Civil Disobedience
Posted on 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. I was supposed to appear …
Updated on May 17, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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 …
Updated on October 18, 2018 by Howard Zinn Website
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.
Updated on 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. Howard Zinn testified as an expert on civil disobedience. Lawyers Tom Lesser and Leonard Weinglass …
Updated on August 27, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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.”
_____________________________________
I can understand pessimism, but I don’t believe in it. It’s not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give hope, because for hope we don’t need certainty, only possibility.
Updated on February 22, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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). Lovejoy also received …
Updated on September 14, 2020 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.
Updated on May 2, 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 …
Updated on July 23, 2017 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. Although the government attempted to quell social unrest through civil …
Updated on August 30, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
By Howard Zinn
Writing a column to appear in the July 4, 1975, issue of the Boston Globe, I wanted to break away from the traditional celebrations of Independence Day, in which the spirit of that document, with its call for rebellion and revolution, was most often missing. The column appeared with the title “The Brooklyn Bridge and the Spirit of the Fourth.”
Civil Disobedience
“The Problem Is Civil Obedience”: Chapter 20 from Voices of a People’s History
Posted on 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. I was supposed to appear …
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience
Investigation of a Flame (Film)
Updated on May 17, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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 …
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Civil Disobedience, War
Howard Zinn On Civil Disobedience
Updated on October 18, 2018 by Howard Zinn Website
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.
Category: Articles & Interviews, Interviews With Howard Zinn Tags: Civil Disobedience
Zinn Testifies at the Trial of CIA Protesters
Updated on 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. Howard Zinn testified as an expert on civil disobedience. Lawyers Tom Lesser and Leonard Weinglass …
Category: Articles about Howard Zinn, Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience, Testimony
Failure to Quit
Updated on August 27, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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.”
_____________________________________
I can understand pessimism, but I don’t believe in it. It’s not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give hope, because for hope we don’t need certainty, only possibility.
Category: Excerpts, News Tags: Civil Disobedience, Possibility, Student Activism
Sam Lovejoy and ‘No Nukes’ Activism
Updated on February 22, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
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). Lovejoy also received …
Category: Articles & Interviews, Interviews With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Activist, Civil Disobedience, Environmentalism
Sam Lovejoy, Anti-Nukes Activist, Requests Howard Zinn to Testify | 1974
Updated on September 14, 2020 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
Updated on May 2, 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 …
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Activist, Civil Disobedience, Testimony
Revolt Is Always an Inch Below the Surface
Updated on July 23, 2017 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. Although the government attempted to quell social unrest through civil …
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience, Excerpts, Racism
The Spirit of Rebellion
Updated on August 30, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
By Howard Zinn
Writing a column to appear in the July 4, 1975, issue of the Boston Globe, I wanted to break away from the traditional celebrations of Independence Day, in which the spirit of that document, with its call for rebellion and revolution, was most often missing. The column appeared with the title “The Brooklyn Bridge and the Spirit of the Fourth.”
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Activism, American Revolution, Civil Disobedience, Essays and Speeches, Heroes, Holidays, Mainstream Media