Type of Content: Interviews

Radical History: A Conversation with Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn interviewed by Harry Kreisler. Conversations with History. April 20, 2001.
KREISLER: Let's talk a little about your youth first and then talk about the other things. How specifically do you think your parents shaped your character?
ZINN: The only influence that had in my life was my observation of their lives. My observation that my father was working very hard, of honest hardworking men. My mother working very hard, raising four sons and yet, of course, they had nothing to show for it. That is, they were perfect counterpoints to the Horatio Alger myth that if you work hard in this country you will get somewhere. And I think that that intensified my feeling about the injustice of an economic system in which there are people all over the country like my parents who worked very, very hard had nothing to show for it.
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Robert Birnbaum Talks with the Author of A People’s History of the United States

Howard Zinn interviewed by Robert Birnbau. IdentityTheory.com . January 10, 2001.
"I talk to audiences in Oklahoma and Texas and here and there and mostly to audiences of people who don't really know my work. I certainly don't expect them to be sympathetic to my ideas. When I express my ideas — and they are radical ideas — except that I don't start off by saying, 'I'm now going to tell you radical ideas.' Or, 'I'm now going to expound ideas of socialism or attack capitalism. Or, 'This is going to be a hate imperialism talk.' None of that. People respond to common sense ideas about foreign policy and domestic policy. It encourages me about the potential in this country, despite who is running it."
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The Electoral College and Election 2000: A Historical Perspective from Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Democracy Now! December 8, 2000.
"I mean, what’s astonishing, or maybe not so astonishing, is here over 200 years later, we are still operating with an undemocratic system of electing the president of the United States, a system which not only was flawed from the beginning by the requirements of the founding fathers, but had become more and more flawed as the election process has become dominated by two major parties, which monopolize the political arena, and dominated more and more by the fact that money decides who can reach the American people."
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American History Review of the 20th Century: Manning Marable and Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn interviewed by Amy Goodman. Democracy Now! December 27, 1999.
"But what the history of this country shows, and especially in this century, is that democracy comes alive when people who see that the formal structure of government doesn’t help them. The formal structure of government does not change the 12-hour day, doesn’t change the conditions of work, doesn’t change the power of the corporations over working people. When people see that that formal structure doesn’t work, then they organize. They go out on strike. They demonstrate."
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Zinn and the Art of Liberal Persuasion

Interviewed by Perspective • March 1999
"My aim is to kind of provoke people to get active, people who've got some awareness of what's going on in the world, who have enough awareness to come to one of my talks. They have a little bit of awareness, and my hope is to increase that awareness, and turn it into action.… I use history to expose information which has been concealed, and which is troubling. History has a very—you might say gloomy—message when you look at what has happened in history. And then on the other hand to counter that with the stories of social movements that have done very inspiring and marvelous things."
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‘History as a Political Act’

Howard Zinn interviewed by Raymond Lotta. Revolutionary Worker. December 20, 1998.
"Beneath the surface of youthful 'ambition'—'need to graduate,'' 'need to make a career'—beneath that surface, I believe there's always among young people a hunger to do something worthwhile and important. And if you present young people something that is happening, that touches them...I find that they respond."
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Mergers, Lying Presidents, Activism and Noam Chomsky

Howard Zinn interviewed by Amy Goodman. Democracy Now! December 7, 1998.
Last week’s announcement of the proposed merger of two oil giants, Exxon and Mobil, would create not only the largest oil company in the world, but also the world’s single largest corporation. We speak with historian Howard Zinn for the historical context of the merger, as well as his philosophy on life and activism.
HOWARD ZINN: "It’s just part of a long-term development in American history of the increasing power of corporations."
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Howard Zinn on Indigenous People’s Day

Democracy Now! • October 14, 1996
HOWARD ZINN: That word "disinterested" has been used a lot. And I never believed in doing disinterested history. I didn’t believe it was possible to do disinterested history. History always represents interests of one sort or another. History always has an effect.
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Read, Learn, & Make History
Check out the Howard Zinn Digital Collection to search Zinn’s bibliography by books, articles, audio, video, and more.
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