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Sent: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:44:43 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Marxism] Howard Zinn is dead
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_hi...
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87
January 27, 2010 05:40 PM
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff
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.
bHis writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and
helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our
lives,b Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once
wrote of Dr. Zinn. bWhen action has been called for, one could always
be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and
trustworthy guide.b
For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist
brand of history he taught. Dr. Zinnbs best-known book, bA Peoplebs
History of the United Statesb (1980), had for its heroes not the
Founding Fathers b many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to
the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out b but rather the
farmers of Shaysb Rebellion and the union organizers of the 1930s.
As he wrote in his autobiography, bYou Canbt Be Neutral on a Moving
Trainb (1994), bFrom the start, my teaching was infused with my own
history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted
more than bobjectivityb; I wanted students to leave my classes not
just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of
silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever
they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.b
Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and Silber. Dr.
Zinn twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in
turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted)
and cited him as a prime example of teachers bwho poison the well of
academe.b
Dr. Zinn was a cochairman of the strike committee when BU professors
walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four
colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they
refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges
against bthe BU Fiveb were soon dropped, however.
Dr. Zinn was born in New York City on Aug. 24, 1922, the son of Jewish
immigrants, Edward Zinn, a waiter, and Jennie (Rabinowitz) Zinn, a
housewife. He attended New York public schools and worked in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard before joining the Army Air Force during World War
II. Serving as a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force, he won the Air
Medal and attained the rank of second lieutenant.
After the war, Dr. Zinn worked at a series of menial jobs until
entering New York University as a 27-year-old freshman on the GI Bill.
Professor Zinn, who had married Roslyn Shechter in 1944, worked nights
in a warehouse loading trucks to support his studies. He received his
bachelorbs degree from NYU, followed by masterbs and doctoral degrees
in history from Columbia University.
Dr. Zinn was an instructor at Upsala College and lecturer at Brooklyn
College before joining the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, in
1956. He served at the historically black womenbs institution as
chairman of the history department. Among his students were the
novelist Alice Walker, who called him bthe best teacher I ever had,b
and Marian Wright Edelman, future head of the Childrenbs Defense Fund.
During this time, Dr. Zinn became active in the civil rights movement.
He served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, the most aggressive civil rights organization
of the time, and participated in numerous demonstrations.
Dr. Zinn became an associate professor of political science at BU in
1964 and was named full professor in 1966.
The focus of his activism now became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke
at countless rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he
and another leading antiwar activist, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, went to
Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North
Vietnamese.
Dr. Zinnbs involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing
two books: bVietnam: The Logic of Withdrawalb (1967) and bDisobedience
and Democracyb (1968). He had previously published bLaGuardia in
Congressb (1959), which had won the American Historical Associationbs
Albert J. Beveridge Prize; bSNCC: The New Abolitionistsb (1964); bThe
Southern Mystiqueb (1964); and bNew Deal Thoughtb (1966).
Dr. Zinn was also the author of bThe Politics of Historyb (1970);
bPostwar Americab (1973); bJustice in Everyday Lifeb (1974); and
bDeclarations of Independenceb (1990).
In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement so as to concentrate on
speaking and writing. The latter activity included writing for the
stage. Dr. Zinn had two plays produced: bEmma,b about the anarchist
leader Emma Goldman, and bDaughter of Venus.b
Dr. Zinn, or his writing, made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film
bbGood Will Hunting.bb The title characters, played by Matt Damon,
lauds bbA Peoplebs Historybb and urges Robin Williamsbs character to
read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns
growing up.
Damon was later involved in a television version of the book, bbThe
People Speak,bb which ran on the History Channel in 2009. Damon was
the narrator of a 2004 biographical documentary, bbHoward Zinn: You
Canbt Be Neutral on a Moving Train.bb
On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he
could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his
lecture to come along. A hundred did so.
Dr. Zinnbs wife died in 2008. He leaves a daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of
Lexington; a son, Jeff of Wellfleet; three granddaugthers; and two
grandsons.
Funeral plans were not available.
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