Howard Zinn is one of the most polarizing figures in American academia

The success of Howard Zinn might seem puzzling at first. He is not an orthodox

historian, and, though his writings appear at every major bookstore in the country, he does not

write mainstream history. Zinn’s style and approach puts him in contrast to other major writers of American history such as David McCullough. Whereas McCullough is known as the “great narrator” and has written about great men and their wars, Zinn stands in contrast, writing about opposition movements and, much of the time, allowing the people to speak for themselves. Zinn’s love of reading, carried over from childhood, shines through in his writings. The pages of his People’s History are filled with quotes from literature and poetry. Though he has been criticized for writing overtly Marxist history, Zinn’s history is not entirely Marxist. At various times, Zinn is a Marxist, at others, he writes as a socialist, still, in his memoir, we find Zinn the anarchist, inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s acts of civil disobedience. Perhaps then we might summarize his body of work as just that: civil disobedience. As a Marxist historian, he refuses to believe in the firm laws of Marxism, believing in the power of people to change and shape the events that surround them. As a professional historian, Zinn has refused to write for a select audience of scholars, instead focusing on writing history, not to stay in the past, but to shape the future. Perhaps part of his success can be attributed to these reasons. But one cannot forget the important role played by his wife Roslyn. Roz has always been Howard’s first editor. When the task of writing A People’s History became too daunting, too overwhelming, and Zinn wanted to quit, it was Roselyn who pressured him and motivated him to finish it. At other times, when Howard was less courageous in his activism, it was not out of fear of going to jail, but the longing to be home with Roslyn and his family. Her inspiration has led Howard to dedicate several of his books to her.

Finally, Zinn remains an opponent of what he calls “bad history”: that is, history that

suggests, “Columbus was a hero, and Teddy Roosevelt is a hero, and Andrew Jackson is a

hero . . . they [presidents/generals/industrialists etc.] are the ones who made America great, and

America has always done good things in the world. . . .” On the contrary, “if people knew some

history. . .they would know how many times presidents have announced to the nation, we must

go to war for this or for that reason.”⁶¹ Clearly, Zinn sees history as an empowering tool–a tool

which one might use for, in Chomsky’s famous phrase, “intellectual self-defense” against

government; a tool which one could possibly use to change the world. In contrast, In Defense of

History, Richard J. Evans suggested that if one wanted to change the world, history was the

wrong profession.⁶² However, always the eternal optimist, Zinn thought differently:

“. . .[I]f you want to shape the future, you can do it whether you are a historian or a businessman or politician or just about anything, because whatever field you are in you can be useless in shaping history or useful, but in any of those fields, a knowledge of history would be important in helping to understand the present moment, intrude into it, and shape the future.”⁶³

Thus, it is Zinn’s lesson to us all, that no matter who we are, no matter how terrible the

present may seem, we can learn from our history; that we, as historians, should not be stuck in

the past, but contributing to the present and shaping the future, one person at a time.

1 David Horowitz, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America

(Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2006), pp. 358 - 364. The article is attributed to Dan Flynn.

2 Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times,

2^nded. (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), pp. 164 - 167. Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho: A Play On

History (Cambridge: South End Press, 1999), p. vii. See also, “Howard Zinn: One Step

Ahead of the Landlord,” interview with David Barsamian, Boulder, Colorado, November 11, 1992.

3 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp. 107 - 175

4 Ibid.,p. 87, 176 - 178. M.H. Lagarde, “Marx is Not Dead,” translated by Ana Portela,

LaHabana, May 7, 2004 (Available online, http://www.walterlippmann.com/zinn-cuba-5-

2004.htmllast accessed 10/06).

5 Howard Zinn, The Politics of History, 2^nded. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1970,

1990), pp. 258 - 273. Howard Zinn, Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice

(New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003), pp. 67 - 105. Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral

On A Moving Train, pp. 93 - 102.

6 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp. 178 - 179. The decision on Zinn’s part

to major in History wasn’t a given–he considered literature, philosophy, economics, and

political science. Eventually, he chose history as it was the best preparation for a life of

activism. (E-mail from Howard Zinn, November 28, 2006.)

7 For discussion and excerpts of reviews of LaGuardia in Congress, see Davis D. Joyce,

Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2003),

pp. 42 - 43, 48 - 55.

8 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp. 15 - 22, passim.

9 Ibid., pp. 15 - 22, 27 - 36, passim.

10 Ibid., 37 - 45, passim. Joyce, Howard Zinn, p. 74.

11 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, p. 44.

12 Joyce, Howard Zinn, p. 82.

13 Howard Zinn, “Finding Anarchism,” Heroes and Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco &

Vanzetti, and the Revolutionary Order (San Francisco: Alternative Tentacles Records, 2000), track 2.

14 Display ad 31, “For a Federal Force in Selma,” New York Times, March 15, 1965, p. 34.

15 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp.183 - 185.

16 E-mail from Noam Chomsky, November 4, 2006.

17 Howard Zinn, Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, (Cambridge: South End Press, [1967]

2002), p. 1.

18 Ibid., pp. 13 - 17.

19 Ibid., pp. 23 - 24, but examples of the attitudes of African-Americans towards the Vietnam

War are abound in chapter three.

20 Ibid., pp. 28 - 36.

21 Keenan quoted in Ibid., p. 84. For Zinn’s arguments against the domino theory and the

Munich analogy, see chapter eight of Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal.

22 Ibid., pp. 124 - 125.

23 For reviews and quotes regarding Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, see Joyce, Howard

Zinn, pp. 98 - 100.

24 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp. 126 - 134. Zinn also describes the trip in

much more detail in Howard Zinn, The Politics of History, Second Edition (Chicago:

University of Illinois Press, 1990), p. 223 - 236.

25 Peter Irons, The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way To

The Supreme Court (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), ix, xiii. Irons would go on to earn his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University under the tutelage of Zinn and recently retired from UC San Diego’s Political Science department.

26 The 70,000 copies figure comes from the preface to the South End Press edition of Civil

Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order (Cambridge: South End

Press, 2002). Among those who thought Disobedience and Democracy was one of

Zinn’s most significant books was historian Charles Angeletti and linguist/activist Noam

Chomsky. See, Joyce, Howard Zinn, 109, 237, respectively.

27 Howard Zinn, “Vacating the Premises in Vietnam,” Asian Survey, Vol. 9, No. 11, Nov., 1969, pp. 862-867.

28 Howard Zinn, “The History Profession,” A People’s History: of the United States: A Lecture at Reed College (San Francisco: Alternative Tentacles, 1999), track 4. “Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting, December 29 – 29, 1969,” AHA Newsletter, Volume VIII, Number 3, February, 1970, pp. 9 – 12.

29 “Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting,” pp. 9 – 12.

30 Frank Bailinson, “Radical Candidate Fails in Bid To Head Historical Association,” New York Times, Dec. 29, 1969. “Historians Reject Motion on Vietnam,” New York Times, December 31, 1969.

31 E-mail from Staughton Lynd, April 13, 2007. On the exchange between Zinn and Fairbank, see “Open Letter to Howard Zinn,” and “Professor Zinn Replys,” AHA Newsletter Volume VIII, Number 5, June 1970, pp.14 – 19.

32 Zinn, The Politics of History, p. 1.

33 Ibid., p. 5. See also Joyce, Howard Zinn, pp. 238 – 239 for Zinn’s lackluster enthusiasm for doctoral dissertations. For Victor Davis Hanson on Howard Zinn see “The Western Disease: The Strange Syndrome of Our Guilt and Their Shame,” National Review Online, December 23, 2003. (Available online: http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson123003.htmllast accessed 11/06.) For Davis’s criticisms of papers, dissertations, etc., see John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001).

34 See chapter three on “Structure and Process” in John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of

History: How Historian’s Map the Past (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 35 -

52.

35 1Zinn, The Politics of History, p. 12.

36 Ibid., p. 35.

37 Ibid., p. 100.

38 Ibid., pp. 275 - 279.

39 My analysis here draws from the last third of Zinn’s The Politics of History, passim. Of

particular interest, the reader may find the following pages useful in understanding Zinn’s

theories: on meaning, see pp. 275 - 280; history as “liberating,” pp. 281 - 282; on “for lucre

and profit” vs “for the benefit and use of men,” see p. 289; on history as an artform vs a

science, pp. 302 - 303. Many other examples follow in this section.

40 Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Books of the Times, The Historian as Activist,” New York

Times, May 4, 1970, p. 35. Donald B. Rosenthal, “Howard Zinn, The Politics of History

[review],”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 393, pp. 174

- 175.

41 M.S. Handler, “Queens Speaker Angers Parents,” New York Times, June 10, 1970, p. 30.

Zinn was arrested ten times in his life, once in the south, six times during the Vietnam War,

and three times in demonstrations thereafter. Regarding the Queens incident, Zinn believed

the students welcomed his remarks, but their parents–policemen, firemen, lower middle class

workers–were often gung-ho patriots and supporters of the war. Generally, he was not

heckled at events; his status as a World War II vet helped his cause. (E-mail from Howard

Zinn, November 28, 2006.)

42 See Howard Zinn, et al., “Academic Freedom at BU,” New York Review of Books, Volume 27, Number 10, June 12, 1980. As found at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/7376. Accessed 6/07.

43 Hanson/Heath, Who Killed Homer, p. 283.

44 Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, pp. 183 - 196. See also, Howard Zinn,

Howard Zinn On History (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001), pp. 146 - 161.

45 E-mail from Howard Zinn, December 9, 2006.

46 Howard Zinn, A People’s History the United States, 1492 - Present (New York:

HarperCollins, [1980] 2003), p. 10

47 A few examples of Zinn’s influence in this field are Peter Irons, A People’s History of the

Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases Have Shaped Our Constitution (New York: Penguin Books, 2000); Ray Raphael, A People’s History of the American Revolution: How Ordinary People Shaped the Fight for Independence (New York: The New Press, 2001); Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People’s

History of Ancient Rome(New York: New Press, 2003). Further books have been released analyzing the U.S. Civil War and the Vietnam War from a bottom-up view, and a recent title looks at the third world from a “people’s history” viewpoint.

48 As of 2006, HBO has dropped its plans to create the series. See Howard Zinn with David

Barsamian, Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics (New York: Harper Collins

Books, 2006), pp. 38 - 39.

49 See Robert Birnbaum’s interview with Howard Zinn,

http://www.identitytheory.com/people/birnbaum10.html accessed 11/06.

50 Eric Foner, “Book Review,” New York Times, March 2, 1980, p. BR3. See also Sandra

Morra’s review in TESOL[Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages]Quarterly,

Volume 25, no 1., Spring 1991, p. 125.

51 Michael Kazin, “Howard Zinn's History Lessons,” Dissent Magazine, Spring 2004.

52 Handlin quoted in Joyce, Howard Zinn, p. 172.

53 Zinn noted as “serious omissions” his neglecting the Chicago demonstrations and the march

on the Pentagon in an e-mail to the author, November 28, 2006.

54 Howard Zinn, “Interpreting History,” Dissent Magazine, Summer 2004, p. 110. Michael Kazin also replied to Zinn’s response, suggesting Zinn “missed the point” of his critique, and went on to reiterate his grievances about Zinn’s history (Kazin, “Michael Kazin Replies,” Dissent Magazine, Summer 2004, p. 110).

55 Zinn’s response to Handlin, quoted in Joyce, Howard Zinn, p. 172. See also Zinn’s response

to ZNet Sustainers, http://www.zmag.org/forums/zinnzinearchive.htm accessed 12/06.

56 For Zinn’s take on Clinton’s impeachment see, “Ten Real Reasons to Impeach Bill Clinton,”

Z Magazine Online,http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/ten_real_reasons.htm Accessed

11/06. For his 9/11 reflections see Howard Zinn, Terrorism and War (Seven Stories Press,

2001).

57 Ironically, several of the books reissued under the guise of the “radical sixties” were not

written during the sixties.

58 Katie Mulvaney, “Historian Howard Zinn’s Talk at High School Irks Parents,” Providence Journal, March 10, 2004, p. C 01.

59 Zinn, Marx in Soho, pp. 46 - 47.

60 Chomsky quoted in Joyce, Howard Zinn, p. 237.

61 Howard Zinn, “The Uses of History and the War on Terror,” talk at Madison, Wisconsin,

October 5, 2006. Transcript at ZNet:

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=11488. Accessed

11/06.

62 Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (New York: Norton, 2000), p. 115.

63 E-mail message to the author from Howard Zinn, November 7, 2006.