Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an American professor and historian, best known for his book “A People’s History of the United States” (1980). It is not a story of presidents and generals but instead “a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people’s movements of resistance.” He was to the left of Mao and proud of it.
He did not just teach history, he took part in it, like marching at Selma and hiding the Pentagon Papers. He was brave, doing what was right even though it meant that Spelman fired him and the Boston police beat him.
He grew up in the poor parts of Brooklyn. When the Second World War came he joined the Air Force to fight the good war against Hitler and fascism. He bombed towns in France and Germany. From his plane, six miles up in the sky, he could not hear the screams or see the blood.
He came home and went to university on the G.I. Bill. There he read John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” (1946) and began to think about the people he killed, many of them children. He began to see that America was an empire no different from all the other empires in history.
In 1956 he became a history professor at Spelman College. He found himself teaching American history to black women from books that said little about blacks. He began to question the way American history was taught.
Then came the civil rights movement, the fight for equal rights for blacks. He joined SNCC and the sit-ins. He urged his students to protest too. Spelman fired him. Writer Alice Walker, one of his students, puts it this way:
Well, he was thrown out because he loved us, and he showed that love by just being with us. He loved his students. He didn’t see why we should be second-class citizens. He didn’t see why we shouldn’t be able to eat where we wanted to and sleep where we wanted to and be with the people we wanted to be with. And so, he was with us. He didn’t stay back, you know, in his tower there at the school. And so, he was a subversive in that situation.
In 1964 he went to Boston University where he taught till he retired in 1988. There he took part in the protests against the Vietnam War and became friends with Noam Chomsky.
In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg gave him one of his copies of the Pentagon Papers, which held the government’s secrets about the Vietnam War. The big secret was that it knew the war was hopeless but lied to the people about it. Zinn found out that the war was not about freedom and democracy but about tin, rubber and oil. America in the 1960s, it turned out, was no different than Japan in the 1940s.
In 1980 he came out with “A People’s History of the United States”. The first printing was only 4,000 copies, but in 2003 the millionth copy was sold! The latest, and now last, revision comes out in July 2010.
See also:
- Howard Zinn: Against Discouragement – a beautiful speech he gave at Spelman to the graduating class of 2005.
- Chomsky
- Staceyann Chin reads Las Casas on the Spanish genocide of Hispaniola – you can hear him at the beginning of this video
- Haiti: a brief history – partly based on his history.
- The best American writers live north of 110th Street – I would not call him one of the best American writers, but he did live north of 110th Street from 1952 to 1956 and has the very mindset I talk about in that post. In particular he did not believe in:
- Stuff I Might Like
abagond, you posted:
“In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg gave him one of his copies of the Pentagon Papers, which held the government’s secrets about the Vietnam War.”
As if this mattered. The New York Times PUBLISHED the so-called Pentagon Papers that year.
YOu wrote:
“The big secret was that it knew the war was hopeless but lied to the people about it.”
Partially true.
You wrote:
“Zinn found out that the war was not about freedom and democracy but about tin, rubber and oil.”
The preceding sentence is a laughable lie. It is unfortunate that you believe the claim because it shows how little you know about economics.
Tin was NEVER a commodity of strategic importance or a particularly valuable commodity. No one would fight a war to get tin ore. There were alternatives.
Rubber? You must be joking. The US has been making synthetic rubber since World War II. Rubber plantations in Africa and other locations were from an era well before the Vietnam War.
Oil? Do you know how much oil is pumped in Vietnam today? Very, very little. Do you know the size of Vietnam’s oil reserves? Very very little.
Have you noticed that the US BUYS oil from almost every country that produces it? The US has NEVER taken over a country to seize its resources.
Vietnam is a communist country that is doing all it can to become an exporter of goods. Vietnam is a poor country that needs all the money it can get. If there were substantial oil reserves in the country, the communist government would attempt to sell as much oil as possible. But there is very little oil.
Meanwhile, Vietnam manufactures shoes, clothes and textiles that it sell to US companies. But oil? Nope. No oil.
You wrote:
“America in the 1960s, it turned out, was no different than Japan in the 1940s.”
If you believe your preceding statement, you know nothing.
LikeLike
I don’t really know much too much on Zinn…apart from he will be missed from those whose leanings are toward the left
LikeLike
its weird cause I had watched The People Speak on tv last month which is based on his book…celebs were reading excerpts from the book.
The show was so good it makes me want to read it (which is good since I am wanting to go into the field of history)…
Oddly enough some of what I was hearing sounded like the stuff my professor in history class was talking about…though he never made mention of the book…(i find it odd that I learned more in that class than I did in high school).
LikeLike
I never read any Zinn, but every leftie friend of mine on facebook was in collective mourning.
I don’t care too much for the world view of the anti-American left. What’s funny is that the term “American exceptionalism” tends to be associated with the right, those that think America is a unique force for good, democracy and stability in the world. But those on the Howard Zinn left also believe in this exceptionalism, but from the opposite extreme. That America is uniquely heinous. I see it all the time from leftist people I know.
Just from your article, he mentions that he felt America was an empire from his own experiences of bombing Germany and the deaths of German civilians. But what was the alternative? There were no laser guided bombs back then, and satellite surveillance to get pinpoint accurate targets. There was absolutely no way to defeat the Nazis without deaths of German civilians. So would he rather have let them win just so he can say German civilians didn’t die? And Germans certainly didn’t care about civilians, they were gassing them to death by the millions. This is the type of naivete and impervious idealism of the far left that drives me nuts.
LikeLike
Tulio said:
“But those on the Howard Zinn left also believe in this exceptionalism, but from the opposite extreme. That America is uniquely heinous. I see it all the time from leftist people I know.”
I do not see that in Zinn. One of his big points, in fact, seems to be the opposite: that America is all too ordinary as empires and big powers go.
LikeLike
Tulio said:
“Just from your article, he mentions that he felt America was an empire from his own experiences of bombing Germany and the deaths of German civilians. But what was the alternative?”
Much of the Allied bombing served no military purpose.
Towards the end of the war, for example, Zinn took part in the napalming of a French town. It was well behind the front line. The German soldiers there were a threat to no one – they were just waiting for the war to end so they could get back home. Killing them meant killing the French that Americans were supposedly defending and liberating. This was two weeks before the end of the war in Europe.
LikeLike
Tulio said:
“That America is uniquely heinous. I see it all the time from leftist people I know.”
In my experience that is a right-wing misreading of what the left is saying. A misreading that has the effect of making the left’s position seem unreasonable.
I get the same sort of thing on this blog when people tell me that I think whites are uniquely evil – when I know I said no such thing and would never say it because that is not how I think.
LikeLike
Aba, thank you for this post I will be buying the book when it comes out. I look forward to reading it! He sounds like the kind of person I like!
LikeLike
Me too: I have an old copy from like 1988, but I plan to buy the new one when it comes out in July.
LikeLike
With regard to:
“Much of the Allied bombing served no military purpose”.
Did he not also suggest the same thing with the bombing of Hiroshima, if I remember correctly??
LikeLike
abagond, you wrote:
“Much of the Allied bombing served no military purpose.”
Really? ON what basis do you make this statement?
Bombing Germany into rubble was a strategy meant to demoralize the civilian population and get them to beg to surrender. Roughly 50% of buildings in most cities were destroyed. IN some places Allied bombing destroyed 80% of all buildings.
Maybe you are unaware of the fact a war is fought until it is won — or lost. But until the time the other side surrenders, the military has only one goal: To win by pounding the enemy into submission. World War II was no boxing match.
You wrote:
“Towards the end of the war, for example, Zinn took part in the napalming of a French town. It was well behind the front line. The German soldiers there were a threat to no one – they were just waiting for the war to end so they could get back home.”
Really? How did Zinn know this about the enemy soldiers in that town? Did he parachute in and speak to them?
You wrote:
“Killing them meant killing the French that Americans were supposedly defending and liberating.”
Maybe those French citizens were all Nazi collaborators. That would explain the cozy village life it seems you are describing. If the Nazis were so anxious to see the war end and go home, why did they not surrender and speed up the process?
You wrote:
“This was two weeks before the end of the war in Europe.”
It ain’t over till it’s over.
LikeLike
No no_slappz, it aint over till the fat lady sings!
LikeLike
Fellow commenters, with the exception of the trolls particularly the one who shall not be named, PLEASE don’t acknowledge them in any way! I know it’s hard. They’re just not worthy in having comments directed to them in any way.
LikeLike
A Tribute To American People’s Historian – Howard Zinn
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
http://www.countercurrents.org/siddiqui290110.htm
LikeLike
Now that he is dead, Zinn will become an academic footnote, and the slow forgetting of his work can begin.
LikeLike
Howard Zinn was probably the most influential historian of his generation, in terms of his impact upon how history is taught at the highschool and university levels.
His key works will be published well into the 22nd century. Howard’s legacy is well assured in every one of us whom he taught and in the thousands we too are teaching.
I’ve had a particularly bad month at work and I’ve been feeling well-browned off about the university system. Howard’s death and a talk with one of my mentors, Yvonne Maggie, put it all into perspective for me.
It’s not about me: it’s about the kids I teach. That’s why Brazil paid me to be a PhD and that’s why I get paid to be a professor.
I only hope that I can be more like Howard and Yvonne.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howard Zinn was a propagandist. Not a historian.
LikeLike
There’s a difference?
LikeLike
Yes: if a historian agrees with me he is not a propagandist but merely telling the truth. The rest are a pack of liars 😉
LikeLike
LOL!
Hey, I’ll admit that facts are facts. It’s the spin that one uses to put facts together that’s important.
Zinn was always up front about how and why he did history. THAT is ethical. People who presume that they’re “just telling the facts, ma’am” and are not reflective – let alone honest – about what their politics are… Those people aren’t historians, but propagandists.
LikeLike
Don’t talk to my snooki wooki slappzikins like that or I will lock you in a room for days on end with him. You will then discover what real suffering is! Slappz is the be all and end all of gaseous intellectualism, er, or is it intell, oh nevermind!
LikeLike
@ Angela:
Your comment was deleted because you were plagiarizing David Horowitz here:
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/30/spitting-on-howard-zinns-grave/
LikeLike
No No. No. Howard Zinn died? When?
Oh, I’m beyond it….. I can’t speak…..
I can’t breathe…
LikeLike
Why am I not surprised that Zinn-haters are plagarists?
LikeLike
I met Howard Zinn in 1999 at an Historians Conference (I don’t remember the historical organization that sponsored it) in Lowell, Massachusetts. I do remember that he gave a very interesting speech and I bought a copy of “A People’s History of the United States” which he was autographing for everyone (later ruined in a house water problem). I read it, almost savoring each line of this unconventional history written so warmly and caringly.
I did not know that he had passed away recently. We have truly lost a first-rate historian in Howard Zinn.
I highly recommend Zinn’s book noted above and I hope that now in my “spare” time of retirement that I might read some of his other works.
It was a treat to hear Howard Zinn present his topic; he was clearly the most interesting and compelling speaker of the presenters at this 3-4 day conference in Lowell. It was a National Park Service training for me (I was the Park Historian at Carlsbad Caverns National Park at the time). It certainly didn’t hurt my feelings that the meeting was n my native state of Massachusetts, my first visit back in 33-odd years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
did you even read the pentagon paper
about south east asia and tin rubber oil
here enjoy
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/doc23.htm
LikeLike
no_slappz said: “Maybe you are unaware of the fact a war is fought until it is won — or lost. But until the time the other side surrenders, the military has only one goal: To win by pounding the enemy into submission. World War II was no boxing match.”
Spoken like a bonafide barbarian to the utmost! So,… tell me, how does it feel to have a deprived mind, divorced from reality and commit the most draconians acts that barbarians typically engage in??
LikeLike
I now have A Young People’s History Of The United States and i have order A People’s Guide To The United States by Howard Zinn.
LikeLike
@Mary Burrell
I think you will find them enlightening…good reading, you autodidact!
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Afrofem: I have never cared for history but since the controversy over the national anthem and learning about its history I just want to read about it now. One thing I have learned many historians have their own agenda about how they want to tell history and many want to revise and whitewash much like how the Western media likes to spin and frame the narratives in regards to black and people of color.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@ Mary Burrell
“…I have learned many historians have their own agenda about how they want to tell history…”
So true. You really have to read history (and everything else) with a critical mind. Some things don’t pass the smell test.
LikeLiked by 2 people