It’s time has come, the idea that war must be abolished. … When [Albert] Einstein said that in 1932, he was attending a conference in Geneva which was called a disarmament conference. Any time you see the words “disarmament conference,” be suspicious.…
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 — the Catonsville Nine as they came to be known — who broke the law in a poetic act of civil disobedience.…
December 30 is the anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo being indicted in 1971 for releasing the Pentagon Papers. The papers were part of a 7,000-page, top secret history of the U.S. political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945-71. In other words, their “crime” was to make the American public aware of the history of the war. Excerpted from chapter 12 of You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Howard Zinn recounts the lead-up to Ellsberg and Russo's indictment.
Zinn reviewed the history of the abolitionists and the Vietnam War to encourage a new generation of resistance against the Iraq occupation and the war at home.…
Published in The Guardian • October 10, 2009
I was dismayed when I heard Barack Obama was given the Nobel peace prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on two wars would be given a peace prize. Until I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Kissinger had all received Nobel peace prizes. The Nobel committee is famous for its superficial estimates, won over by rhetoric and by empty gestures, and ignoring blatant violations of world peace.
Published in The Progressive • July 20, 2009
There are things that happen in the world that are bad, and you want to do something about them. You have a just cause. But our culture is so war prone that we immediately jump from, “This is a good cause” to “This deserves a war.”
You need to be very, very comfortable in making that jump.
Legendary historian Howard Zinn joins us to talk about war, torture and the teaching of history. Zinn says had Obama heeded the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he wouldn’t be escalating U.S. attacks abroad and increasing the size of the U.S.…
Interview by BigThink • 5/8/08
Who do you endorse for President [in the 2008 U.S. election]?
HOWARD ZINN: Between Clinton and Obama, well both of them have promised to end the [Iraq] war, but I must say their proposals for bringing the troops out of Iraq are rather halfhearted and they talk about keeping troops there, or Barack Obama says, “Let’s take troops out of Iraq, send troops to Afghanistan.” Neither of them has shaken what Barack Obama rightly called the mindset that led to the Iraq war. The mindset is a mindset which sees war and military intervention as a solution. Neither of them has shaken that.
Interview by BigThink • 5/8/08
What did you learn from your experience in WW II?
HOWARD ZINN: I didn’t learn much about myself during that time, that is, while I was at war. You don’t learn much while you’re in the military except doing your job. By that, I mean you don’t think outside of your job. I didn’t really learn very much until after the war and when I began to think about the war, and this was the best of wars. I began to think about what war accomplishes and, as I say, this was the best of wars. When I examined the best of wars, I found it so ridden through with immorality and atrocity, not just on the Nazi side, but on our side. I began to question the whole idea of war itself, war for any reason, war against evil. I decided that even if you’re fighting a great evil, by going to war, you match that evil and you perpetuate the evil in a different form.
War
Howard Zinn: “War must be abolished”
Updated on March 4, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
PART 1
Excerpt:
It’s time has come, the idea that war must be abolished. … When [Albert] Einstein said that in 1932, he was attending a conference in Geneva which was called a disarmament conference. Any time you see the words “disarmament conference,” be suspicious.…
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: George W. Bush, Holidays, Iraq, War
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 resisters — the Catonsville Nine as they came to be known — who broke the law in a poetic act of civil disobedience.…
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Civil Disobedience, War
The Pentagon Papers Disclosure and Indictments
Updated on October 10, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Activist, Excerpts, Vietnam War, War
Labor Day Special: Howard Zinn on Democracy Now!
Updated on September 7, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
In 2003, Howard Zinn spoke on Democracy Now! for a program called Labor Day Special: Occupied Iraq, the Role of Resistance Movements, Government Lies, and the Media.
Zinn reviewed the history of the abolitionists and the Vietnam War to encourage a new generation of resistance against the Iraq occupation and the war at home.…
Category: Audio & Video, Audio and Video with Howard Zinn, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Democracy Now!, Essays and Speeches, Media, War
War and Peace Prizes
Updated on March 8, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn Tags: American Empire, Barack Obama, Mainstream Media, War, ZCommunications
Untold Truths About the American Revolution
Updated on May 27, 2019 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn Tags: American Empire, Class, Essays and Speeches, The Progressive, War
‘I Wish Obama Would Listen to MLK’
Updated on May 25, 2019 by Howard Zinn Website
Legendary historian Howard Zinn joins us to talk about war, torture and the teaching of history. Zinn says had Obama heeded the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he wouldn’t be escalating U.S. attacks abroad and increasing the size of the U.S.…
Category: Articles & Interviews, Audio & Video, Audio and Video with Howard Zinn, Interviews With Howard Zinn, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: A People's History of the United States, Barack Obama, Democracy Now!, The People Speak, War
Three Holy Wars: The Progressive’s 100th Anniversary Conference
Updated on August 9, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Speech give by Howard Zinn in Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2009
Transcript
Matt Rothschild: For all his fame he’s more humble, or as I told him once, he fakes it better than anyone I know. So, let’s hear it for Howard Zinn.…
Category: Audio & Video, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: American Empire, Class, Essays and Speeches, Racism, The Progressive, War, WWII
Howard Zinn on U.S. Presidential Candidates
Updated on August 27, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Audio & Video, Audio and Video with Howard Zinn, Interviews With Howard Zinn, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: BigThink Video, Essays and Speeches, War
Learning From World War II
Updated on August 27, 2020 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Audio & Video, Audio and Video with Howard Zinn, Interviews With Howard Zinn, Video With Howard Zinn Tags: BigThink Video, War, WWII