A People's Histroy of the United States was an important book for transforming me politically. I've bought and given that book away perhaps a dozen times.
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
"His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."
"I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president - which means, in our time, a dangerous president - unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction." -- Howard Zinn
Fuck that sucks, A Peoples History was one of the most profound books ive ever read. I remember reading it in college and that was when i realized that all the stuff id learned about history before then was pretty much bullshit. Kudos to Howard Zinn for not being afraid to speak up and educate others about the true history of the US.
smithers_jones
I'm lost
November 2003
JAN 27, 2010 05:05 PM