The Indispensable Zinn: The Essential Writings of the "People's Historian"

408 Pages·2012·1.85 MB·English

by  Howard Zinn

THE INDISPENSABLE ZINN
ALSO BY HOWARD ZINN
La Guardia in Congress (1959)
SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964)
The Southern Mystique (1964)
New Deal Thought (editor, 1966)
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967)
Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies of
Law and Order (1968) The Politics of History (1970)
The Pentagon Papers: Critical Essays (co-edited with
Noam Chomsky, 1972) Postwar America, 1945–1971 (1973)
Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works (editor, 1974) A People’s
History of the United States, 1492–1980 (1980) Declarations of Independence:
Cross-Examining American
Ideology (1990) Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993)
You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of
Our Times (1994) A People’s History of the United States: The Wall Charts
(with George Kirschner, 1995) A People’s History of the United States: Abridged
Teaching
Edition (1997) The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
(1997) The Future of History: Interviews with David Barsamian (1999) Marx in
Soho: A Play on History (1999)
Howard Zinn on History (2001)
Howard Zinn on War (2001)
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and
the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century (with Dana Frank
and Robin D.G. Kelley, 2001) Emma (2002)
Terrorism and War (with Anthony Arnove, 2002)
Artists in Times of War (2003)
Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003) A People’s History
of the U.S.: 1942 to the Present (2003) A People’s History of the United States:
Abridged Teaching
Edition (2003) A People’s History of the United States, Volume I: American
Beginnings to Reconstruction (2003) A People’s History of the United States,
Volume II: The Civil War
to the Present (2003) The Twentieth Century: A People’s History (2003)
The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little
Known (2004) Voices of a People’s History of the United States (co-edited with
Anthony Arnove, 2004) A Just War (with Moises Saman and Gino Strada, 2006)
Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics (with David
Barsamian, 2006) A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (with Donald
Macedo, 2007) Howard Zinn on Democratic Education (2008)
Uncommon Sense from the Writings of Howard Zinn
(selected and introduced by Dean Birkenkamp and Wanda
Rhudy, 2009) The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency (2009)
A Young People’s History of the United States: Columbus to the War
on Terror (with Rebecca Stefoff, 2009) The Bomb (2010)
Three Plays: The Political Theater of Howard Zinn (2010)
The Indispensable Zinn
The Essential Writings
of the “People’s Historian”

HOWARD ZINN
Edited by
Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Compilation © 2012 by The New Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,
without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to:
Permissions Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street,
New York, NY 10013.
Pages 377–79 constitute an extension of this copyright page.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2012
Distributed by Perseus Distribution
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Zinn, Howard, 1922–2010.
The indispensable Zinn: the essential writings of the “people’s historian” /
Howard Zinn ; edited by Timothy Patrick McCarthy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59558-693-3 1. United States—History.
2. United States—Politics and government. 3. United States—Social conditons.
4. Social movements—United States—History. 5. Zinn, Howard, 1922–2010.
I. McCarthy, Timothy Patrick. II. Title.
E178.6.Z555 2012
973—dc23
2011052775
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Composition by Westchester Book Composition
This book was set in Fournier
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the memory of
HOWARD ZINN (1922–2010) and
MANNING MARABLE (1950–2011)
and to all those who speak truth to power
CONTENTS
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
Introduction: The People’s Historian
by Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Acknowledgments
Part 1: The People’s History
Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress
from A People’s History of the United States
The Colorado Coal Strike, 1913–1914
from Three Strikes
The New Abolitionists
from SNCC
Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus
from A People’s History of the United States
Interlude: Who Controls the Past Controls the Future
Part 2: The Politics of History
What Is Radical History?
from The Politics of History