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.
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.
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
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HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
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.
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.
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.
Tarranon on
You could be anywhere
On the black screen
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HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
Oh no
I need to finish A People's History...
Hakkekage on
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HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
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.
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.
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.
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
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
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)
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.
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
Yougottawanna on
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
RIP good teacher. So are we lessened as a whole.
CaptainPeacock on
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
"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
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.
Posts
Sad panda.
Naomi Klein.
The Invisible Committee.
Oh wow, I am just reading that she and the Economist tussled. I...I have to see this.
On the black screen
I need to finish A People's History...
NNID: Hakkekage
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.
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
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
He was an especially valuable counterweight to revisionism about the cause of the Civil War.
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
"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