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RIP Howard Zinn

LoveIsUnityLoveIsUnity Registered User regular
edited January 2010 in Debate and/or Discourse
I hate posting this, but I just discovered that Howard Zinn died today. Knowing the residents of D&D as I think I do, I'm certain more than a few of us will be choked up by this news.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_his.html
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.

"His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."

I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Zinn speak when I was in undergrad, and he even signed my copy of A People's History.

This is a sad day for those of us who have read his works and enjoyed his take on History.

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Posts

  • The Crowing OneThe Crowing One Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    !!!

    Sad panda.

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  • Zombie NirvanaZombie Nirvana Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Didn't realize he was that old.

    Zombie Nirvana on
  • CheezyCheezy Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I just found out. While I'm sad about this, with all that he's done and accomplished, I think he's earned his rest.

    Cheezy on
  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Oh no!

    Hachface on
  • neophilusneophilus Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    neophilus on
  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    neophilus wrote: »
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    Naomi Klein.

    Hachface on
  • The Crowing OneThe Crowing One Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Hachface wrote: »
    neophilus wrote: »
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    Naomi Klein.

    The Invisible Committee.

    The Crowing One on
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  • TarranonTarranon Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Hachface wrote: »
    neophilus wrote: »
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    Naomi Klein.

    Oh wow, I am just reading that she and the Economist tussled. I...I have to see this.

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  • HakkekageHakkekage Space Whore Academy summa cum laudeRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Oh no :(

    I need to finish A People's History...

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  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Tarranon wrote: »
    Hachface wrote: »
    neophilus wrote: »
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    Naomi Klein.

    Oh wow, I am just reading that she and the Economist tussled. I...I have to see this.

    I don't know the specifics of any particular tumble, but I can't imagine any writer for the Economist would look kindly on what Naomi Klein has to say.

    Hachface on
  • LoveIsUnityLoveIsUnity Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Hachface wrote: »
    Tarranon wrote: »
    Hachface wrote: »
    neophilus wrote: »
    We just lost one of the greatest literary intellects of the 20th century. It's sad that I don't see a new generation of critically minded scholars carrying the torch that Zinn and Chomsky lit.

    Naomi Klein.

    Oh wow, I am just reading that she and the Economist tussled. I...I have to see this.

    I don't know the specifics of any particular tumble, but I can't imagine any writer for the Economist would look kindly on what Naomi Klein has to say.

    I think that debate was televised by Democracy Now, so you may want to start there.

    LoveIsUnity on
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  • wobblyheadedbobwobblyheadedbob Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    A People's History was the first nonfiction book I read on my own accord. This saddens me greatly. If there is a heaven equivalent, I hope he's there, with all the people he gave a voice to.

    wobblyheadedbob on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    man

    I had a high school history teacher to subjected the class to the second half of People's History; the results were mixed, but I don't know if there's been a book more that's done more to shape my view of american history.

    sad day indeed

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
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  • PantsBPantsB Fake Thomas Jefferson Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Sad news. His view points were admittedly slanted on history, but even when they went overboard they provided a critical opposing viewpoint to the America-can-do-no-wrong version almost always taught in high school (and even college)

    PantsB on
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  • SenjutsuSenjutsu thot enthusiast Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    dang this is sad news

    Senjutsu on
  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    PantsB wrote: »
    Sad news. His view points were admittedly slanted on history, but even when they went overboard they provided a critical opposing viewpoint to the America-can-do-no-wrong version almost always taught in high school (and even college)

    He was an especially valuable counterweight to revisionism about the cause of the Civil War.

    Hachface on
  • YougottawannaYougottawanna Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I remember I started reading that book and thought he was too harsh on the founding fathers, I put it down for a few months and then finished the rest of it later. I was all set not to like him after the first part but ended up thinking the book was good.

    And as the human interest story, a friend of mine met her future husband through that book - she liked it and she saw him reading it in an airport, they started talking and that's how they met. Awww.....

    Anyway, RIP

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  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    RIP good teacher. So are we lessened as a whole.

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  • LoserForHireXLoserForHireX Philosopher King The AcademyRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Wow, he did provide an interesting narrative of American History. Not sure if I swallow entirely his interpretation of events, but his is a voice that needs to be heard. I hope that others are able to carry on to be that voice.

    LoserForHireX on
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    "We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Zombie NirvanaZombie Nirvana Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    As with any history text, it should be taken as part of a composite. It was damned readable though which is more than I can say for most of the silly gooses.

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