Howard Zinn Anarchy

Anarchy in the U.S.A.: The Life and Work of Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn is not your average historian. He is concerned, but not average, which makes him a prime candidate to sort through political rhetoric. At 87, the wise, but not wizened doctor of history has seen enough of political life and all of its much-too-costly furniture to know that party conventions are less about dealing with enduring social problems than cranking up one-more-time the media-fueled machinery of party self-aggrandizement. Though retired from teaching at Boston University, he continues to write, research, and inform. He is a regular contributor to publications large and small all over the country, including: The Progressive, The Nation (when tolerated), The International Socialist Review, and the essential media interface ZNet (www.znet.com). He has been the subject of the film You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, and has even been featured on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. When not at home, he gives lectures all over the world. While Zinn’s tireless commitment to justice and humane maneuvering in the world, what may be termed his “lifework,” is indeed inspiring to anyone who comes across it, it is still largely and unfairly neglected as “radical,” the work of a “leftist.” Notwithstanding the hampered, politicized name-calling, Zinn’s lifework is still vital. It seems obvious now that the heroic stature of Columbus should be dismissed from people’s minds in light of his genocidal exploits, or that African Americans are entitled to civilian rights as anyone else, but of course this was not always the case. While we were being indoctrinated by preambles and inflated accounts of our nation’s history, Zinn has been a stalwart critic of American policy at home and abroad for decades. This includes a relentless dismantling of the falsehoods that pervade our written history about the nature of the policies and actions carried out by Americans, what we have come to accept as “American history...