Historian, born in New York City, New York, USA. He studied at New York (1951 BA) and Columbia (1952 MA; 1958 PhD) universities, then taught at Upsala College (19536), Spelman College (195663), and Boston University (196488; professor emeritus 1988). He received an Air Medal and battle stars for service in the US Army Air Forces (19435). Active in social and political affairs throughout his life, and an authority on the history of American civil disobedience, he participated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil-rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As a prominent protester against American aggression in Vietnam, he helped secure the release of the first three American prisoners-of-war. He drew upon personal experience to discuss civil rights in SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) and American militarism in Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967). His work, A People's History of the United States (1980), approaches history from the viewpoint of working class and minority groups. In 1959 he received the Beveridge Prize for LaGuardia in Congress.
Author of 20 books, including the best seller A People's History of the United States, Zinn is Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University.
Early life
Howard Zinn was born to a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn. His father, Eddie Zinn, born in Austria-Hungary, emigrated to the United States with his brother Phil before the outbreak of World War I. Later, Zinn was a bombadier aboard a B-17 with the 490th Bomb Group, and conducted bombing missions in Europe during World War II.
After World War II, Zinn attended New York University on the GI Bill, graduating with a B.A.
Civil rights
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.
While at Spelman, Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd and mentored young student activists, among them writer Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. 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. An account of Zinn's years at Spelman is in 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.
Zinn said that while at Spelman, he observed 30 violations of the First and Fourteenth amendment rights to the United States Constitution in Albany, Georgia, including freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and equal protection of the laws.
Zinn wrote frequently about the struggle for Civil Rights, both as a participant and historian. and in 1960-61, he took a year off from teaching to write SNCC: The New Abolitionists and The Southern Mystique. 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. It was at this time that Zinn became known as a high-profile critic of war, the Vietnam War in particular. In his books, The Politics of History and The Zinn Reader, he concluded that the bombing was ordered by decision-makers for career advancement rather than for any legitimate military objective. 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.
Vietnam
Zinn's diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Rev.
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. [Ellsberg autobiography, Zinn autobiography] 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 Gravel edition of The Pentagon Papers, four volumes plus a fifth volume with analysis by Chomsky and Zinn.
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 and later reflected on his time before the jury.
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 administration of Richard M. antiwar movement during the U.S. war in Vietnam, and, in the 2001 film Unfinished Symphony, Zinn provides a historical context for the 1971 antiwar march by Vietnam Veterans against the War.
Iraq
Zinn has also been a critic of the Iraq conflict.
A People's History
As a historian, Zinn found that the point of view expressed in traditional history books was often limited. 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 , and Howard Zinn as narrator.
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;
In 2004, Zinn published Voices of A People's History of the United States with Anthony Arnove.
Zinn was a consultant to the six-part documentary A People's History of the United States , a television series produced by Alvin H.
Criticism
Anti-communist liberal writer Michael Kazin describes Howard Zinn as "an evangelist of little imagination for whom history is one long chain of stark moral dualities." Aaron Sarver replies to Kazin with praise for Zinn (and Arnove's) Voices of a People's History of the United States, noting that both the book and CD of dramatic readings serve as a useful response to Kazin’s harsh critique.
Awards and other accomplishments
Zinn has received the Thomas Merton Award and the Eugene V. In 2003, Zinn was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique for the French version of his seminal work, Une histoire populaire des Etats-Unis.
Zinn's autobiography is You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. A biographical documentary film of the same name was produced in 2004 and shown in select theaters. when Damon was a child, his family moved next door to the Zinns in West Newton, Massachusetts, and became friends (the Zinns occasionally babysat the Damon boys).
In October 2005, Chicago's indie punk label Thick Records released a CD by Springfield-based indie rock band, Resident Genius, which featured excerpts from several Zinn talks, tying them into the band's songs.
On October 5, 2006, Howard Zinn received the Haven's Center Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship in Madison, Wisconsin.
Theatrical works
Zinn has been the playwright for three plays, including Daughter of Venus (1985), his first play.
Zinn's second play, Emma, is based on the life of the early 20th century anarchist Emma Goldman.
Books Written or Edited by Howard Zinn
Books
Artists in Times of War (2003) ISBN 1-58322-602-8 The Cold War & Lewontin, David Montgomery, Laura Nader, Richard Ohmann, Ray Siever, Immanuel Wallerstein, Howard Zinn (1997) ISBN 1-56584-005-4 Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991) ISBN 0-06-092108-0 Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order (1968, re-issued 2002) ISBN 0-89608-675-5 Emma: A Play in Two Acts About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002) ISBN 0-89608-664-X Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993) ISBN 0-89608-676-3 The Future of History: Interviews With David Barsamian (1999) ISBN 1-56751-157-0 Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence (1995) ISBN 1-884519-14-8 Howard Zinn On Democratic Education Donaldo Macedo, Editor (2004) ISBN 1-59451-054-7 Howard Zinn on History (2000) ISBN 1-58322-048-8 Howard Zinn on War (2000) ISBN 1-58322-049-6 Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works (Editor) (1974) ISBN 0-89608-677-1 Justice? Eyewitness Accounts (1977) ISBN 0-8070-4479-2 La Otra Historia De Los Estados Unidos (2000) ISBN 1-58322-054-2 LaGuardia in Congress (1959) ISBN 0-8371-6434-6, ISBN 0-393-00488-0 Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999) ISBN 0-89608-593-7 New Deal Thought (editor) (1965) ISBN 0-87220-685-8 Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003) ISBN 0-06-055767-2 The Pentagon Papers Senator Gravel Edition. I-IV of the Papers, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, editors Playbook by Maxine Klein, Lydia Sargent and Howard Zinn (1986) ISBN 0-89608-309-8 A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom by David Williams, Howard Zinn (Series Editor) (2005) ISBN 1-59558-018-2 A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present (1980), revised (1995) ISBN 0-06-052837-0 A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition Abridged (2003 updated) ISBN 1-56584-826-8 A People's History of the United States: The Civil War to the Present Kathy Emery Ellen Reeves Howard Zinn (2003 teaching edition) ISBN 1-56584-725-3 A People's History of the United States: The Wall Charts by Howard Zinn and George Kirschner (1995) ISBN 1-56584-171-9 The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (2004) ISBN 0-06-057826-2 The Politics of History (1970) (2nd edition 1990) ISBN 0-252-06122-5 Postwar America: 1945–1971 (1973) ISBN 0-89608-678-X The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace Editor (2002) ISBN 0-8070-1407-9 SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) ISBN 0-89608-679-8 The Southern Mystique (1962) ISBN 0-89608-680-1 Terrorism and War (2002) ISBN 1-58322-493-9 (interviews, Anthony Arnove (Ed.)) The Twentieth Century: A People's History (2003) ISBN 0-06-053034-0 Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century (Dana Frank, Robin Kelley, and Howard Zinn) (2002) ISBN 0-8070-5013-X Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967) ISBN 0-89608-681-X Voices of a People’s History of the United States (with Anthony Arnove, 2004) ISBN 1-58322-647-8 You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994) ISBN 0-8070-7127-7 The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy (1997) ISBN 1-888363-54-1Forewords and introductions by Howard Zinn
A Gigantic Mistake by Mickey Z, (2004) ISBN 1-930997-97-3 A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter H. Dowd (2004) ISBN 1-56751-313-1 Deserter From Death: Dispatches From Western Europe 1950-2000 by Daniel Singer (2005) ISBN 1-56025-642-7 Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples by Donald Grinde, Bruce Johansen (1994) ISBN 0-940666-52-9 Eugene V. Pelz (2000) ISBN 0-9704669-0-0 From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985–1995 by Ward Churchill (1996) ISBN 0-89608-553-8 Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary by Gino Strada, (2005) ISBN 88-8158-420-4 Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear And The Selling Of American Empire by Sut Jhally editor, Jeremy Earp editor, (2004) ISBN 1-56656-581-2 If You're Not a Terrorist…Then Stop Asking Questions! by Micah Ian Wright, (2004) ISBN 1-58322-626-5 Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal by Anthony Arnove, (2006) ISBN 9781595580795 Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader by Alexander Berkman Gene Fellner, editor, (2004) ISBN 1-58322-662-1 Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years by Clara Nieto, Chris Brandt (trans) (2003) ISBN 1-58322-545-5 Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated by James Mann, editor (2004) ISBN 3-283-00487-0 Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-9-11 Anti-terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights (2002) ISBN 1-58322-494-7 Soldiers In Revolt: GI Resistance During The Vietnam War by David Cortright, (2005) ISBN 1-931859-27-2 Sold to the Highest Bidder: The Presidency from Dwight D. Friedenberg (2002) ISBN 1-57392-923-9 The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman Intro by Norman Mailer, Afterword by HZ (2000) ISBN 1-56858-197-1 The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass, (2004) ISBN 1-931859-09-4 The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam, a History of U.S. Imperialism by Sidney Lens (2003) ISBN 0-7453-2101-1 The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and Reform by Henry David Thoreau Wendell Glick, editor, (2004) ISBN 0-691-11876-0 The Iron Heel by Jack London, (1971) ISBN 55305969095 The Sixties Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America by Edward P. Morgan, (1992) ISBN 1-56639-014-1 You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want by Micah Ian Wright, (2003) ISBN 1-58322-584-6Compact discs
A People's History of the United States (1999) Artists in the Time of War (2002) Heroes & 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)Online interviews and video
Interview with Zinn for Guernica Magazine (guernicamag.com) What the left thinks: Howard Zinn, Part I, interview with Dennis Prager (September 12, 2006) Transcript ofPBS interview by Bill Moyers (January 10, 2003) C-SPAN Book TV In Depth (3-hour interview) Interview with Howard Zinn on Air America Radio's The Majority Report (April 16th, 2004) "The Myth of American Exceptionalism" (April 13, 2005) Videolecture published by MIT World and sponsored by MIT SPURS/Humphrey Program. Public Reading of A People's History of the United Stateswith Howard Zinn, Jeff Zinn, James Earl Jones, Harris Yulin, Andre Gregory, Marisa Tomei, Danny Glover, Myla Pitt, Kurt Vonnegut, Alfre Woodard, Alice Walker Interviewed by David Barsamian (November 11, 1992) Gray Matters Interviews Howard Zinn (December 3, 1998) Interview by Harry Kreisler (April 20, 2001) Interview by Robert Birnbaum at identitytheory.com (April 3, 2003) A-Infos Radio Project: Talks by Howard Zinn 1996 Interview on the death penalty Rawstory.com interview (September 9, 2005) — Compares U.S. wars in Iraq and Vietnam. Anybody But Bush: A Debate on Ralph Nader's Candidacy" (October 26, 2004) "Candidates Not Addressing Fundamental Issues of American Policy" in the World"(October 14, 2004) "Revolutionary Non-Violence: Remembering Dave Dellinger, 1915-2004" (May 27, 2004) "Labor Day Special: Howard Zinn on Occupied Iraq, the Role of Resistance Movements, Government Lies and the Media" (September 1, 2003) "Independence Day Special: A Dramatic Reading of 'A People's History of the United States' with James Earl Jones, Alfre Woodard, Kurt Vonnegut, Danny Glover, Harris Yulin and others"(July 4, 2003) "Howard Zinn and Arundhati Roy: A Conversation Between Two Leading Social Critics" (May 28, 2003) "Howard Zinn Talks About Bombs, Terrorism, the Anti-War Movement and the Bush Administration's Impending War On Iraq" (February 25, 2003) "People's History of the United States, 1,000,000 Copies and Counting: Alice Walker, Danny Glover, Kurt Vonnegut, Marisa Tomei and Others Celebrate Howard Zinn's Classic" (February 25, 2003) "Renowned Historian Howard Zinn On the History of Government and Media Lies in Time of War" (February 13, 2003) "President Bush Takes the Nation to the Brink of War and Defends American Empire in His State of the Union Address; Simultaneously, He Tries to Prove He Cares About the Economy" (January 29, 2003) "Over 600 Gather for the Funeral of Legendary Anti-War Activist Philip Berrigan in Baltimore: We Hear From Historian Howard Zinn and Brendan Walsh, Who Co-Founded Viva House, a Catholic Worker House in Baltimore"(December 10, 2003) "Howard Zinn On the History of the US Government and CIA 'Changing Regimes' Around the World" (November 28, 2003) "Saying No to War: From Boston to Washington, D.C. to Madison, Wisconsin, We Hear From Howard Zinn, Medea Benjamin and Others" (October 29, 2003) "Congress Holds Joint Session in New York for First Time in 200 Years" (September 6, 2003) "The People's Historian" (June 21, 2002) "Reflections On 9/11 and Beyond" (March 11, 2002) "Where Are We Heading: Terrorism, Global Security, and the Peace Movement": During a Time Ofseemingly Endless War, We'll Hear From Radical Historian Howard Zinn" (February 22, 2002) "As Bush Delivers His First State of the Union Address, Democracy Now! Convenes a Shadowcongress to Respond" (January 30, 2002) "As Pacifica Stations WBAI, KPFK and WPFW Continue to Censor Democracy Now!, a Medley of The Voices That Pacifica Has Refused to Air Since September 11" (January 8, 2002) "Howard Zinn Speaks On the US War Against Afghanistan, US Wars Gone By, and the Prospects for a Humane US Foreign Policy" (Part II) (October 22, 2001) "Howard Zinn Speaks On the US War Against Afghanistan, US Wars Gone By, and the Prospects for a Humane US Foreign Policy" (Part I) (October 22, 2001) "Manning Marable, Howard Zinn and Grace Paley Speak Out Against the Bush Administration'smarch to War" (September 13, 2001) "Pearl Harbor: The Corporatization of History" (Part II) (Wednesday, May 30, 2001) "The Electoral College and Election 2000: A Historical Perspective From Howard Zinn" ( December 8, 2000) "American History Review of the 20th Century: Manning Marable and Howard Zinn" (December 27, 1999) "A People's History of the United States" (May 18, 1999) "Historian Howard Zinn Discusses Mergers" of two oil giants Exxon and Mobil (December 7, 1998) "Historian Zinn Addresses Nation's Censored Reports" (May 13, 1998) "Columbus Day Broadcast: A Talk by Howard Zinn" (October 13, 1997)Criticism of Howard Zinn
"Howard Zinn's History Lessons" by Michael Kazin Master of Deceit by Daniel J. (University of California Press: 1993) ISBN 0-520-07515-3| 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 | |
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about 1 month ago
zinne was used as alternative name