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Out of Order
Radical historian Howard Zinn tells us that small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
by Diana Fischer
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 "Why do you live in this country?" many have asked radical historian Howard Zinn. His most renowned book, 1980's ground-breaking A People's History of the United States, starts off describing Columbus stabbing, looting, and imprisoning unarmed Arawak Indians in a frenzied hunt for gold. Then it proceeds to critically reverse every hero-centered perspective previously passed on to American schoolchildren. Does Professor Zinn hate the United States? Just the opposite.
"I tried to explain that my love was for the country, for the people, not for whatever government happened to be in power," Zinn writes in his memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. "When a government betrays democratic principles, it is being unpatriotic. A love of democracy would then require opposing your government -- it would require being 'out of order.'"
And "out of order" he's been. His long list of civil disobedience includes breaking through police lines with southern civil rights marchers, harboring Daniel Ellsberg (the former Defense Department operative who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media in 1971) from the FBI, and in 1968, flying to North Vietnam (then an illegal destination) with radical Catholic priest Daniel Berrigan to retrieve three newly released American POW pilots.
Quite a reversal from the 20-year-old Zinn who signed up with the Army Air Corps in 1943 and spent the next few years bombing France. Or is it? Calling himself "a veteran against war," Zinn sees his experiences as a logical progression. He says of his conversion, "The more I read, the more I thought about World War II, the more I became convinced that the atmosphere of war brutalizes everyone involved."
He's also spent a lifetime teaching, first at Atlanta's black, all-female Spelman College, and then at Boston University. Novelist Alice Walker, one of his first students, speaks for a majority of Zinn's undergraduates when she remarks, "What can I say that will in any way convey the love, respect, and admiration I feel for this unassuming hero who was my teacher and mentor; this radical historian and people-loving 'trouble-maker,' this man who stood with us and suffered with us? Howard Zinn was the best teacher I ever had..."
We caught up with Professor Zinn at his Boston University office, where he still keeps his old typewriter (he's wired at home), books, and an array of leftie posters on the walls. Now retired from teaching, the six-foot plus Zinn still speaks and protests at rallies, and is always ready for spirited conversation.
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On video: Meet radical historian Howard Zinn.
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Howard Zinn
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