On History

Howard Zinn, though most famous for his A People's History of the United States, has also written a series of shorter books and collections on various subjects, his Howard Zinn on... series.  In this edition, we're back to history, his best-known area of expertise.  The 30 collected essays in this book span from 1964 to 2008, and cover topics as broad as education, activism, and the military.  They show the evolution of Zinn's thinking but also highlight some of his unchanging, unshakable fundamental principles.  He shares his views on major historical events as they were happening in some of these older essays, as when he recounts his experiences teaching in Mississippi during the remarkable summer of 1964, as well as his view of the role of the activist historian to shape those events.  Throughout these essays he asks the tough questions, perhaps most importantly, "Have we reached a point in history where we are ready to embrace a new way of living in the world, expanding not our military power, but our humanity?"  For all history-lovers out there, here comes a new book by Howard Zinn, full of historic essays and influential ideas.