Howard Zinn is one of few authors who dare to write a US
History from the perspective of those peoples, in each generation, whose
democratic rights have been trampled upon. Mostly, these were minority groups
who had little or no voice in the conduct of our public affairs. He has written
episode after episode of internal and external actions, and concludes what
Pres. Dwight Eisenhower said in his farewell address: beware the growing power
of the military/industrial forces in our nation.
During his tenure at Boston
University, he taught a very popular class on civil liberties. The class was
not a university requirement, but one that many students took as an elective.
In doing so, I would suspect that they wanted to challenge themselves to think
about civil rights. With certainty, I suspect that Zinn encourage them to
“stand up” to civil injustices. I think that Zinn spoke out about the past in
an effort to educate the present. Perhaps he recalled the words of the
twentieth century novelist George Santayana who stated this concept most
eloquently when he said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it." In Zinn’s views, those who forget about the struggles for
human rights, the causes of war, and the inequality in society are condemned to
repeat history.
