Maria and Lori's Blog: Howard Zinn 1922-2010

Howard Zinn, legendary historian, activist, and author died on January 27th at the age of 87. He is Maria's favorite author by far, and she must own 12 of the 20 books the man has written. She has even given A People's History to the United States more than a few times to people she felt would appreciate the gift. And Maria was a fan even before the well-deserved kudos given by Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting.

Zinn was an early advisor to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the early 1960s freedom movement. He was a norm-breaking historian who put ordinary women and men back into American history where they belonged. Some called him a Leftist, but one thing is for sure, he was always on the right side of history. Zinn was a professor at several universities, including Spelman College, where he was fired for encouraging his students’ involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. He was later exonerated when he was honored by Spelman at the 2005 commencement.

A favorite quote of Zinn, "You can't stay neutral on a moving train." was uttered to instruct citizens that neutrality and abstention from the fight for social justice was not an option. He often wrote about the struggle for civil rights, lending perspectives both as a participant and as a historian.

The following is taken from the blog of Stefan Sirucek. Sirucek writes: "I didn't know Mr. Zinn personally, but because I grew up in Wellfleet, a town in which Mr. Zinn spent much of his time, I would see him occasionally and knew his name since childhood. In college I went into Boston to see a performance of Mr. Zinn's play Max in Soho. After a lively Q&A he announced his email address and I scribbled it down. Soon after, I emailed him some questions. I was inexperienced and determined to impress, so my questions came off a bit long-winded, but Mr. Zinn graciously replied."

Here is a sampling of that correspondence:

SIRUCEK: For the past fifty years, you have witnessed and analyzed many significant shifts in the character of the United States. What have been the biggest changes in America's political and popular culture over the past half-century and how have they affected the rest of the world?

ZINN: I think the most important changes have been the new consciousness of the race question, the new consciousness of the issue of sexual equality and a critical division in the thinking of Americans about the nation's place in the world.

SIRUCEK: I once heard Molly Ivins speak and she made the remark that "To say you're not interested in politics is to say: 'I'm not interested in my own life'." And yet, outside of certain activist groups, this apathy is palpable both in voting statistics and in daily conversation. Am I just hanging out with the wrong people or is political malaise among Americans a growing reality? And if so, what might be the cause?

ZINN: What is called "apathy" is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the ordinary citizen, a feeling of impotence in the face of enormous power. It's not that people are apathetic; they do care about what is going on, but don't know what to do about it, so they do nothing, and appear to be indifferent.

SIRUCEK: On a similar note, it seems as though 'hard news' has all but disappeared from our media. With the rise of what some are calling 'infotainment' our understanding of world affairs is becoming about as clear as a Dadaist mosaic. The lines between reality television and television of reality are blurring as we continue to wage a war between commercial breaks. How does this manner of distortion affect the ability of our democracy to function and what can be done about it?

ZINN: Democracy depends on citizens being informed, and since our media, especially television (which is the most important source of news for most Americans) reports mostly what the people in power do, and repeats what the people in power say, the public is badly informed, and it means we cannot really say we have a functioning democracy.

Maria put news of Howard Zinn's death in her FaceBook 'status' yesterday. Through the magic of this social networking site and its hand in making this growing global community inexplicably smaller somehow - Maria has "friended" Kim Kavin. The two went to high school together, and Kim is now a writer who has published 8 books and countless contributions to magazines and other media. And? She went to Mizzou! School of Journalism, just like Lori, although Lori's course of study had more of an Advertising slant. Anyway, Kim commented on the status and directed Maria to her own site.

Here is a quick quote from Kim's website:

"Author Howard Zinn presents what is usually described as a Leftist perspective on history, but that, to my reading, seems like a version of history told from the viewpoints of people who lost political battles and thus did not get their fair share of time in the historical record. History, as we all know, is written by "the winners." One might argue that this book by Zinn gives "the losers" their chance to balance the rhetoric we've all been taught since elementary school."

Additional resources:

Howard Zinn's website