Howard Zinn [photo here was taken by Robin Holland] has died, diminishing by one (a very significant one) the number of populist historians on the American scene.
Zinn, a professor of history, was the author of "A People's History of the United States."
In 1922 he graced Brooklyn with his birth (check out HowardZinn.org and follow links for bio details), and in the year 2000 he graced yours truly, BrooklynRon, by writing the lead back-page blurb for BrooklynRon's book, "One Hundred Jobs: A Panorama of Work in the American City," published by The New Press.
"One Hundred Jobs is a valuable glimpse of Americana -- here are poignant vignettes of ordinary people doing the jobs that keep our society going," he wrote. "For our star-struck society, this book adds a refreshing dose of reality to the endless stories of the rich and famous."
Zinn took his accumulated wisdom and spread it across the land, offering perspectives full of truths big and small about America past and present.
Zinn was better known for his time as a professor at Boston University, but for a time mid-century he was a tenured professor at Spelman College, the black women's institution of higher ed.
He was fired from there in 1963 after he teamed up with students who wanted to end Spelman's self-identification as a place that turned out "young ladies" as opposed to scholars and women of power.
Zinn would later write of his time at Spelman, "I learned more from my students than my students learned from me."
Simply beautiful.
Posted by: MST | January 29, 2010 at 12:18 PM