Historian Howard Zinn dies at the Age of 87

Today historian Howard Zinn died from a heart attack at the age of 87. Zinn, known as a professor, author, and activist brought the plight of lower class Americans to the forefront. His crowning achievement was The People's History of the United States, a book that looked at the history of the United States through the eyes of women, minorities and lower classes.


Zinn has been an ally to the lower classes in civil rights movements and in anti-war movements. Zinn understood the horrors of war being a bomber pilot over Europe during World War II. In 2006, Zinn wrote in the Progressive anti-war articles showing his disagreement with the Bush administration and previous administrations with their use of killing civilians in the name of world peace. Reuters obituary for Zinn sums up this argument, "Once we decided, at the start, that our side was the good side and the other side was evil ... we did not have to think any more. Then we could commit unspeakable acts and it was all right."

Zinn also had some critical words to President Obama published in The Nation on January 13, 2010. He was not hopeful that President Obama would change the current system. Zinn is quite skeptical of any meaningful reform. Zinn said, "I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

Zinn's life goals were to raise the middle and lower classes of all backgrounds to have a voice and not be exploited by wealthy and the powerful. The empowerment that Zinn tried to provide citizens needs to be picked up by younger generations and carried into the next decades. Items like caring for all our neighbors around the world, fighting against true tyranny, working for a better standard of living for all world citizens, and not forget to condemn the exploitive deeds that have been done for human advancement. As a world community, we need to accomplish these goals for the betterment of the world society.