Voices of a People's history

Over the past four decades Howard Zinn has been an author, an activist and a scholar. The body of his work has won him numerous praise and awards. His book, A People’s History of the United States, has sold more than one million copies to date. His most recent work is unselfishly devoted to the voices of people seldom heard when the record of this nations history was written. Voices of a People’s History of the United States, is a collection of letters, speeches, poems and songs of the people mostly forgotten by mainstream historians and media outlets. In the introduction Zinn explains the premise of this book by saying, “What is common to all these voices is that they have mostly been shut out of the orthodox histories, the major media, the standard text books, the controlled culture. The result of having our history dominated by presidents and generals and other “important” people is to create a passive citizenry, not knowing it’s own powers, always waiting for some savior on high-God or the next president-to bring peace and justice. History, looked at under the surface, in the streets and on the farms, in GI barracks and trailer camps, in factories and offices, tells a different story. Whenever injustices have been remedied, wars halted, women and blacks and Native Americans given their due, it has been because “unimportant” people spoke up, organized, protested, and brought democracy alive.” This book is a study of such people, people not unlike you and I.

For fifteen years I have been working with teenagers in these United States of America, from the heartland to LA LA land, and one thing I have noticed is the lack of historical knowledge our young people receive from our public educational system. Reading, of course, is fundamental and vital to any decent education. Writing is a vital part of being able to communicate ones self to the rest of the world. Math, well don’t get me started on math. Besides being able to calculate a waitress’ tip or what the cost of a new DVD is minus the percentage off during a sale, math holds minimal value in my day-to-day life. But history and social studies affects us everyday. The structure of any belief system is built on what we know or perceive to know about history, albeit it our belief in governmental systems or our belief in a supreme being. Only history can answer the questions about social structures, where our traditions come from and what are the meanings behind the creeds we follow (religious or secular). With out history we would not know from where we came and in turn where we are going. With out studying the mistakes of the past we are doomed to repeat them. Over and over again.

Over the next couple of weeks as I read through Howard Zinn’s new collection I will attempt to give a book report on each chapter that I read. The book starts off with a selection from Christopher Columbus 1492 diary and ends with an article by Kurt Vonnegut written in May of 2004 in protest to the war in Iraq. I would encourage all that read this (the few of you still out there) to use the comments section to engage in dialog about what I write. More importantly, this is a must have on your bookshelf. I encourage everyone to read this book and share it with someone else.

The book is 624 pages long, so get ready for one huge book report.