Howard Zinn
The People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn is dubbed the best and funniest teacher by several of this students.
But if you grew up around or studied the American civil rights, labor and anti-war movements; if you think Christopher Columbus was a brute rather than a hero; or even if you watched the movie Good Will Hunting, you've been exposed to his work.
Actor/screenplay writer Matt Damon, playing a troubled genius, tells his psychologist played by Robin Williams that Zinn's People's History of the United States will knock you on your ass. Turns out Damon grew up next door to Zinn and was raised on his bestselling re-telling of American history. Damon's now working with Zinn to produce a mini-series on the book for Fox, slated to air sometime in the year 2000.
What can I say that will in any way convey the love, respect and admiration I feel for this unassuming hero who was my teacher and mentor, this radical historian and people-loving troublemaker, this man who has stood and suffered with us, writes novelist Alice Walker, who studied with Zinn in Atlanta in the 1950's.
Howard Zinn was the best teacher I ever had, and the funniest.? Zinn, at 77, with a PhD from Columbia and an impressive body of writing behind him, is no armchair historian.
A child of blue-collar parents who had few opportunities for education, he honed his social consciousness through books by Charles Dickens and work as a shipfitter. He says in memoirs that as a bombardier during WWII, he came to a new understanding of the terrible nature of war.
As a professor at Atlanta's black universities in the 1950s, he joined then-students NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman on the picket lines and sit-ins and supported their efforts with his writing. He teamed with Noam Chomsky to decry the Vietnam War, and continues to travel and lecture today.
Zinn has been accused of playing fast and loose with the historical truth in the People's History, but he contends that official history is a story just as biased, told by the world's conquerors. In his book, he characterizes Christopher Columbus as a dangerous and cruel man, and in a set of radio interviews with journalist David Barsamian, he compares Columbus with Hitler. It is important, he says, to listen to the poor and the oppressed to get a more evenhanded understanding of our history.
America is doing well, he says in a recent telephone interview. The people in this country who aren't doing well are in the minority, but it's still important to remember them. They are visible reminders of how most of the world lives.
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