Time Period: 2000-2009

Columbus and the Lens of History

For Indigenous Peoples' Day, we feature an excerpt from Chapter One of A People’s History of the United States. Howard Zinn describes why he tells the story of Columbus’s arrival “from the viewpoint of the Arawaks” and "the inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history."
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Ludlow Massacre

Interview with Howard Zinn. Clip from Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. First Run Features. 2004.
On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado. Howard Zinn explains in this clip how he first learned of the Ludlow Massacre from a song by Woody Guthrie.
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The People Speak

By Chris Moore, Howard Zinn, and Anthony Arnove. The History Channel. 2009.
The People Speak is a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history and also illustrates the relevance of this to today's society.
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A Marvelous Victory

By Howard Zinn. Excerpt from Power Governments Cannot Suppress published by City Lights Books.
In this world of war and injustice, how does a person manage to stay socially engaged, committed to the struggle, and remain healthy without burning out or becoming resigned or cynical? I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble.
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Zinn and Moyers interview screenshot

Howard Zinn: Interview by Bill Moyers

Howard Zinn interviewed Bill Moyers . Bill Moyers Journal. December 11, 2009.
“I have confidence in the future. You know why? You have to be patient. Farmworkers were at one point in as helpless a position as the labor movement is today. But as Cesar Chavez said, we learned that you have to organize. And it takes time, it takes patience, it takes persistence.”
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President Obama with Nobel Prize • Photo by Pete Souza • WikiCommons

War and Peace Prizes

By Howard Zinn. Article. 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.
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Collage of images and excerpted text.

Untold Truths About the American Revolution

Article by Howard Zinn. The Progressive. July 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."
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‘I Wish Obama Would Listen to MLK’

Howard Zinn interviewed by Amy Goodman. Democracy Now! May 13, 2009.
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. military budget.
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Read, Learn, & Make History
Check out the Howard Zinn Digital Collection to search Zinn’s bibliography by books, articles, audio, video, and more.
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