Civil Disobedience
By Howard Zinn • Excerpt from The Zinn Reader
“Obey the law.” That is a powerful teaching, often powerful enough to overcome deep feelings of right and wrong, even to override the fundamental instinct for personal survival. . . . Peace, stability, and order are desirable. Chaos and violence are not. But stability and order are not the only desirable conditions of social life. There is also justice...
In November 1970, after my arrest along with others who had engaged in a Boston protest at an army base to block soldiers from being sent to Vietnam, I flew to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to take part in a debate with the philosopher Charles Frankel on civil disobedience.…
On May 17, 1968 nine Vietnam War protesters, including a nurse, an artist and three priests, walked into a Catonsville, Maryland draft board office, grabbed hundreds of selective service records and incinerated them with homemade napalm.
The 45-minute documentary film, Investigation of a Flame, offers an intimate look at this unlikely, disparate band of resisters
By Cihan Aksan • State of Nature • Jan. 27, 2018
To commemorate the eighth anniversary of the death of historian and activist Howard Zinn, we republish the interview we conducted with him in January 2007.
On Nov. 25, 1986, 60 people—including Amy Carter and Abbie Hoffman—were arraigned on charges of disorderly conduct stemming from a sit-in to block CIA campus recruiting at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, an act of protest of the CIA’s role in Central America.…
By Howard Zinn
This essay, written for Z Magazine in 1990, and reprinted in my book Failure to Quit, was inspired (if you are willing to call this an inspired piece) by my students of the Eighties. I was teaching a spring and fall lecture course with four hundred students in each course (and yet with lots of discussion). I looked hard, listened closely, but did not find the apathy, the conservatism, the disregard for the plight of others, that everybody (right and left) was reporting about "the me generation."
In September 1974, Sam Lovejoy went on trial for "malicious destruction" of a weather tower that had been erected to test wind direction at the site for the planned construction of a nuclear power plant. Howard Zinn testified in Lovejoy's case as an expert on civil disobedience (read Lovejoy's letter to Zinn). The following is a summary of these events, including a film clip from Lovejoy's Nuclear War, featuring an interview with Howard Zinn on civil disobedience.
Source: Howard Zinn Papers, housed at New York University’s Tamiment Library
In 1974, anti-nukes activist Sam Lovejoy wrote to Howard Zinn, asking Zinn to testify at his upcoming September 17 trial as an expert on civil disobedience. Earlier that year in February, Lovejoy toppled a weather tower that was the first stage of a proposed nuclear power plant.
Film Clip: Lovejoy’s Nuclear War by Green Mountain Post Films
Includes interviews with community members and their thoughts about Sam Lovejoy’s action of toppling the nuclear power plant’s weather tower, Lovejoy about his trial strategy, Dr. John Gofman on why he is testifying at Lovejoy’s trial and the importance of the nuclear power issue, and Howard Zinn on civil disobedience.…
In the following excerpt from Chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes about the legacy of Black resistance in the 20th century, and the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 70s.…
Civil Disobedience
Obedience and Disobedience
Posted: December 14, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience
“The Problem Is Civil Obedience”: Chapter 20 from Voices of a People’s History
Posted: February 19, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
In November 1970, after my arrest along with others who had engaged in a Boston protest at an army base to block soldiers from being sent to Vietnam, I flew to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to take part in a debate with the philosopher Charles Frankel on civil disobedience.…
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience
Investigation of a Flame (Film)
Posted: February 16, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Civil Disobedience, War
Howard Zinn On Civil Disobedience
Posted: January 30, 2018 by Howard Zinn Website
To commemorate the eighth anniversary of the death of historian and activist Howard Zinn, we republish the interview we conducted with him in January 2007.
Category: Articles & Interviews, Interviews With Howard Zinn Tags: Civil Disobedience
Zinn Testifies at the Trial of CIA Protesters
Posted: November 25, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
On Nov. 25, 1986, 60 people—including Amy Carter and Abbie Hoffman—were arraigned on charges of disorderly conduct stemming from a sit-in to block CIA campus recruiting at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, an act of protest of the CIA’s role in Central America.…
Category: Articles about Howard Zinn, Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience, Testimony
Failure to Quit
Posted: September 13, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
This essay, written for Z Magazine in 1990, and reprinted in my book Failure to Quit, was inspired (if you are willing to call this an inspired piece) by my students of the Eighties. I was teaching a spring and fall lecture course with four hundred students in each course (and yet with lots of discussion). I looked hard, listened closely, but did not find the apathy, the conservatism, the disregard for the plight of others, that everybody (right and left) was reporting about "the me generation."
Category: Excerpts, News Tags: Civil Disobedience, Possibility, Student Activism
Sam Lovejoy and ‘No Nukes’ Activism
Posted: April 6, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Interviews With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Activist, Civil Disobedience, Environmentalism
Sam Lovejoy, Anti-Nukes Activist, Requests Howard Zinn to Testify | 1974
Posted: April 6, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Source: Howard Zinn Papers, housed at New York University’s Tamiment Library
In 1974, anti-nukes activist Sam Lovejoy wrote to Howard Zinn, asking Zinn to testify at his upcoming September 17 trial as an expert on civil disobedience. Earlier that year in February, Lovejoy toppled a weather tower that was the first stage of a proposed nuclear power plant.Category: From the Archives, Letters and Correspondence Tags: Activism, Activist, Civil Disobedience, From the Archives: Tamiment Library
Lovejoy’s Nuclear War: Interview with Howard Zinn
Posted: April 6, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Film Clip: Lovejoy’s Nuclear War by Green Mountain Post Films
Includes interviews with community members and their thoughts about Sam Lovejoy’s action of toppling the nuclear power plant’s weather tower, Lovejoy about his trial strategy, Dr. John Gofman on why he is testifying at Lovejoy’s trial and the importance of the nuclear power issue, and Howard Zinn on civil disobedience.…
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Activist, Civil Disobedience, Testimony
Revolt Is Always an Inch Below the Surface
Posted: February 29, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
In the following excerpt from Chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes about the legacy of Black resistance in the 20th century, and the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 70s.…
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience, Excerpts, Racism