ZCommunications Archives - Page 2 of 3

Of Paradise and Power

By Howard Zinn. Article. ZCommunications. February 9, 2004.
I suppose it is part of the corruption of contemporary language that an analysis of American foreign policy by a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace should argue for the right of the United States to use military force, regardless of international law, and international opinion, whenever it unilaterally decides its “national interest” requires it. Robert Kagan’s book Of Paradise and Power is important, not because it’s logic is unassailable, or his values admirable, but because it serves as intellectual justification for the foreign policy of the United States...

An Occupied Country

Article by Howard Zinn. The Progressive. October 2003.
"We became familiar with the term 'occupied country' during World War II. We talked of German-occupied France, German-occupied Europe. And after the war we spoke of Soviet-occupied Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe. It was the Nazis, the Soviets, who occupied other countries. Now we are the occupiers."

Zinn on Growing Up, Objectivity, Bombing, Media, Genocide, and Propaganda

Howard Zinn interviewed by David Barsamian. ZCommunications. November 1, 2002.
I remember moving all the time. We were always one step ahead of the landlord. And changing schools all the time. My father struggled, went from job to job, he was unemployed and under WPA. I wanted to get out of the house all the time. Where we lived was never a nice place to be. So I was in the streets a lot. I understand what it's like for kids to live in and prefer the streets. That's how I grew up.

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."

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."

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."

The Heroes Around Us

By Howard Zinn. Article. ZCommunications. May 7, 2000.
Recently, meeting with a group of high school students, I was asked by one of them: "I read in your book, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, about the massacres of Indians, the long history of racism, the persistence of poverty in the richest country in the world, the senseless wars. How can I keep from being thoroughly alienated and depressed?" That same question has been put to me many times, in different forms, one of them being: "How come you are not depressed?" Who says I'm not? At least briefly.

Sender Garlin

Article by Howard Zinn. ZCommunications. March 2000. Also in The Progressive as "One Radical Who Did It All," April 2000.
"As the twentieth century came to an end last December, an extraordinary man, whose life spanned the century, died at the age of ninety-seven. His name was Sender Garlin. I first met Sender, ten years before his death, when he was only eighty-seven years old. It was the fall of 1989, and I had traveled to Boulder to give a talk at the University of Colorado. One of the chief organizers of my stay was a man named Sender Garlin, a longtime radical journalist and pamphleteer. I did not know him, and so I was not prepared for the excitement of my encounter with him."

Notes for a Gathering

By Howard Zinn. Article. ZCommunications. December 16, 2000.
I have been asked to imagine this situation: "The progressive third party movement has captured the White House, 60% of Congress and 30 Governorships. What do we do now?" First, we have a party, maybe three, with the third party being special. Then, we have Congress pass, and the President sign, the following legislation…

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Source or Publisher: ZCommunications

Of Paradise and Power

An Occupied Country

Zinn on Growing Up, Objectivity, Bombing, Media, Genocide, and Propaganda

Tennis on the Titanic

A Campaign Without Class

Downfall

A Fourth of July Commentary

The Heroes Around Us

Sender Garlin

Notes for a Gathering

Read, Learn, & Make History

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