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Zinn: A Marvelous Victory
Commentary, February, 01 2010
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
American historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn died January 27, 2010, aged 87. Below is an excerpt from his recent book A Power Governments Cannot Suppress published by City Lights Books.
Zinn: War And Peace Prizes
Commentary, October, 11 2009
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
I was dismayed when I heard Barack Obama was given the Nobel peace prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on two wars would be given a peace prize. Until I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Kissinger h...
Zinn: From Empire to Democracy
Commentary, October, 03 2008
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
This current financial crisis is a major way-station on the way to the collapse of the American empire. The first important sign was 9/11, with the most heavily-armed nation in the world shown to be vulnerable to a handful of hijackers.
Zinn: Memo to Obama, McCain: No one wins in a war
Commentary, July, 19 2008
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
For someone like myself, who fought in World War II, and since then has protested against war, I must ask: Have our political leaders gone mad? Have they learned nothing from recent history? Have they not learned that no one "wins" in a war, but t...
Zinn: Are Hillary and Obama Afraid of Talking About the New Deal?
Commentary, April, 02 2008
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
We might wonder why no Democratic Party contender for the presidency has invoked the memory of the New Deal and its unprecedented series of laws aimed at helping people in need. The New Deal was tentative, cautious, bold enough to shake the pillar...
Zinn: Antiwar talk at the Boston Commons
Commentary, March, 27 2007
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Howard Zinn, addressing the crowd gathered for the March 24th 2007 antiwar rally at the Boston Commons.
Zinn: War Is Not A Solution For Terrorism
Commentary, September, 07 2006
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
THERE IS SOMETHING important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the st...
Zinn: Lessons of Iraq War Start With US History
Commentary, March, 19 2006
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle, it's important to consider why the administration so easily fooled so many people into supporting the war.
Zinn: After This War
Commentary, January, 03 2006
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
The war against Iraq, the assault on its people, the occupation of its cities, will come to an end, sooner or later. The process has already begun. The first signs of mutiny are appearing in Congress The first editorials calling from withdrawal fr...
Zinn: Victory?
Commentary, October, 05 2005
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
How quickly would you like to see society change in fundamental ways? How quickly do you believe it will, or ought, to occur? Do you believe that serious social change is literally possible within a matter of a few years?
Zinn: The Optimism of Uncertainty
Commentary, September, 30 2004
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy?
Zinn: An Occupied Country
Commentary, September, 30 2003
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
It has become clear, very quickly, that Iraq is not a liberated country, but an occupied country.
Zinn: Victory?
Commentary, July, 25 2003
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
The ÒvictoryÓ over an already devastated and disarmed Iraq led Bush, Rumsfeld and their teammates into a locker-room frenzy of exultation and self-congratulation. I half-expected to see Bush joyfully pouring beer on RumsfeldÕs head and Ashcroft sn...
Zinn: War
Commentary, February, 28 2003
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Forthcoming from The Progressive
Zinn: Veterans Day
Commentary, November, 15 2002
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, because it was November 11, 1918, at 11 AM - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that the first World War came to an end. It would be good to remember a few things about tha...
Zinn: TENNIS ON THE TITANIC
Commentary, December, 16 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
As the prize of the presidency lurched wildly back and forth in the last days of the year, with the entire nation hypnotized by the spectacle, I had a vision. I saw the Titanic churning through the waters of the North Atlantic toward an iceberg lo...
Zinn: A CAMPAIGN WITHOUT CLASS
Commentary, September, 30 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
There came a rare amusing moment in this election campaign when George Bush (who has raised $150 million or thereabouts, anyhow, for his campaign) accused Al Gore (who has only raised $140 million or thereabouts, anyway, for his campaign) of appea...
Zinn: Downfall
Commentary, August, 18 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
I am surprised that my friend Hans Koning, a stalwart protester against the war in Vietnam, seems to have been taken in by the argument of Richard Frank, in his review of Frank's DOWNFALL. Yes, we must all be willing to reconsider our most hardene...
Zinn: A Fourth of July Commentary
Commentary, July, 04 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
In this year 2000, I cannot comment more meaningfully on the Fourth of July than Frederick Douglass did when he was invited in 1852 to give an Independence Day address. He could not help thinking about the irony of the promise of the Declaration o...
Zinn: THE HEROES AROUND US
Commentary, May, 07 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Recently, meeting with a group of high school students, I was asked by one of them: "I read in your book, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, about the massacres of Indians, the long history of racism, the persistence of poverty in the rich...
Zinn: Sender Garlin
Commentary, March, 09 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
As the twentieth century came to an end last December, an extraordinary man, whose life spanned the century, died at the age of ninety-seven. His name was Sender Garlin.
Zinn: Notes for a Gathering
Commentary, January, 02 2000
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
I have been asked to imagine this situation: "The progressive third party movement has captured the White House, 60% of Congress and 30 Governorships. What do we do now?"
Zinn: Seattle
Commentary, December, 22 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
In the year 1919, when the city of Seattle was brought to a halt by a general strike - beginning with 35,000 shipyard workers demanding a wage increase - the mayor reflected on its significance:
Zinn: On Rewarding People for Talents and Hard WorkÊ
Commentary, November, 25 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
There are two issues here: First, why should we accept our culture's definition of those two factors? Why should we accept that the "talent" of someone who writes jingles for an Advertising agency advertising dog food and gets $100,000 a year is s...
Zinn: On Rewarding People for Talents and Hard Work
Commentary, November, 25 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
There are two issues here: First, why should we accept our culture's definition of those two factors? Why should we accept that the "talent" of someone who writes jingles for an Advertising agency advertising dog food and gets $100,000 a year is s...
Zinn: A Larger Consciousness
Commentary, October, 10 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Some years ago, when I was teaching at Boston University, I was asked by a Jewish group to give a talk on the Holocaust. I spoke that evening, but not about the Holocaust of World War II, not about the genocide of six million Jews.
Zinn: Beyond the Soviet Union
Commentary, September, 02 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
In the spirit of killing two obligations with one effort, I offer as my Commentary a response I just made to a letter by a retired professor in California, who wrote: "As a great admirer of Howard Zinn [should he have said "as a former great admir...
Zinn: Inspire Please
Commentary, July, 16 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
The order came from above (I will not reveal the name, unless tortured) ): "Write something inspirational." The exact words were: "Inspire, please."
Zinn: Whose Atrocity Is Bigger
Commentary, May, 25 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
Milosovic has committed atrocities. Therefore it is okay for us to commit atrocities. He is terrorizing the Albanians in Kosovo. Therefore we can terrorize the population of cities and villages in Yugoslavia.
Zinn: On Getting Along
Commentary, March, 07 1999
Howard Zinn
Zinn's ZSpace page
You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power?


