Last week, at 87, Mr. Howard Zinn died of a heart attack in California. His death was noted in the media, but it did not generate much attention. He spent much of his life peacefully protesting the significant issues of recent history: racial segregation, the war in Vietnam, and discrimination in all its forms.
Recently, when asked by Bob Herbert about the present state of affairs, Mr Zinn offered: "If there is going to be change, real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That's how change happens."
One of his most recent projects was was the film, "The People Speak,"which features ordinary Americans whose efforts resulted in historic change. It's about the everyday people "who have given this country whatever liberty and democracy we have."
In his most famous book, “A People’s History of the United States,” published in 1980, Mr. Zinn approaches history from the viewpoint of the ordinary citizen. For example, he says: “If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school textbooks in American history, you will find Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people — not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.” (Bob Herbert, NYT, 1/29/10)
We can but hope Howard Zinn is not the last of his kind.
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