Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision

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Prometheus Books, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 268 pages
This first-ever biography of historian and activist Howard Zinn traces in broad strokes the story of his life, placing special emphasis on his involvement in both the Civil Rights movement and the Viet Nam War protests. Besides discussing the major shaping events of his life, biographer and historian Davis Joyce summarizes each of Zinn's books within the context of his life, analyzes the evolution of Zinn's ideas, and concludes with a preliminary assessment of his life's work.

Joyce argues that Zinn's views are radical because they seek to bring about fundamental change in the political, social, and economic order. No armchair historian, Zinn has spent his whole life working for change, and he firmly believes that the American system needs to change radically to realize its own ideals. In a crucial passage from his bestselling A People's History of the United States, Zinn boldly declares his agenda:

"I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, ... of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills."

Though some would label Zinn's positions anti-American, Joyce contends that Zinn's approach is rooted in the very ideals upon which the United States was founded, especially as embodied in the Declaration of Independence. His life has been motivated by the vision of what America could be, as opposed to what it actually is, and has been dedicated to the struggle to make that vision a reality. Joyce also considers how Zinn fits into the new left, radical school of historical writing of the 1960s and beyond.

For anyone who has ever been moved by Howard Zinn's unique vision of a better, more inclusive, and egalitarian American future, this biography will be an indispensable resource.

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Contents

3225
15
Acknowledgments
21
One Growing Up ClassConscious 19221956
27
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Davis D. Joyce, Ph. D. (Spavinaw, OK) has taught at the University of Tulsa, Keele University (England), and the University of Debrecen (Hungary). He is Professor Emeritus of History at East Central University (Ada, Oklahoma), and teaches part-time at Rogers State University (Claremore, Oklahoma). Some of his earlier books are Edward Channing and the Great Work, The Writing of American History (with Michael Kraus) and "An Oklahoma I Had Never Seen Before": Alternative Views of Oklahoma History (editor). Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1928. Son of a Russian emigrant who was a Hebrew scholar, Chomsky was exposed at a young age to the study of language and principles of grammar. During the 1940s, he began developing socialist political leanings through his encounters with the New York Jewish intellectual community. Chomsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy. He conducted much of his research at Harvard University. In 1955, he began teaching at MIT, eventually holding the Ferrari P. Ward Chair of Modern Language and Linguistics. Today Chomsky is highly regarded as both one of America's most prominent linguists and most notorious social critics and political activists. His academic reputation began with the publication of Syntactic Structures in 1957. Within a decade, he became known as an outspoken intellectual opponent of the Vietnam War. Chomsky has written many books on the links between language, human creativity, and intelligence, including Language and Mind (1967) and Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use (1985). He also has written dozens of political analyses, including Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), Chronicles of Dissent (1992), and The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (1993).