Today's Howard Zinn’s 100th birthday, remembered for "A People’s History" +antiwar activist who went to Vietnam(1968) to get 3 captured US pilots home

[basquebromance]

Howard Zinn was not only a brilliant and principled chronicler of history, he was also a participant in some of the most important social and political movements of the 20th century

Howard Zinn Carried Out an Act of Radical Diplomacy in the Middle of the Vietnam War

Today would have been Howard Zinn’s hundredth birthday. He is rightly remembered for works like A People’s History of the United States. But he was also an antiwar activist who went to North Vietnam in 1968 to accompany three captured US pilots back home.

jacobin.com

 

[basquebromance]

 

[basquebromance]

Howard Zinn taught at Spellman college. He studied a bunch of history books by Black scholars. That began his interest in writing a book of the omissions in history and histories.

Howard Zinn was Alice Walker's history professor at Spellman. A lot of BW social ideas originate with him...also Marian Wright Edelman was one of his students

 

[basquebromance]

In 1963, Albert Manley, the president of Spelman, fired Howard Zinn, then the chair of the history department, for encouraging his students—Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman among them—to participate in the burgeoning civil-rights movement

 

[basquebromance]

Matt Damon's character in Good Will Hunting says, "If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States.' That book will knock you on your ass." the book was also featured on The Sopranos and The Simpsons

 

[basquebromance]

"This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away. The obits and commentaries mentioned his book A People’s History of the United States is the ‘textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.’ It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?" - Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in 2010 a few days after Zinn died

 

[whitehall]

Zinn did nothing to get the pilots back. The V.C. called him up in a propaganda scoop and it worked for lefties at a time when the V.C. were all but defeated after Tet.

 

[Calypso Jones]

I will not be celebrating this america hating leftists birthday or anything else about him.