New Releases by Howard Zinn

"Cohen presents an edited volume of Zinn's diary, made available from his papers at NYU's Tamiment Library ... Zinn's diary entries focus on issues of race, class, democracy, and freedom that were of concern to him throughout his Atlanta years (1956-63)"--

Perhaps no other historian has had a more profound and revolutionary impact on American education than Howard Zinn. This is the first book devoted to his views on education and its role in a democratic society. Howard Zinn on Democratic Education describes what is missing from school textbooks and in classrooms-and how we move beyond these deficiencies to improve student education. Critical skills of citizenship are insufficiently developed in schools, according to Zinn. Textbooks and curricula must be changed to transcend the recitation of received wisdom too common today in schools. In these respects, recent Bush Administration and educational policies of most previous US presidents have been on the wrong track in meeting educational needs. This book seeks to redefine national goals at a time when public debates over education have never been more polarised--nor higher in public visibility and contentious debate. Zinn's essays on education-many never before published--are framed in this book by a dialogue between Zinn and Donaldo Macedo, a distinguished critic of literacy and schooling, whose books with Paulo Freire, Noam Chomsky and other authors have received international acclaim.

Why Howard Zinn has become one of the most important and influential American historians is perhaps nowhere more evident than in this new book. Few social critics have been as inspiring as the ever-hopeful Zinn and, unlike many historians, Zinn turns historical details toward deeper observations on the universal truths and struggles of humankind. His remarkable wisdom and insight can be found in his earliest writings through his latest essays, speeches, and plays. Uncommon Sense brings together his most poignant and profound quotations from decades of writing and speaking. The book reveals the philosophical side of Howard Zinn and a consistency of vision over 50 years on topics ranging from government to race, history, law, civil disobedience, and activism. Offering quotations of universal and timeless quality, the book shows why history will regard this historian as a political and moral philosopher in the company of Paine, Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Howard Zinn's history tells the story of the United States from the point of view of women, Native Americans, workers, blacks and Latinos. It serves to remind generations of Americans that democracy is fundamentally a conversation between people, one that has always been led by working people and those with the least to lose.

Je peux comprendre que ma vision de ce monde brutal et injuste puisse sembler absurdement euphorique. Mais pour moi, ce qu'on disqualifie d'idéalisme romantique ou du voeu pieux se justifie quand cela débouche sur des actes susceptibles de réaliser ces voeux, de donner vie à ces idéaux. La volonté d'entreprendre de tels actes ne peut se fonder sur des certitudes mais sur les possibilités entrevues au travers d'une lecture de l'histoire qui diffère de la douloureuse énumération habituelle des cruautés humaines. Car l'histoire est pleine de ces moments où, contre toute attente, les gens se sont battus ensemble pour plus de justice et de liberté, et l'ont finalement emporté - pas assez souvent certes, mais suffisamment pour prouver qu'on pourrait faire bien plus. Les acteurs de ces luttes en faveur de la justice sont les êtres humains qui, ne serait-ce qu'un bref moment et même rongés par la peur, osent faire quelque chose. Et ma vie fut pleine de ces individus, ordinaires et extraordinaires, dont la seule existence m'a donné espoir.

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).

Zinn's compelling case against the Vietnam War, now with a new introduction. Of the many books that challenged the Vietnam War, Howard Zinn's stands out as one of the best--and most influential. It helped sparked national debate on the war. It includes a powerful speech written by Zinn that President Johnson should have given to lay out the case for ending the war.

Howard Zinn's cogent defense of civil disobedience with a new introduction by the author. In this slim volume, Zinn lays out a clear and dynamic case for civil disobedience and protest, and challenges the dominant arguments against forms of protest that challenge the status quo. Zinn explores the politics of direct action, nonviolent civil disobedience, and strikes, and draws lessons for today.

"Howard Zinn there was no one like him. And to hear him speak was like listening to music that you loved lyrical, uplifting, honest." Michael Moore "Zinn's speeches . . . are a joy and an inspiration." Marisa Tomei "Collected here for the first time, Howard's speeches come to us at the moment when we need them most: just as a global network of popular uprisings searches for what comes next." Naomi Klein Howard Zinn was one of the great orators of the twentieth century and illuminated our history like no other historian. He rarely spoke from notes, and yet could weave rich historical narratives that inspired and captivated audiences. He could grab the attention of even the most jaded students and charm listeners with his sharp humor and personal, engaging style. Many of his speeches have never been published in book form. This first ever collection of his speeches will be an invaluable resource for new generations to continue to discover his work, as well as the millions he moved and informed in his lifetime. Howard Zinn wrote the classic A People's History of the United States. The book, which has sold more than two million copies, has been featured in the film Good Will Hunting, and has appeared multiple times on The New York Times best-seller list. Anthony Arnove wrote, directed, and produced The People Speak with Howard Zinn, Chris Moore, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon, and co-edited, with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Howard Zinn began work on his first book for his friends at Seven Stories Press in 1996, a big volume collecting all his shorter writings organized by subject. The themes he chose reflected his lifelong concerns: war, history, law, class, means and ends, and race. Throughout his life Zinn had returned again and again to these subjects, continually probing and questioning yet rarely reversing his convictions or the vision that informed them. The result was The Zinn Reader. Five years later, starting with Howard Zinn on History, updated editions of sections of that mammoth tome were published in inexpensive stand-alone editions. This second edition of Howard Zinn on History brings together twenty-seven short writings on activism, electoral politics, the Holocaust, Marxism, the Iraq War, and the role of the historian, as well as portraits of Eugene Debs, John Reed, and Jack London, effectively showing how Zinn’s approach to history evolved over nearly half a century, and at the same time sharing his fundamental thinking that social movements—people getting together for peace and social justice—can change the course of history. That core belief never changed. Chosen by Zinn himself as the shorter writings on history he believed to have enduring value—originally appearing in newspapers like the Boston Globe or the New York Times; in magazines like Z, the New Left, the Progressive, or the Nation; or in his book Failure to Quit—these essays appear here as examples of the kind of passionate engagement he believed all historians, and indeed all citizens of whatever profession, need to have, standing in sharp contrast to the notion of "objective" or "neutral" history espoused by some. "It is time that we scholars begin to earn our keep in this world," he writes in "The Uses of Scholarship." And in "Freedom Schools," about his experiences teaching in Mississippi during the remarkable "Freedom Summer" of 1964, he adds: "Education can, and should, be dangerous."

Howard Zinn (1922-2010), professeur émérite à l'université de Boston, pacifiste, partisan de la désobéissance civile, était l'un des penseurs les plus influents de notre temps. Il est l'auteur de la célèbre Histoire populaire des Etats-Unis (Ed. Agone), écrite du point de vue des esclaves, travailleurs, immigrés, femmes, Indiens, et de tous ceux que l'histoire officielle oublie souvent, adaptée ici dans une version abrégée et illustrée pour les plus jeunes, et les autres... Une relecture originale des politiques et des résistances qui ont façonné les Etats-Unis d'aujourd'hui.

Truth—as Zinn shows us in the interviews that make up Terrorism and War—has indeed been the first casualty of war, starting from the beginnings of American empire in the Spanish-American War. But war has many other casualties, he argues, including civil liberties on the home front and human rights abroad. In Terrorism and War, Zinn explores the growth of the American empire, as well as the long tradition of resistance in this country to U.S. militarism, from Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party during World War One to the opponents of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan today.

No other radical historian has reached so many hearts and minds as Howard Zinn. It is rare that a historian of the Left has managed to retain as much credibility while refusing to let his academic mantle change his beautiful writing style from being anything but direct, forthright, and accessible. Whether his subject is war, race, politics, economic justice, or history itself, each of his works serves as a reminder that to embrace one's subjectivity can mean embracing one's humanity, that heart and mind can speak with one voice. Here, in six sections, is the historian's own choice of his shorter essays on some of the most critical problems facing America throughout its history, and today.

A Young People's History of the United States brings to US history the viewpoints of workers, slaves, immigrants, women, Native Americans, and others whose stories, and their impact, are rarely included in books for young people. A Young People's History of the United States is also a companion volume to The People Speak, the film adapted from A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Beginning with a look at Christopher Columbus’s arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leading the reader through the struggles for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism, Zinn in the volumes of A Young People’s History of the United States presents a radical new way of understanding America’s history. In so doing, he reminds readers that America’s true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals.

"Political power," says Howard Zinn, "is controlled by the corporate elite, and the arts are the locale for a kind of guerilla warfare in the sense that guerillas look for apertures and opportunities where they can have an effect." In Artists in Times of War, Zinn looks at the possibilities to create such apertures through art, film, activism, publishing and through our everyday lives. In this collection of four essays, the author of A People's History of the United States writes about why "To criticize the government is the highest act of patriotism." Filled with quotes and examples from the likes of Bob Dylan, Mark Twain, e. e. cummings, Thomas Paine, Joseph Heller, and Emma Goldman, Zinn's essays discuss America's rich cultural counternarratives to war, so needed in these days of unchallenged U.S. militarism.

Here, in the magisterial yet plain-spoken style of A People's History of the United States, is historian Howard Zinn's long-awaited telling of these last six years of United States history, a time when catastrophic machinations of war have dictated our foreign and domestic policy, and when voices of resistance have appeared in the unlikeliest places. Perhaps more than any other American, Howard Zinn has helped us understand ourselves by deepening our understanding of our own history.

Beacon Press is proud to publish a new edition of the classic memoir by one of our most lively, influential, and engaged teachers and activists. Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, tells his personal stories about more than thirty years of fighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College to recent protests against war. A former bombardier in WWII, Zinn emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fierce critic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from history and engaging politically, we can make a difference in the world.

Notre manière de penser est une question de vie ou de mort. Si ceux qui tiennent les rênes de la société se montrent capables de contrôler nos idées, ils sont assurés de rester au pouvoir. Nul besoin de soldats dans les rues. Nous nous contrôlerons nous-mêmes. Notre ordre social résulte d'un processus de sélection au cours duquel certaines idées sont promues par le biais de puissantes machines culturelles. Nous devons réexaminer ces idées et comprendre comment elles s'opposent à notre expérience du monde. Nous serons alors en mesure de contester l'idéologie dominante. De l'exercice de la justice aux motivations réelles des guerres, en passant par les conditions d'entretien de la violence économique et sociale, l'auteur illustre la manière dont la tenue des affaires du monde, c'est-à-dire de nos affaires, devrait être entre nos mains. Et toujours chez Howard Zinn le même optimisme sur la nature et le destin de l'humanité : l'histoire ne réserve que des surprises, et elles ne sont pas toutes mauvaises.

World-renowned historian Howard Zinn has turned to drama to explore the legacy of Karl Marx and Emma Goldman and to delve into the intricacies of political and social conscience perhaps more deeply than traditional history permits. Three Plays brings together all this work, including the previously unpublished Daughter of Venus, along with a new introductory essay on political theater, and prefaces to each of the plays.

Howard Zinn’s best-selling classic A People’s History of the United States revolutionized the literature of America’s history by allowing everyday citizens to tell the story of a nation in their own words. Containing just the 20th century chapters from A People’s History, The Twentieth Century features a comprehensive overview of the last hundred years. From the closing of the Western Frontier to the “War on Terror,” The Twentieth Century is an invaluable guide to one of the most remarkable periods in human history. Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies and was featured in a documentary on the History Channel. His other writings include the play “Marx in Soho” and his autobiography You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. He received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism. “Professor Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose of academic history...” — Eric Foner, New York Times Book Review

From the classic A People’s History of the United States comes a history of America as told through dramatic readings that applaud the enduring spirit of dissent. Here, in their own words, are Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Mother Jones, Eugene V. Debs, and many other Americans who were not afraid to speak out in support of their beliefs. Howard Zinn provides commentary throughout this uplifting volume, which can also be used as a play for high schools or colleges. Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies and was featured in a documentary on the History Channel. His other writings include the play “Marx in Soho” and his autobiography You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. He received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism.

This updated companion to Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States (Harper Perennial, 2005) brings together the powerful words and actions of women and men of all races and creeds who, though mostly powerless themselves, have made change in America across the centuries. The original source book for Matt Damon's 'The People Speak' series on The History Channel, this classic work from Zinn is a major new release.

Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People's History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up. Now Howard Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People's History: the centuries-long story of America's actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America, Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution. The book also follows the story of Zinn, the son of poor Jewish immigrants, from his childhood in the Brooklyn slums to his role as one of America's leading historians. Shifting from world-shattering events to one family's small revolutions, A People's History of American Empire presents the classic ground-level history of America in a dazzling new form.

Presents a collection of lessons and activities for teaching American history for students in middle school and high school.

A Young People's History of the United States brings to US history the viewpoints of workers, slaves, immigrants, women, Native Americans, and others whose stories, and their impact, are rarely included in books for young people. Volume 1 begins with a look at Christopher Columbus’s arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leads the reader through the earliest struggles for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights during the 18th and 19th centuries. Volume 2 picks the thread up in the early 20th century, covering both World Wars, Vietnam, the Black Rights movement, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism. Zinn presents a radical new way of understanding America’s history. In so doing, he reminds readers that America’s true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals. A Young People's History of the United States is also a companion volume to The People Speak, the film adapted from A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States.