The Weekly Beast Volume II (was produced as an opinion column for The Lariat, HOWEVER they rejected it on the grounds (I'm assuming) that no one knows or gives a shit about Howard Zinn.)
Will Hunting paces around his psychologist’s office. He scans the book case and notices a rather generic book title, he breaks the silence, "A History of the United States, Volume I," he pauses as he continues on examining the large bookcase, “If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States." This quote is from the 1997 film Good Will Hunting which won the Academy Award for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who wrote the original script. Howard Zinn was already 73 years of age when this film was produced, and was still actively speaking at college campuses and penning best-selling works on politics and history. If one were to open up the Los Angeles Times two weeks ago perhaps on the 7th page in or so you’d run into a standard 6 inch obituary-Howard Zinn’s name was on it. Howard Zinn passed away January 27th in Santa Monica, California he was 87 years old. America has truly lost someone invaluable.
In 1943 after reading about the awful atrocities committed by the fascists in Europe Zinn signed on to be in the United States Army Air Corps. After serving in World War II as a bombardier he returned home and packed all his medals sealed them into a postage envelope and wrote “Never Again” on the seal. During a post-doctoral research mission he read the French newspapers written at the time of occupation, he conducted interviews with French citizens who described the experience of WWII on the ground. Civilian death tolls caused by both Germans and Americans were also released. Zinn was on an airplane which alone ended the lives of 1,000 French civilians. On the G.I. bill he attended New York University for his B.A. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University. His academic career started at Spellman College. 7 years later he accepted an offer to teach at Boston University.
One of Howard Zinn’s first outright challenges to authority and historical racism was his struggle alongside historian August Meier against the Southern Historical Association holding meetings in segregated hotels. Zinn was involved as an advisor for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a group remembered for being largely responsible for many positive actions and victories during the civil rights era. In 1967 Zinn published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal an unabashedly critical collection of articles asserting the Unites States had no right to be in Vietnam and should leave with no conditions, except of course reparations for the Vietnamese. Zinn and Reverend Daniel Berrigan also went on a diplomatic mission to Hanoi, Vietnam to ascertain the whereabouts and negotiate the release of American POWS, they succeeded in bringing three American Air Men home.
His resume continues on: he participated in publishing the secret Pentagon Papers, testified on behalf of the New York Times fighting against the United States government keeping “embarrassing” secrets from the public, and wrote vigorously against the War in Iraq. He was also a playwright writing three plays all of which were produced his most famous called “Marx in Soho: A Play on History.” Last year Matt Damon and Howard Zinn teamed up with the History Channel to produce “The People Speak” a collection of readings, and dramatic performances of famous American insurrectionists, rebels, and protesters. Actors such as Tim Robbins, Josh Brolin, Danny Glover, and musicians such as John Legend, Lupe Fiasco, and Bruce Springstein came together to aid Howard Zinn in spreading his message
Many pundits on the right would love to dismiss Howard Zinn as a mere polemicist. Some people have gone as far as trying to rob Zinn of his well-earned title as a historian. (see Sean Wilentz’ contribution to the LA Times’ posthumous panel discussion of Zinn) No matter how people try to distort the memory of the man one thing is undeniable he was truly a historian of the people. His landmark work, A People’s History of the United States sold over two million copies, and is on many professors syllabi across the country as required reading for U.S. History classes. The text is mostly interested in dismantling what is normally thought of as history, (e.g. glorified nationalistic fairytales excluding regular people from the process of making history). Howard Zinn wanted to bring to light those who were marginalized, distorted or omitted from the pages of history: women, feminists, socialists, anti-war resisters during World War I, and World War II, and the working-class. Zinn’s most important lesson may be ,"If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday."
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