Story: <A HREF="http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20020621.ra&start=10:30.0">THE PEOPLE'S HISTORIAN: HOWARD ZINN</A> He overturned the sacred myth of
Christopher Columbus as a courageous hero. He unmasked military leaders like
Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt as racists, war-lovers, imperialists,
and Indian-killers. He revealed our most liberal presidents - Jefferson,
Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy - as more concerned with political power and national
might than the rights of non-white people. And he exposed the cold war as a
competition fueled by thirst for empire and domination. He re-wrote history
from the perspective of the people, turning victors into villains and
retrieving generations of unsung heroes from the historical record: the
farmers of the Shays' rebellion, the black abolitionists, conscientious
objectors during the Vietnam war, striking factory workers. I am speaking of
Howard Zinn, the great scholar, activist, teacher, author. No other historian
has attacked the distortions and myths about the history of the United States
as forcefully as he has. In book after book, he has stood the traditional
"great men" approach to history on its head. He has shown that historical
change occurs more though mass movements of ordinary people than through the
decisions of world leaders. His groundbreaking book, A People's History of
the United States, was one of the first major looks at American history from
this perspective. It transformed the field of historical research, going
through 25 printings and selling more than 400,000 copies. But Zinn did not
confine his revolutionary work to his scholarship. While he was overturning
history, he was also making it - adding his voice to the movements for peace,
civil rights, social justice, and equality. As a professor at Spelman College
in the 1950s, he joined his students on the picket lines and at sit-ins,
traveling throughout the south as a member of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee. He headed north to Boston University in the 1960s and
took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War. He was arrested numerous
times for his anti-war actions, but he could not be silenced. He traveled to
North Vietnam and Japan to speak out against US policies, and he testified at
some dozen trials on the importance of breaking unjust laws. More recently,
he has been an outspoken critic of the so-called war on terrorism. This
spring he published Terrorism and War, a book exploring the loss of civil
liberties during war and the history of American resistance to wars from
World War I to the war in Afghanistan. Guest:
Howard Zinn, radical historian, activist, and author of numerous books
include A People's History of the United States, You Can't Be Neutral on a
Moving Train, and most recently, Terrorism and War. He is Professor emeritus
at Boston University. Related link:
<A HREF="http://www.howardzinn.org/">Howard Zinn</A> Music:
Metahistorical Disquisition - Paranoise featuring Noam Chomsky, ISHQ
(www.paranoise.com).
The World We Live In - Cleopatra, Comin' Atcha! (Maverick Recording CD).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
