2000 Archives - Howard Zinn

Delusion 2000: How the Candidates View the World

Article by Howard Zinn. The Progressive. March 2000.
"Every day, as the soggy rhetoric of the presidential candidates accumulates into an enormous pile of solid waste, we get more and more evidence of the failure of the American political system. The candidates for the job of leader of the most powerful country in the world have nothing important to say. On domestic issues, they offer platitudes about healthcare and Social Security and taxes, which are meaningless given the record of both political parties. And on foreign policy, utter silence. That silence is what I want to talk about."

The Bombs of August

Article by Howard Zinn. The Progressive. August 2000.
"The bombing of Hiroshima remains sacred to the American Establishment and to a very large part of the population in this country."

Artists in Times of War and Other Essays

By Howard Zinn. Book - Essays. Seven Stories Press. 2000.
In this collection of four essays, Zinn writes about the unique role of artists, activists, and publishers in working toward change.

Tennis on the Titanic

Article by Howard Zinn. ZCommunications. December 16, 2000. The Progressive as "Disputed Elections, Concealed Facts," February 2001.
"As the prize of the presidency lurched wildly back and forth in the last days of the year, with the entire nation hypnotized by the spectacle, I had a vision. I saw the Titanic churning through the waters of the North Atlantic toward an iceberg looming in the distance, while passengers and crew were totally concentrated on a tennis game taking place on deck."

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."

A Campaign Without Class

Article by Howard Zinn. ZCommunications, September 29, 2000 and The Progressive, November 2000.
"There came a rare amusing moment in this election campaign when George Bush (who has $220 million dollars for his campaign) accused Al Gore (who has only $170 million dollars) of appealing to 'class warfare'.… I noticed that neither of the accused responded with a defiant 'Yes, we have classes in this country.' Only Ralph Nader has dared to suggest that this country is divided among the rich, the poor, and the nervous in between. This kind of talk is unpardonably rude, and would be enough to bar him from the televised debates."

Howard Zinn’s Review of Karl Marx: A Life

By Howard Zinn. Article - Review. In These Times. September 2000.
It takes some courage to write still another biography of Karl Marx, especially if the writer has dared to go through the 40 volumes of his writings and his correspondence. Francis Wheen seems to have done that research scrupulously, open to both colorful stories and thunderous ideas.

Downfall

By Howard Zinn. Article. ZCommunications. August 18, 2000.
I am surprised that my friend Hans Koning, a stalwart protester against the war in Vietnam, seems to have been taken in by the argument of Richard Frank, in his review of Frank's Downfall. Yes, we must all be willing to reconsider our most hardened judgements in the light of new evidence. But there is nothing in Frank's argument -- however assiduous his research -- to make those of us who see the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an unspeakable atrocity change our minds.

Collage of excerpt text, Douglass photo, and 3 video clips

A Fourth of July Commentary

By Howard Zinn. Article. ZCommunications. July 4, 2000.
In this year 2000, I cannot comment more meaningfully on the Fourth of July than Frederick Douglass did when he was invited in 1852 to give an Independence Day address [on July 5]. He could not help thinking about the irony of the promise of the Declaration of Independence, of equality, life, liberty made by slaveowners, and how slavery was made legitimate in the writing of the Constitution after a victory for "freedom" over England."

Unsung Heroes

Article by Howard Zinn. The Progressive. June 2000.
"Another question often put to me by students is: Don't we need our national idols? You are taking down all our national heroes — the Founding Fathers, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy. Granted, it is good to have historical figures we can admire and emulate. But why hold up as models the fifty-five rich white men who drafted the Constitution as a way of establishing a government that would protect the interests of their class-slaveholders, merchants, bondholders, land speculators?"

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Year: 2000

Delusion 2000: How the Candidates View the World

The Bombs of August

Artists in Times of War and Other Essays

Tennis on the Titanic

The Electoral College and Election 2000: A Historical Perspective from Howard Zinn

A Campaign Without Class

Howard Zinn’s Review of Karl Marx: A Life

Downfall

A Fourth of July Commentary

Unsung Heroes

Read, Learn, & Make History

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