandchildren. Both artist and editor, Roslyn had a role in editing all of Zinn's books and many of his articles. [4]

Contents

[edit] Military Service

  • Second Lieutenant and bombardier, U.S. Army Air Corps; Zinn flew combat missions in Europe 1943-45.

[edit] Education

[edit] Career

[edit] Civil Rights movement

In 1956, Zinn was appointed chairman of the department of history and social sciences at Spelman College, where he participated in the Civil Rights movement. For example, Zinn lobbied with historian August Meier [5] "to end the practice of the Southern Historical Association of holding meetings at segregated hotels.[6]

At Spelman, Zinn served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and, in 1964, later wrote the book SNCC: The New Abolitionists.

At Spelman, Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd and mentored young student activists, among them writer Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund. In a journal article, Edelman discusses Zinn as major influence in her life and she tells of his accompanying students to a sit-in at the segregated white section of the Georgia state legislature.[7]

Although Zinn was a tenured professor, he was dismissed, in June 1963, after siding with 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. Zinn's years at Spelman are recounted in his autobiography You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times. His seven years at Spelman College, Zinn said, "are probably the most interesting, exciting, most educational years for me. I learned more from my students than my students learned from me."[8]

While at Spelman, Zinn wrote that he observed 30 violations of the First and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution in Albany, Georgia, including the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and equal protection of the laws. In an article on the civil rights movement in Albany, Zinn describes the people who participated in the Freedom Rides to end segregation, and of the reluctance of President John F. Kennedy to enforce the law.[9] Zinn has also pointed out that the Justice Department under Robert F. Kennedy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation headed by J. Edgar Hoover, did little to nothing to stop the segregationists from brutalizing civil rights workers.[10]

Zinn wrote frequently about the struggle for civil rights, both as a participant and historian[11] and in 1960-61, he took a year off from teaching to write SNCC: The New Abolitionists and The Southern Mystique.[12] In his book on SNCC, Zinn describes how the sit-ins against segregation were initiated by students and, in that sense, independent of the older, more established civil rights organizations.

He returned to Spelman in 2005 to give the commencement address.[13] His speech "Against Discouragement,"[14] is available online at numerous sources.

[edit] Anti-war efforts

Fresh from writing two books about his research, observations about and participation in the Civil Rights movement in the South, Zinn accepted a position in the political science department at Boston University in 1964. His classes in civil liberties were among the most popular classes offered at BU with as many as 400 students subscribing each semester to the non-required class. He taught at BU for 24 years and retired in 1988. Zinn wrote one of the earliest books calling for the U.S. withdrawal from its war in Viet Nam. VietNam: The Logic of Withdrawal was published by Beacon Press in 1967 after articles that would later form the basis for the book had appeared first in Commonweal, The Nation, The Register-Leader, and Ramparts.

Zinn eagerly joined the Army Air Force during World War II to fight fascism, and he bombed targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.[15] Zinn's anti-war stance was, in part, informed by his own experiences in the military. In April, 1945, he participated in one of the first military uses of napalm, which took place in Royan, France.[16]

2nd Lieut. Howard Zinn, bombardier, Army Air Force in England, 1945.
2nd Lieut. Howard Zinn, bombardier, Army Air Force in England, 1945.

The bombings were aimed at German soldiers who were, in Zinn's words, hiding and waiting out the closing days of the war. The attacks killed not only the German soldiers but also French civilians. Nine years later, Zinn visited Royan to examine documents and interview residents. In his books, The Politics of History and The Zinn Reader, he described how the bombing was ordered at the war's end by decision-makers most probably motivated by the desire for career advancement rather than for legitimate military objectives.

Zinn said his experience as a bombardier, combined with his research into the reasons for and effects of the bombing of Royan, sensitized him to the ethical dilemmas faced by G.I.s during wartime.[17] Zinn questioned the justifications for military operations inflicting civilian casualties in the Allied bombing of cities such as Dresden, Royan, Tokyo, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Hanoi during the U.S. war in Vietnam, and Baghdad during the U.S. war in Iraq. In his pamphlet "Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence", Zinn laid out the case against targeting civilians.[18]

[edit] Vietnam

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. The event was widely reported in the news media and discussed in a variety of books including Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963-1975 by Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan [19]. Zinn remained friends and allies with the brothers Dan and Philip over the years.

Daniel Ellsberg, a former RAND consultant who had secretly copied The Pentagon Papers, which described internal planning and policy decisions of the United States in the Vietnam War, gave a copy of them to Howard and Roslyn Zinn. [20] Along with Noam Chomsky, Zinn edited and annotated the copy of The Pentagon Papers that Ellsberg entrusted to him. Zinn's longtime publisher, Beacon Press, published what has come to be known as the Senator Mike Gravel edition of The Pentagon Papers, four volumes plus a fifth volume with analysis by Chomsky and Zinn. Later, when their granddaughter worked to improve conditions for janitors at Wesleyan, the couple supported the effort.[21]

At Ellsberg's criminal trial for theft, conspiracy, and espionage in connection with the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The New York Times, defense attorneys called Zinn as an expert witness to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II to 1963. Zinn discussed that history for several hours, later reflecting 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 in his autobiography. Most of the jurors later said they voted for acquittal. [p. 161] However, the federal judge dismissed the case on the grounds it had been tainted by the burglary by President Richard M. Nixon's administration of the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

When secretaries struck at BU, Zinn and Dr. Murray Levin and Frances Fox Piven refused[22] to cross the picket line, and instead, taught classes off campus. Zinn's testimony as to the motivation for government secrecy was confirmed in 1989 by Erwin Griswold, who as U.S. solicitor general during the Nixon administration, prosecuted The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971. [23] Griswold persuaded three Supreme Court justices to vote to stop The New York Times from continuing to publish the Pentagon Papers, an order known as "prior restraint" that has been held to be illegal under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The papers were simultaneously published in The Washington Post, effectively nulling the effect of the prior restraint order. In 1989, Griswold admitted there was no national security damage from publication of the papers[24]In a column in the Washington Post, Griswold wrote: "It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive over classification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another." Zinn supported the G.I. antiwar movement during the U.S. war in Vietnam. In the 2001 film Unfinished Symphony, Zinn provides historical context for the 1971 antiwar march by Vietnam Veterans against the War. The marchers traveled from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Bunker Hill, "which retraced Paul Revere's ride of 1775 and ended in the massive arrest of 410 veterans and civilians by the Lexington police." The film depicts "scenes from the 1971 [25], during which former G.I.s testified about atrocities" they either participated in or witnessed in Vietnam.[26]

[edit] Iraq

Zinn opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and has written several books about it. He asserts that the U.S. will end its war with, and occupation of, Iraq when resistance within the military increases, in the same way resistance within the military contributed to ending the U.S. war in Vietnam. He compares the demand by a growing number of contemporary U.S. military families to end the war in Iraq to the parallel "in the Confederacy in the Civil War, when the wives of soldiers rioted because their husbands were dying and the plantation owners were profiting from the sale of cotton, refusing to grow grains for civilians to eat." [27] Zinn argued that "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable."[28]

Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University,[3] told the Yale Daily News in May 2007 that Zinn’s historical work is "highly influential and widely used".[29] He observed that it is not unusual for prominent professors such as Zinn to weigh in on current events, citing a resolution opposing the war in Iraq that was recently ratified by the American Historical Association.[30] Agnew added, “In these moments of crisis, when the country is split — so historians are split.”[31]

[edit] A People's History

Main article: A People's History of the United States

As a historian, Zinn came to believe that the point of view expressed in traditional history books was often limited. He wrote a history textbook, A People's History of the United States with the goal to provide other perspectives of American history. The textbook depicts the struggles of Native Americans against European and U.S. conquest and expansion, slaves against slavery, unionists and other workers against capitalists, women against patriarchy, and African-Americans for civil rights.

In the years since the first edition of A People's History was published in 1980, it has been used as an alternative to standard textbooks in many high school and college history courses, and is one of the most widely known examples of critical pedagogy. According to the New York Times Book Review it "routinely sells more than 100,000 copies a year".[32]

In the spring of 2003, to commemorate the sale of the millionth copy of A People's History, a dramatic reading was held at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The reading featured Danny Glover, Andre Gregory, James Earl Jones, actress Myla Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, Alfre Woodard, Harris Yulin, Jeff Zinn, producing artistic director of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater [4], and Howard Zinn as narrator. The event aired on Democracy Now!, and was hosted by Amy Goodman, and is online at Democracy Now The program was also released as a book and CD under the title, The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known.

Interwoven with commentary by Zinn, both the book and the dramatic reading upon which the newer book is based, includes passages from Zinn's research in A People's History of the United States on Christopher Columbus on the Arawaks; Plough Jogger, a farmer and participant in Shays' Rebellion; Harriet Hanson, a Lowell mill worker; Frederick Douglass; Mark Twain; Mother Jones; Emma Goldman; Helen Keller; Eugene V. Debs; Langston Hughes; Genova Johnson Dollinger on a sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint, Michigan; an interrogation from a 1953 HUAC hearing; Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper and member of the Freedom Democratic Party; Malcolm X; and James Lawrence Harrington, a Gulf War resister, among others.

Kurt Vonnegut read the words of Mark Twain at the event celebrating the work of Zinn, a fellow World War II veteran. Vonnegut read from Twain, who spoke out after President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated a general involved in the 1906 Moro Crater massacre in the Philippines.

"It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make these people free and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way; and so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land," Vonnegut quoted Twain during the reading. [33]

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.

Zinn was a consultant to the six-part documentary A People's History of the United States [34], a television series produced by Alvin H. Perlmutter. According to the documentary's website, the series is expected to be broadcast in 2007.

After years of requests from parents and teachers for a younger readers' version of A People's History, in July 2007 Seven Stories Press has published A Young People's History of the United States, a two-volume, illustrated adaptation of the original text for young adult readers (ages 10-14), updated through the end of 2006.

[edit] Critical reception

When A People's History of the United States was first published in 1980, the New York Times reviewer, Columbia University historian Eric Foner, described the book as filled with telling quotations and vivid descriptions of usually ignored events, and said that "Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose of academic history." However, referring to Zinn's focus on "the distinctive experience of blacks, women, Indians, workers and other neglected groups," Foner said, "The portrayal of these anonymous Americans is strangely circumscribed. Blacks, Indians, women and laborers appear either as rebels or as victims. Less dramatic but more typical lives — people struggling to survive with dignity in difficult circumstances — receive little attention", adding, "A People's History reflects a deeply pessimistic vision of the American experience." Summing up, Foner found the approach to be limited, and said further that the book needed "an integrated account incorporating Thomas Jefferson and his slaves, Andrew Jackson and the Indians, Woodrow Wilson and the Wobblies."[35]

Writing in the Washington Post Book World, reviewer Michael Kammen, a professor of American History at Cornell, wrote: "I wish that I could pronounce Zinn's book a great success, but it is not. It is a synthesis of the radical and revisionist historiography of the past decade. . . Not only does the book read like a scissors and paste-pot job, but even less attractive, so much attention to historians, historiography and historical polemic leaves precious little space for the substance of history. . . . We do deserve a people's history; but not a singleminded, simpleminded history, too often of fools, knaves and Robin Hoods. We need a judicious people's history because the people are entitled to have their history whole; not just those parts that will anger or embarrass them. . . . If that is asking for the moon, then we will cheerfully settle for balanced history."[36]

In a 2004 article in Dissent critiquing the 5th edition of A People's History of the United States, Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin argued that Zinn's book is too focused on class conflict, and wrongly attributes sinister motives to the American political elite. He also characterized the book as an overly simplistic narrative of elite villains and oppressed people, with no attempt to understand historical actors in the context of the time in which they lived. Kazin writes, "The ironic effect of such portraits of rulers is to rob 'the people' of cultural richness and variety, characteristics that might gain the respect and not just the sympathy of contemporary readers. For Zinn, ordinary Americans seem to live only to fight the rich and haughty and, inevitably, to be fooled by them."[37] Kazin argues further that A People's History fails to explain why the American political-economic model continues to attract millions of minorities, women, workers, and immigrants, or why the socialist and radical political movements Zinn favors have failed to gain widespread support among the American public.

Responding to Kazin's criticism, Dale McCartney, editor of the Canadian online magazine, Seven Oaks, writes:

Zinn is not neglecting a more objective perspective on American history; he's rejecting it in favor of an openly political stance that reclaims the history of oppressed peoples, regardless of race or gender. His popularity is testament to both the appeal of such a reading of American history, and the desperate thirst of working class people, people of colour, women and the many other victims of modern society's ravages for a history in which they are at the centre. I would go so far as to argue that not only has Kazin underestimated the importance of this role for Zinn's book, but that the academic tradition of objectivity (read: liberalism that favors white men) has played a key role in marginalizing oppressed peoples and derailing social movements. Zinn's work is an important corrective to this destructive tradition in historical writing.[38]

[edit] Awards, references in pop culture and other accomplishments

  • On October 5, 2006, Howard Zinn received the Haven's Center Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship in Madison, Wisconsin.[40]
  • Zinn's autobiography is You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. A biographical documentary film called Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004) was shown in select theaters. The film, on DVD, by Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller[43] contains music composed by Richard Martinez[6] and features music by Billy Bragg, Woodie Guthrie, and Pearl Jam. The film includes footage of Howard and Roslyn Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Marian Wright Edelman, Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden and Alice Walker. The 78-minute film on DVD includes these special features: On Human Nature and Aggression; Zinn's speech at Veterans for Peace Conference, 2004; and audio of his 1971 speech at the Boston Common on Civil Disobedience. In the film, Noam Chomsky says Zinn "changed the consciousness of a generation."
  • The film was narrated by actor Matt Damon who lived next door to the Zinns as a child in West Newton, Massachusetts. Damon included a reference to A People's History in his film Good Will Hunting. In a confrontation with his psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Damon's character tells him: "If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. That book will knock you on your ass." Damon also read the latter half of People's History for an audiobook released February 1, 2003 (ISBN 0-06-053006-5). People's History was referenced in a Columbus Day episode of the TV show The Sopranos.
  • Zinn is a featured interview in the documentary Sacco and Vanzetti, which was shown in theaters in the U.S. in 2007.
  • In October 2005, Chicago's indie punk label Thick Records released a CD called You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship by Springfield-based indie rock band, Resident Genius, featuring excerpts from several Zinn talks. The six Zinn excerpts are "a greatest hits of his speeches recorded over the last 15 years by Roger Leisner of Radio Free Maine. They touch on his 'usual' topics of engaged activism, history from below, war, the media and much more."[44]
  • Zinn's You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train is mentioned in System of a Down's song, "Deer Dance". The line "You can't be neutral on a moving train" is the basis for the Pearl Jam B-Side "Down".
  • Zinn has expressed support for Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich as well as his efforts to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.
  • The Pearl Jam song "Down" from the album Lost Dogs was inspired by the band's friendship with Zinn.

[edit] Theatrical works

Zinn has written three plays: Daughter of Venus (1985), Emma (1976), and Marx in Soho (1999).

Emma is based on the life of the early 20th century anarchist Emma Goldman. Goldman, an anarchist, feminist, and free-spirited thinker was exiled from the United States because of her viewpoints, including her staunch opposition to World War I. As Zinn writes in his Introduction, Emma Goldman 'seemed to be tireless as she traveled the country, lecturing to large audiences everywhere, on birth control (‘A woman should decide for herself’), on the falsity of marriage as an institution (‘Marriage has nothing to do with love’), on patriotism (‘the last refuge of a scoundrel’) on free love (‘What is love if not free?’), and also on drama, including Shaw, Ibsen, and Strindberg'.

Zinn has also come out in praise frequently for Vermont based theater troupe Bread and Puppet Theater, appearing with B&P founder Peter Schumann [45] and providing a critical blurb for Rehearsing with the Gods, a book on B&P [46].

Zinn received an acting credit when he appeared in the ensemble of David Hare's Stuff Happens at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on the five year anniversary of 9/11 [47].

[edit] Books written or edited by Howard Zinn

[edit] Books

[edit] Forewords and introductions by Howard Zinn

[edit] Op-Ed Pieces

[edit] 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)
  • You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship - split CD featuring Zinn talks and noted indie rock band Resident genius (Thick Records) (2005)

Zinn is currently on the Alternative Tentacles record label run by ex-Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra. Alternative Tentacles sells all forms of Zinn media, including books, films, and compact discs, and stocks hard-to-find Zinn material.

[edit] Biographies and profiles

[edit] References

  1. ^ NY Times Bestseller list
  2. ^ You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994)ISBN 0-8070-7127-7
  3. ^ howardzinn.org announcement and democracynow.org May 20, 2008 newscast by Amy Goodman
  4. ^ Biography of Howard Zinn
  5. ^ Bography of August Meier
  6. ^ Organization of American Historians. Obituary of August Meier, May 2003 by John Bracey University of Massachusetts, Amherst[1]
  7. ^ Edelman, Marian Wright. "Spelman College: A Safe Haven for A Young Black Woman." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 27 (2000): 118-123.
  8. ^ Interview with Zinn
  9. ^ Zinn interview
  10. ^ Media Filter article on Zinn
  11. ^ Zinn biography
  12. ^ Intervew with Zinn
  13. ^ Exodus News article on Zinn
  14. ^ Tomgram: Graduation Day with Howard Zinn
  15. ^ film clip of Zinn
  16. ^ Zinn, Howard (1990). Declarations of Independence. New York, NY: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0060921080. 
  17. ^ Interview with Zinn
  18. ^ Interview with Zinn
  19. ^ (1989) Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963-1975. Horizon Book Promotions. 
  20. ^ [Ellsberg autobiography, Zinn autobiography]
  21. ^ News
  22. ^ Monthly Review February 2000 Howard Zinn
  23. ^ Blanton, Tom (2006-05-21). "The lie behind the secrets". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
  24. ^ Blanton, Tom (2006-05-21). "The lie behind the secrets". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
  25. ^ (1971) Winter Soldier Investigation. 
  26. ^ http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/unfinished.pdf
  27. ^ Interview with Zinn
  28. ^ "Terrorism Over Tripoli" from Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press (1993) excerpted online
  29. ^ Yale Daily News - Zinn calls for activism
  30. ^ American Historical Association Blog: Iraq War Resolution is Ratified by AHA Members
  31. ^ Historian Howard Zinn Calls for Activism - CommonDreams.org
  32. ^ "Backlist to the Future" by Rachel Donadio, July 30, 2006
  33. ^ Truthdig - Reports - Patriot’s Day: Stop the Violence
  34. ^ Zinn's website
  35. ^ Foner, Eric, "Majority Report", New York Times Book Review, March 2, 1980, pp. BR3-BR4.
  36. ^ Kammen, Michael, "How the Other Half Lived", Washington Post Book World, March 23, 1980, p. 7
  37. ^ "Howard Zinn's History Lessons", by Michael Kazin, Dissent, Spring 2004
  38. ^ "Accessing history: The importance of Howard Zinn" by Dale McCartney, Seven Oaks Magazine, March 29, 2004
  39. ^ Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003 - Les Amis du Monde diplomatique
  40. ^ Zinn to receive Havens Center award (Oct. 4, 2006)
  41. ^ BORDC: BORDC's Advisory Board
  42. ^ Disarm.org website
  43. ^ [2][dead link]
  44. ^ You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship :: AK Press
  45. ^ Boston.com / A&E / Theater/Arts / For puppet troupe, world events are its bread and butter
  46. ^ Rehearsing with Gods by Ronald T. Simon, Marc Estrin - Chelsea Green
  47. ^ Playbill News: Lili Taylor, Gloria Reuben, Howard Zinn Star in Cape Cod Reading of Stuff Happens Sept. 11

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Persondata
NAME Zinn, Howard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Author and historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn, New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH