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Laddar... Truth Has a Power of Its Own: Conversations about A People's Historyav Howard Zinn
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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. Truth Has A Power Of Its Own is a funny kind of derivative book. Ray Suarez interviewed Howard Zinn about his book A People’s History of the United States. Instead of issues, Suarez seems to have asked questions in the chronological order of Zinn’s book, from the founding to the present. They are all soft questions that Zinn could answer without having to pause, basically putting points from his book in other words. Suarez did not challenge Zinn, point out a weakness or a contradiction or ask for proof or even context. Everyone’s on the same side here. It’s an easy, pleasant read of an uncomfortable topic: the truth about America. Zinn, of course, was a marvel of clear thinking in simple language. His answers, though seemingly prepared, are microtargeted and precise. He couldn’t have asked for easier questions. They let him make all the points he wanted to. In following the history of the US, the major theme is naturally racism, Zinn’s focus. He says in 1885, Senator Henry Dawes visited an Indian reservation and was appalled to see the Indians sharing everything. “There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization.” His law, The Dawes Act, sent the army in to take away communal property and break reservations into small private lots, destroying the natives’ way of life forever. These are the kinds of little-known facts that Howard Zinn awakened Americans with for decades. Zinn’s emphasis is on resistance and organization. He says truth has a way of spreading and changing history if we push it. The US is not on autopilot to glory or success because of its sterling constitution and system of elections. “I think it is a mistake to give young people going to school and learning history the idea that we have a wonderful mechanism here that’s self-correcting when things go wrong,” he says. This is in direct contradiction to what George Will says in his new book on conservatism. Will says all you need do is to look backwards to the founders’ guarantees of natural rights, and everything will be fine. Zinn continually comes back to the wealth of the USA and how it being misused by the rich and powerful. Instead of lifting everyone to a higher plane, wealth remains with the few, and government wastes most of the rest on weapons and wars. Bullets instead of healthcare. And while we’re at it, wars using those bullets have becoming civilian killing machines. Where World War I saw about 90% of the deaths in the military, today 90% of the deaths are civilian. Most importantly, he says there has been far more resistance and turmoil in America’s rocky road to the present: “If you leave out the history of resistance, then what you get out of American history is a kind of toothless history. You get a history in which everything seems okay. You get the kind of history that leads Americans to say to one another, ‘This is the greatest country in the world. We have always done good things in the world.’ Then they’re surprised when the United States is criticized by people in other countries.” In his long life of not only observation but active participation in those resistance movements, has Zinn seen light at the end of the tunnel? “I would be naïve if I said that I’m confident this country has a glorious future, based on the past.” And what would he possibly say about a Trump administration? David Wineberg inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
"Truth Has a Power of Its Own is an engrossing collection of never-before-published conversations with Howard Zinn, conducted by the distinguished broadcast journalist Ray Suarez in 2007, that covers the course of American history from Columbus to the War on Terror from the perspective of ordinary people--including slaves, workers, immigrants, women, and Native Americans. Viewed through the lens of Zinn's own life as a soldier, historian, and activist and using his paradigm-shifting People's History of the United States as a point of departure, these conversations explore the American Revolution, the Civil War, the labor battles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, U.S. imperialism from the Indian Wars to the War on Terrorism, World Wars I and II, the Cold War, and the fight for equality and immigrant rights, all from an unapologetically radical standpoint. Longtime admirers and a new generation of readers alike will be fascinated to learn about Zinn's thought processes, rationale, motivations, and approach to his now-iconic historical work."--Amazon.com Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)973.07202History and Geography North America United States United States Education And Research ResearchKlassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
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Opening statement: I’ve yet to read A People’s History of The United States. Does that matter when reading this book? I can’t tell, and I know that’s a good thing.
I have read and heard many of Zinn’s speeches and read some of his writings. To say he’s influential is a severe understatement; Noam Chomsky is one of his main supporters, and a close friend, which says much.
Zinn’s fervor, humanitarianism, morals, honesty, and energy jumps off the page. He is a man who has spoken at great length of how our society has changed, where it is, and where it can be, without tiring, always while listening to people. The people, who are at the center of Zinn’s thoughts, throughout this book and his life.
We read Suarez’s words, simple questions and postulates, which provide Zinn with ample ground to take off from. Witnessing his deeply-rooted humanitarian critique against both the American regime (through all times) and his wondrous ability to think in an existentialist way—i.e. he answers questions as if he were answering on the behalf of humanity, as though the questions weren’t trite and he weren’t tired of them—is both beautiful and inspirational in the extreme. It’s like witnessing a butterfly take flight.
The above quote is good, because it says something highly significant about Zinn: his extremely sobering and terse way to provide background to a statement is almost singular. It’s easy to see how he and Noam Chomsky affected and influenced each other.
There are many singular aspects of Zinn’s statements, not because he was a singular individual, but because he truly believed in what he was speaking of. He was a World War Two veteran who flew bomber planes over Europe. He’d seen atrocities and partaken in them. He spoke directly with both people who agreed and disagreed with him. It all boiled down believing that all humans are equal.
On creating a rationale for slavery:
There’s no stop of Zinn’s optimism. And it’s simple. It all boils down to the people:
He spoke calmly of Andrew Jackson, president McKinley, and Ronald Reagan, and what they truly have done, in comparison of what they spoke.
On terrorism after 9/11:
He speaks of social change, of Mother Jones, the NAACP, the IWW, of August Spies and Emma Goldman and what they did and what happened to them.
He also spoke well of the importance of critiquing inwards as well as outwards; we can’t miss looking ourselves in the mirror as part of our human process:
He had optimism:
As it is clear to see, this book is beautiful and very wondrous. It will awaken new minds to discover Howard Zinn, which is more than doing what it should. I recommend this book to all human beings. ( )