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Summary
Summary
A "well-chosen anthology of the radical historian's prodigious output," from A People's History of the United States and lesser known sources ( Kirkus Reviews ).
When Howard Zinn died in early 2010, millions of Americans mourned the loss of one of the nation's foremost intellectual and political guides; a historian, activist, and truth-teller who, in the words of the New York Times 's Bob Herbert, "peel[ed] back the rosy veneer of much of American history to reveal sordid realities that had remained hidden for too long."
A collection designed to highlight Zinn's essential writings, The Indispensable Zinn includes excerpts from Zinn's bestselling A People's History of the United States ; his memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train ; his inspiring writings on the civil rights movement, and the full text of his celebrated play, Marx in Soho . Noted historian and activist Timothy Patrick McCarthy provides essential historical and biographical context for each selection.
With a foreword by Noam Chomsky and an afterword from Zinn's former Spellman College student and longtime friend, Alice Walker, The Indispensable Zinn is both a fitting tribute to the legacy of a man whose "work changed the way millions of people saw the past," and a powerful and accessible introduction for anyone coming to Zinn's essential body of work for the first time (Noam Chomsky).
Author Notes
Timothy Patrick McCarthy is Lecturer on History and Literature and on Public Policy at Harvard University, where he directs the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. An award-winning scholar, teacher, and activist, he is editor of The Indispensable Zinn and co-editor of The Radical Reader , Protest Nation , and Prophets of Protest , all published by The New Press. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Howard Zinn , the famed people's historian and peace activist, was born in 1922 and died in 2010.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Well-chosen anthology of the radical historian's prodigious output. If you know anything about Dunmore's War or the Ludlow Massacre and are not a professional historian, the chances are good that you read about it in the pages of Zinn's A People's History of the United States. If you know anything about Zinn himself, it is largely because he was a relentlessly dedicated activist, somewhat less public than the likeminded Noam Chomsky but in no way as cloistered as the average academician. He was never shy about a good scrap. Indeed, writes volume editor McCarthy (History and Literature/Harvard Univ.; co-editor: Protest Nation: Words That Inspired A Century of American Radicalism, 2010, etc.), "Howard's troublemaking--pedagogically, intellectually, politically--is now the stuff of legend, in large part because he was so consistently willing to speak truth to power throughout his life, no matter the stakes." True enough: He was fired from one appointment, unheard of for academics outside of cases of fraud or moral turpitude, though he went on to enjoy a quarter-century of tenure at Boston University. McCarthy gathers material not just from the well-known People's History, but also from less easily available publications from the civil rights and antiwar eras. In one, Zinn addresses the question "what is radical history?" The answer is invigorating, speaking to a kind of public history that allows us to "intensify, expand, sharpen our perception of how bad things are, for the victims of the world." That anticipates some of the "Occupy History" concerns of recent months by several decades, but it is also distinctly collegial; Zinn even gives a tip of the hat to Henry Kissinger, declaring, "Kissinger has always been one of my favorites." "We need to expand the prevailing definition of patriotism beyond that narrow nationalism that has caused so much death and suffering," writes Zinn. For sympathetic readers, this makes an ideal primer for that cause.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Culling from Zinn's entire body of work, McCarthy presents the late left-wing historian's perspectives on the American political and economic scene. After an introductory acknowledgment of scholarly criticism of Zinn's historical methods (e.g., his rejection of objectivity), McCarthy whets his audience's interest with excerpts from Zinn's best-known title, A People's History of the United States (1980). From there, readers pass on to Zinn's writings about his academic career at Spelman College and Boston College, which are flavored by his conflicts with administrations that looked askance at his activism in the civil rights movement and in Vietnam protests during the 1960s. Such autobiographical anecdotes appear throughout McCarthy's volume and relay Zinn's WWII experience, which informed his antiwar views (he was not, however, a pacifist), his ideological opposition to capitalism, and his admiration for Karl Marx, about whom he wrote a drama, included here. Reflecting Zinn's inspiring influence on students, readers, and friends, McCarthy's book fairly represents Zinn's life and work for readers sympathetic to or interested in Zinn's radical critique of American history.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
