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View Full Version : Howard Zinn died today




BenIsForRon
01-27-2010, 09:01 PM
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_his.html

I know many of you don't like views on policy, but I think he's opened a lot of minds in this country. I hope we'll see another writer who is as willing to challenge the conventional wisdom in history as he was.


As he wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."

Reason
01-27-2010, 09:04 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn

Lovecraftian4Paul
01-27-2010, 09:11 PM
Though he hit on some important points of our foreign policy's wrongs, he was, in the final analysis, an anti-American hack who tried to say our very foundation was a horror. He was also a shill for the Democratic Party, even Nader was angry about this.

tangent4ronpaul
01-27-2010, 09:48 PM
His "Peoples History of the United States" was an eye opener, if for no other reason than it rammed home the point that history is always written by the winners. It was also extremely well documented.

He will be missed.

-t

dr. hfn
01-27-2010, 09:52 PM
sad day all around :(

iddo
01-27-2010, 10:07 PM
Sad day:(
A famous quote of his: "No flag is large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."


He was also a shill for the Democratic Party, even Nader was angry about this.
He supported the strategy of holding your nose and voting for Gore/Kerry/Obama in swing states in order to block Bush, no wonder that Nader didn't like it. Your use of the word "even" is twisted.


who tried to say our very foundation was a horror.
You don't think that the Native Americans view it as a horror?

MurrayMe
01-27-2010, 10:13 PM
:( RIP Howard! His book woke me up.

RSLudlum
01-27-2010, 10:18 PM
It's a bummer to hear this today. My daughter gave me A People's History for Christmas and I'm at the last chapter.

TCE
01-28-2010, 12:12 AM
While his domestic policies were thinly veiled Socialism, his anti-war positions are amazing. Sadness.

Vessol
01-28-2010, 12:14 AM
While I may disagree with some of his views, regardless RIP and my prayers to his family. I hope he lived a happy life.

Him on Obama


I' ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies. As far as disappointments, I wasn't terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that's hardly any different from a Republican--as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there's no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people--and that's been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama's no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now. I thought that in the area of constitutional rights he would be better than he has been. That's the greatest disappointment, because Obama went to Harvard Law School and is presumably dedicated to constitutional rights. But he becomes president, and he's not making any significant step away from Bush policies. Sure, he keeps talking about closing Guantánamo, but he still treats the prisoners there as "suspected terrorists." They have not been tried and have not been found guilty. So when Obama proposes taking people out of Guantánamo and putting them into other prisons, he's not advancing the cause of constitutional rights very far. And then he's gone into court arguing for preventive detention, and he's continued the policy of sending suspects to countries where they very well may be tortured. I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.[

anaconda
01-28-2010, 03:58 AM
Though he hit on some important points of our foreign policy's wrongs, he was, in the final analysis, an anti-American hack who tried to say our very foundation was a horror. He was also a shill for the Democratic Party, even Nader was angry about this.

I know he had a hard time with defenseless indigenous peoples being brutalized, enslaved, raped, tortured, murdered, and robbed.

LibertyEagle
01-28-2010, 04:26 AM
You don't think that the Native Americans view it as a horror?

The ones living today? No. I do not.

iddo
01-28-2010, 06:13 AM
The ones living today? No. I do not.

So why do you think that Native Americans demonstrate against celebrating Columbus Day?

coyote_sprit
01-28-2010, 06:52 AM
So why do you think that Native Americans demonstrate against celebrating Columbus Day?

Because that was the green light to their demise...:rolleyes:

Eric21ND
01-28-2010, 08:45 AM
He was a breath of fresh air in a stuffy profession.