You Cant Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History by Howard Zinn

You Cant Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History Reviews

• 
  Nomy

  this was the book that politicized my mom when she was in her forties. i had been a rebellious, critical kid for many years, and she had been a busy, tired middle school teacher and mom. she read this book and got all excited, she made my brother, who was in high school, read it too and discuss it with her. she went on to start teaching from "a people's history," started going to anti-racist activist gatherings and workshops, organizing diversity trainings for her school, housing books-to-prisoners in her basement, and otherwise just trying to be an active participant in the world that she wants to see created. hurray for howard zinn.
• 
  Kevin

  Here I go again, under-rating Zinn…
  
  Dear Future self,
  
  So, you have come back full of regret and are now proceeding to upgrade your original rating for yet another Zinn book. How predictable.
  
  Here were your original reasons why you chose to under-rate Zinn yet again:
  
  1) When I first came across Zinn, I had already gone through
  Noam Chomsky on US foreign policy/media propaganda and was in the midst of unpacking debates between
  Chris Hedges and
  Christopher Hitchens on US wars/religion, so while
  A People's History of the United States was impactful in its unique ways of engaging with history, the Zinn train seemed to have passed in a sense.
  2) I was also moving on to seek works that came directly from more diverse sources (geographic and social positioning), rather than having it filtered through the lens of the US academic Left (even if their objective was to be critical).
  3) Lastly, I was looking for analyses to detail and unpack real-world capitalism (i.e. political economy).
  
  The Good:
  --So, why return to Zinn?
  1) Accessible: I support a diversity of outreach styles, but there’s no question Zinn’s “A People’s History” style is a prominent one. No textbook remoteness/“objectivity” (which is still biased of course), resulting in the stereotypical boring history. All on-the-grounds, visceral substance, with the important idea that much of history is created not by singular events and singular great men, but by a groundswell of people power.
  
  2) Examples of change: what better place to start than Zinn’s personal story of starting as a gullible jock who became a US bombardier in WWII to “fight fascism” and then having this myth fall apart and ending up as an anti-empire history teacher?
  …Zinn’s first-hand accounts of the Civil Rights movement (esp. SNCC) is another major component. Interesting reflections change, like on how self-interest can bring openings, like the financial gain of integrating sports terms or the political gain from black votes after the Voting Rights Act. This of course needs to be combined with political economy.
  
  The Missing:
  --As suggested above, direct accounts from a diversity of social positions, and compilations filtered by those outside of Western/Global North/US academia. If we were to stay with the US,
  Gerald Horne is a historian I'd like to explore more:
  https://youtu.be/gAHHtVUIHtE
  --More theory on structures, esp. political economy (favorite intro:
  Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works - and How It Fails), as well as synthesizing this with “A People’s History”. 2 books jump out here, although I still have to unpack discussions on their historical methods:
  Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation and
  A People's History of the World.
  --All the above have for me culminated in a group of Indian Marxists (the English language does play a role too), especially:
  Vijay Prashad,
  Utsa Patnaik,
  Prabhat Patnaik,
  Amiya Kumar Bagchi (
  Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital).
• 
  Tom

  In You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Howard Zinn elaborates on the experiences that formed his political views and informed his commitment to civil disobedience, and the challenges he inevitably faced in opposing the ills of American society. Not knowing much about him outside of his being a go-to boogeyman of right-wing internet users, it was fascinating to read of his involvement in the 1954-1968 civil rights movement, which added another layer to the picture I have of it courtesy of Taylor Branch's brilliant
  America in the King Years series. I didn't always agree with or understand everything he said (how, for example, can someone who fought in WWII question whether any good can come of war?) but his forthrightness and passion is palpable throughout. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a feel for who Howard Zinn was, whether you subscribe to his politics or not.
• 
  Mehmet

  "Sivil İtaatsizlik" konusunda uzman olan Zinn, kitabında kendi hayatından bazı kesitler vererek; aynı zamanda dönemin politik, askeri ve sosyal gelişmelerine ışık tutuyor.
  Bu kitap Zinn'in okuduğum ilk kitabı. Kendisini daha önce tanımamış olduğum için hayıflandım. Üstelik kitabında bahsettiği Amerika tarihi üzerine yazdığı kitap olan Amerika Birleşik Halkları Tarihi isimli kitabı son derece merak ettim.
  Bu kitapta ABD'de kurucu atalar olarak bilinen kişilerin gerçek yüzünü anlatmış:
  
  "Askeri kahramanlarımız Andrew Jackson ve Theodore Roosevelt, ırkçı Kızılderili katilleriydi, savaşsever emperyalistlerdi. En liberal başkanlarımız olan Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt ve Kennedy beyaz olmaan insanların haklarından çok politik güç ve ulusal büyümeyle ilgilenmişlerdi" (s.3)
  
  Bunun gibi pek çok bölüm var kitapta. Bu kitapta Vietnam Savaşı'nın, ABD'deki sosyal hareketliliklerin, ABD Yargı sisteminin, üniversite yönetiminin altında yatan; hissedilir veya gizlenmiş ırkçılığı, yayılmacılığı ve diğer siyasi amaçları da ortaya çıkarmış.
  
  Dönemindeki mücadelelere kayıtsız kalamayan Zinn'in, aslında eski bir bombardıman pilotu olduğu gerçeği bana şunu düşündürdü; vicdan azabı, insanı tam bir barış gönüllüsü yapabilir.
  
  
  Hareket halindeki bir trende ise tarafsız olamazsınız."
• 
  Brad

  This is an absolutely inspiring piece of writing. I am not often filled with hope. Hell, I rarely have even a millilitre or two of hope in my measuring cup, but Howard Zinn poured a little hope into my heart with his personal story. Our world is a little darker without him in it, and soon we will be without his friend, Noam Chomsky. But we will always have Zinn's actions and words to hearten us. If you are reading reviews to decide whether or not to read this book take my advice: do.
• 
  John Gonzalez

  It's been years since I had read this book and it is shameful that one forgets any of it. This is the book that probably captures the essence of Howard Zinn as my intellectual hero.
  
  More than an academic, Howard Zinn was the type of person that never forgot the struggle of growing up poor. He never forgot the challenges, the strife, and never lost the compassion for others even as his fortunes improved. A former bombardier, Zinn arrived at the notion that war was just a way to brutalize all those involved to justify the atrocities commuted by both sides. It ultimately solved little despite moral justifications. And without maligning the soldiers that fought in it, Zinn simply kept asking the question of how it could eliminated. Rather than any bitterness, Zinn is the most hopeful of any of the historians and social-issues writers. He sees hope in the most minute human demonstrations of compassion. He seems small improvements even as change has to break through endless resistance and often leave those seeking it bloodied and beaten. Mostly, I admire Zinn because he cared about people, their right to happiness, education, health, fulfillment. He cared about the people without lobbyists, profit sheets, exploitable natural resources. In today's world that's somewhat radical notion; a socialist notion, I suppose. Howard Zinn reminds us to turn the tables and think of it as a human notion and responsibility.
  
  "Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zig-zag towards a more decent society.
  
  We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world" (p. 208).
• 
  Ai Miller

  First off, I received this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
  
  This is a really good little memoir; if you've read others by activists like Zinn (Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark, for example, or the memoir by Staughton and Alice Lynd,) you basically know what you're getting into, but it's still really solid and I think probably important for a lot of folks to read right now (hence, in some ways, the reason for the reissue.) Zinn comes across as both kind of soft and clearly self-ware, and some of the things he says here are really beautiful. There are things I would have liked more out of the book, but I can't exactly demand them here, and I admittedly haven't read his other works. Overall though I really enjoyed this, it's a really fast read, and I encourage folks interested in hearing his insights to read it!
• 
  Antonis

  I had never thought I'd love an autobiographical non-fiction book, but half the time I was reading this one I cried and laughed, moved by the many inspiring "little acts" of courage and civil disobedience. It is a true injection of optimism.
• 
  Moira McPartlin

  I have a new hero! I read Howard Zinn's Just War a short time ago and was looking forward to reading this memoir. It tells of his time teaching black kids during the civil rights movement in the States and his part in furthering that cause. He then moves to teach in Boston and the timescale reaches the Vietnam War and again he describes his participation in the anti war movement. But he also explains his humble beginnings and why he fights for justice and human rights. His belief in human compassion and the power of individuals to make a difference is inspiring. The last chapter is about hope and the last page is so perfect in it's summing up I almost cried. I would urge anyone interested in politics to read this book.
  
• 
  Okan

  Zinn's is a very interesting life, I doubt if you can actually go through such a variety of experiences within the span of just one lifetime these days -from a poverty-ridden childhood to shipfitting, from that to being a bombardier in the WWII, from that to grad school and academic life, from that to civil rights activism in the American South and peace activism in the anti-Vietnam-War movement etc. etc. The storytelling around these moments was good and the book is full of sweet-sensuous anecdotes as well as inspirational events and personalities (my favorite being the priest with whom Zinn went to Vietnam for the return of three American POWs); but on the whole I found Zinn's optimism a little simplistic and his MO consisting of speeches, demonstrations, books, articles, picket lines and courtroom testimonials (at the end of which the public awakens and pressures/arguments become unbearable for the personalities of power) a bit difficult to relate to -almost irrelevant to the times and places I've grown and lived in.
• 
  Miquixote

  What an inspiring read. What a courageous man. An easy read of the life of the author of the legendary 'People's History of the United States'. Zinn, the academic caters to the general population in this work and succeeds in doing so.
• 
  UyenThi

  "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world... The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live *now* as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
• 
  Raquel

  If my mind were malleable and uncritical, I would have come away with a dangerous set of situational ethics and relative morals. But it's not, so I learned the author is a fool.
• 
  ben

  I am still a huge fan of Zinn. His writing is humble but so smart. He inspires me to do more, be more, and live bigger.
• 
  Mary

  Zinn's message rings just as true today as it did in 1993 when it was published. READ IT.
• 
  Larry Bassett

  Howard Zinn was a teacher for much of his life and he came in personal contact with a lot of students and people because of that. But he also grew up and lived for sometime in most difficult circumstances with limited resources. In someways he is a person who pulled himself up by his bootstraps. And yet he is also a person who would vehemently decline to support the idea that anyone in this country could do just as he has done.
  
  This is a story of the life of Howard Zinn through the early 1990s. But it is not just a recitation of the events in his life but of his awareness about how social change and community organizing can be successfully undertaken. He is a firm believer in the power of small actions, the accumulation of small things that sometimes surprisingly turn into big things unexpectedly.
  
  If you are a person who works for or desires social change in any aspect of life in this country and in this world you might well find yourself motivated in your activities by the story of Howard Zinn because he is an optimist and he has a wealth of experience to share.
  
  The fact that this book ends in the early 1990s is a deficit in the book. But the fact that it was finally recorded in the audible format in 2017 is a benefit to us all.
• 
  Elizabeth Lapp

  I found this interesting to see how far we have come, but how far we still need to go.
• 
  Bia

  Leiam!Leiam!Leiam!
  
  Um sopro de esperança em tempos sombrios
• 
  Rachel

  The more I learn about Zinn the more respect I have for him. This memoir highlights just some of his incredible life and I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to start understanding Zinn. Really interesting to hear about these events from his own perspective after learning about his role throughout them.
• 
  Sarah Yates

  dang what a life... every story in this book blew my mind and i hope to have a teacher like him one day R.I.P
• 
  Shirin A.

  What could I ever say about this book that would live up to its greatness? Not much.
  
  This is a testament to the urgent, relevant nature of Howard Zinn's work and the necessity for hope, always.
• 
  Adam

  Undoubtedly one of the most powerful books I've read.
  
  My first introduction to Zinn came at the great expense, and weight, of A People's History. While I didn't have the tenacity to make my way all the way through, the idea of an alternative history book really peaked my interest in its author.
  
  Upon my brother's return from a semester at Morehouse College, where he spent most of his time in classes at Spelman College, he eagerly dropped Zinn's memoir into my lap, insisting I take it with me to school. I couldn't be more glad he did.
  
  "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" reflects on the positions Zinn held throughout his career, the choices that drove him to those positions and the challenges he faced, and posed, in each. In a similar light as Derrick Bell's, "Confronting Authority," Zinn eloquently and accessibly lays out his ideals in confrontations with those who stood in his way or actively disagreed with his pursuit of a true justice.
  
  Much of what I find most inspiring about Zinn is not any particular ideology he holds but rather the process through which he encouraged his students to find their own path. He believed strongly in critical pedagogy, recognizing that individuals can come to their own conclusions but that in order for the educational experience to be comprehensive, it inevitably requires questioning and critical thinking, not rote memorization and passive acceptance of a world-as-is.
  
  So much of what I read in Zinn is what I hear coming from my brother's struggles and I feel fortunate to have such a guiding and challenging force in my life. One that asks the questions of me that force me to ask further questions of myself and the world in which I exist. For if there's one take away that resonates most with me, it is not that the goal is any particular answer but but rather finding the questions that can lead us towards an ever expanding series of answers that define the path of justice.
• 
  Ilya Ilyich Oblomov

  At a 1992 Kalamazoo talk, someone asked Howard Zinn, “What gives you hope?” The question frames this book. Why optimism? Why now?
  It’s the people, Zinn says.
  
  It’s the communist shipbuilders Zinn labored with in WWII dockyards, who after hellish days hauling, hammering, and welding in the bellies of battleships, would pass out Marxist literature and help organize “unskilled” laborers into unions. It’s the black girls at Spelman College who, risking their spots at the university, challenged a conservative president on his reactionary bullshit, joined SNCC, and marched across the South to tear down Jim Crow. It’s a young John Lewis Zinn watched being beaten, beaten, beaten, and then rising to march again.
  
  It’s the professors Zinn taught with at Boston University who marched with their students against the Vietnam War, spiting the conservative college president and walking away from easy tenure. It’s Father Berrigan, the Catholic priest who spoke against the Vietnam War when his Church wouldn’t; who commiserated with all humans, not just those backed by the US Army, and thus had no problem travelling with Zinn to meet the Viet Cong and bring back prisoners; Dan Berrigan who broke into an army office and burned draft cards, protesting a draft that preyed on the poor to uphold a façade for the powerful; who hid from the FBI from years, was eventually tried for arson, and when released, took up the cause of peace once again.
  
  It’s Zinn’s parents who raised him in tenements, ground down their bodies working any job they could find, and spent their last pennies buying Zinn the collected works of Dickens, whom Zinn would read to understand his own experience.
  
  It’s us, if we’re bold enough.
  
• 
  Vaishak

  Howard Zinn’s inspirational memoir is one of a kind. It traces a few anecdotes from his life’s events, but its principal thrust comes from telling the stories of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, Howard Zinn among them. The people are extraordinary in the sense that they are ordinary people challenging the status quo, challenging oppression, putting themselves up for sacrifice for our common good.
  
  Howard Zinn has been called many things: from being a radical to be a troublemaker, but I think in the end all he wanted was to be a good human being. This took him from participating in early civil rights efforts in the deep south to giving talks about justice and democracy in Boston and everywhere else. This memoir jots a few of the seminal events of his time, while bringing out the very many people playing small roles, but then, precisely because they went against what existed, big roles. More importantly, this memoir is a story of hope, of how we can achieve an understanding of the people around us: white, brown, black, and of every other color by simply speaking up, by simply questioning the injustice that plagues the modern age. Zinn argues if history is any evidence of how things will turn out, there are then countless stories of cruetly but also of compassion and sacrifice, and by emphasizing the kind sides of human beings, we can go a long way to a peaceful and worthwhile existence. “You can’t be neutral on a moving train” is a remark by Zinn to warn us that acting and acting now, is of the fundamental importance.
• 
  Jamie

  I received this updated version of Howard Zinn's memoir/autobiography. I knew who Zinn was, of course, and what he had written, but hadn't myself read anything of his yet. In these tumultuous times, reading is an escape, so I haven't been reading much like this. I decided to give this book a try because his purpose for writing it was to show how movements can create change, and to give hope. I learned a lot from Zinn's book - specifics of movements I knew about in general. His history is fascinating, and just as I had hoped, it is hope-infusing. Important history to read and know about, and a perfect read in these scary times if you need some hope.
• 
  Nancy Ross

  I keep meaning to read A People's History of the United States, but this came up on Overdrive so I went for it. Nicely narrated by David Strathairn. Zinn was a thoroughly admirable man, who lived his principles and was always on the right side of every struggle. I wish he were still alive.
• 
  Mike

  * Will not justify war because it inevitably means killing of many innocent people
  * Eisenhower said preparing for war was a theft from those in need (theft of resources)
  * Persistent small acts of resistance can build to waves of change and people are capable of true courage
  
  * Emphasis of negative aspects of humanity can dishearten yet the good side remains present, active, and capable of affecting change
  * In teaching he did not hide his personal and political views... it was impossible anyway and not desirable. You can't be neutral on a moving train meaning events are unfolding and if you do nothing you are ok with that direction
  
  1. Spelman College
  * Pact seemed made that white GA would allow Spellman to exist and educate so long as white GA's life was unquestioned
  * Countee Cullen poem Incident spoke of being called N-word as a young boy by a young boy
  * Bringing his class to the Georgia Senate ground it to a halt as lawmakers yelled about the gallery being segregated despite no one being there. Also helped integrate Atlanta libraries.
  * These small events happened before the sit ins, Freedom ride, Montgomery Bus Boycott etc. Tiny acts can lead to big ones.
  
  2. Young Ladies Who Can Picket
  * Media like politicians only pay attention to protest / rebellion when it is too big to be ignored
  * White pioneers for racial justice: Myles Horton (Highland Folk School), Carl and Ann Braden (Southern Courier editors), Pat Waters and Margaret Long (Atlanta Constitution journalists), Jack Nelson reporter
  * Special people who speak out to shake up self assurance of their enemies and complacency of their friends are catalysts for change.
  
  3. President Is Like a Gardener
  * The college president must tend to the garden helping certain things grow and removing things that shouldn't be there... Zinn was fired in June '63 as the president saw him as an instigator of student protests implying he didn't think students could think for themselves
  * There's a gap between law and justice... how much should he fight his firing in long court cases with money he didn't have
  * Whoever can afford the lawyers and afford to wait will be the winner in the rule of law
  * Being fired has some of the advantages of dying without its supreme disadvantage, people say extra nice things about you and you get to hear them.
  
  4. My Name Is Freedom
  * Sheriff in Albany GA would put anyone who protested in jail. Campbell would beat people and Pritchett would call an ambulance. Bad cop, good cop.
  * Press often focuses on individuals rather than systemic failure like the government looking the other way as people's rights were violated in the South. John Lewis at March on Washington was going to ask which side the government was on but it was edited out.
  * Ella Baker helped start SNCC in Raleigh North Carolina
  * Just because Albany GA movement didn't end racism in 1961-62 doesn't mean it was unsuccessful... progress made in people's minds some changed some now knowing they could overcome racism as they saw it wobble so it could be knocked over
  
  5. Selma
  * 1% of blacks were registered... you applied to register... you didn't register
  * Dick Gregory gave talk in church in defiance of white people and the police officers taking notes
  * SNCC protestors arrested off the steps of Federal building with FBI inside disregarding right to vote and right to free speech
  * Trying to provide food and water to people in line to register for 6 hours was called "molesting" them
  * FBI Chief said they couldn't make arrest "in these situations"
  * All this was done during "Freedom Day" trying to bring out numbers of people for strength and support to register to vote together
  * People marched barefoot in Freedom March, slept in mud at night when no other place was available
  
  6. I'll Be Here, Mississippi
  * History omits ordinary people... their struggles and triumphs
  * Met Fannie Lou Hamer
  * Protestor Oscar put in jail cell with WWII paratrooper who said he'd rather kill a "nigger lover than a Nazi or a Jap." He was beat.
  * Female judge insists on segregated courtroom, Zinn brings up that segregation in courtrooms had been ruled illegal, recess, judge says Mississippi follows its laws which are segregation but will allow people to sit where they were if they didn't cause a disturbance
  * Freedom Schools for black children across the South... democratic education
  
  7. War
  * Was pro WWII and enlisted at 20 when he didn't have to go
  * Most racists have something they care about more than segregation. A solider wanting black soldiers away from him, Zinn disobeyed and wouldn't remove them, racist stayed anyway because he wanted to eat.
  * Japan was on verge of surrender in 1945 but Atomic bomb dropped anyway as opportunity to demonstrate a new weapon and beat Russia to punch which was going to enter the fighting there.
  * One solider told Zinn WWI was an imperialistic war... not moral war to beat Hitler... England, US, Germany, Russia all fighting for the chance to run the world
  * Bombed Royan with his crew because some German soldiers were there. Used early form of napalm.
  * Began doubting the morality of war in general. Peloponisian war at Athens as good guy and Sparta as bad but Athens did acts just as awful at Sparta.
  * War is not inevitable. It is manufactured. History's path can seem unquestionable in retrospect but maybe it has lots more possibilities than we imagine.
  
  8 Sometimes to Be Silent Is to Lie
  * Gulf of Tonkin was an excuse to go to war same as Polk made up a clash of Mexicans and Americans as being on American soil when it was contested to fight and take California and New Mexico.
  * Wrote speech for how LBJ could withdraw from Vietnam without losing face. America would focus on being a force for good in the world instead of waging war.
  * Moratorium Day had mass protest against the Vietnam War. Largest in country's history.
  * Newton North High School students invited Zinn to speak at commencement which had lots of people come out against him speaking. Figured high school is quite an age where country, parents, etc. fight for control because it's also when minds are most pliable.
  * Alice Hertz and Norman Morris burn themselves in protest of war
  
  10
  * Dan Berrigan was a poet priest who went with Zinn to get POWs in Hanoi. Later, went underground in States while protesting the war. Arrived at a speech on stage and as FBI went to get him the lights went out and he hid inside a Bread and Circus puppet and was carried out.
  
  11 Jail
  * night in jail shows our country isn't so liberal or democratic
  * civil obedience is more dangerous than disobedience
  * The world is "Topsy turvy" with those responsible for Mai Lai Massacre out continuing to work in govt. and Dan Berrigan was in jail. The only way to turn things around was to be disobedient
  * prison doesn't right the wrongs that cause people to commit crimes by and large
  
  12
  * Judges can limit how a jury can view a case limiting the effectiveness of the justice system. Can't consider why someone broke in and burned draft cards. Can only consider breaking in and destruction in the Milwaukee 14 case.
  * Later in 1973 the Camden 28 allowed more room to consider why they broke in and destroyed records. The system is fluid.
  * Human capacity of breaking out of conformity to fight injustice is where hope lies
  
  13
  * Dickens was powerful reading as a child for Zinn. Using children as susceptible to forces beyond their control before they could be accused of not working hard enough etc.
  * No longer liberal after attending a peaceful communist rally he attended in Madison Square Garden and getting beaten. He was a radical believing something was wrong with the country. Also, police and state are not neutral arbiters... they are on the side of power and wealth.
  * Communists were the best organizers in the country. First to speak up and demonstrate. Not just on labor but on lynching etc. Communists were first anti-fascists. And, they fought in the Lincoln brigade against Franco in Spain on the side of democracy. Paul Robeson, WEB Dubois, Hollywood 10 all were Communists.
  * Arthur Koestler book Yogi and Commisionary helped Zinn lose interest in Communism but not Socialism
  * Private enterprise won't act without profit. Govt must be involved with helping with necessities like education and housing.
  * People's background does not necessarily inform who they become. Recounts a historian from a well to do family had similar feelings on history, America, society as Zinn.
  
  14
  Boston University
  * Risking your job is part of being a free person... Zinn, with tenure in the balance, spoke before protestors of Vietnam War as Dean Rusk went into a Boston hotel. Trustees had already voted him tenure that afternoon.
  * Clashes with incoming president John Silber who wanted students to "respect law"
  * Silber said Zinn had tried to burn the President's office which wasn't true. Zinn could have pursued defamation of character and won lots of money... wouldn't do it so his life didn't become a long lasting court case.
  * Julia Brown professor fought 6 years for tenure which Silber was denying her
  
  15 Possibility of Hope
  * Proportionally, Dorchester led with the most men who died in Vietnam
  * Left teaching for theater and made a play on Emma Goldman
  * Accumulation of knowledge is not enough... action is needed so others have chance learning such knowledge as well
  * Zinn promotes anti-war, redistribution of wealth, pro-protest to point of civil disobedience
  * Pessimism becomes self-fulfilling... cripples will to act
  * Political power is fragile... look at how nervous those are who hold it
  * Know and remember the times and places where people acted magnificently gives us the energy to act
• 
  Martin Denton

  This is a memoir by Howard Zinn, who was a radical activist, author, and college professor during the second half of the last century. Zinn's best known work is
  A People's History of the United States (which I have not yet read). This book offers a more personal way into his life and work and thinking and I am very glad to had read it.
  
  Radical, by the way, is his own word. He makes a clear distinction between a radical, who aims to take action to change the fundamental institutions and structures that enable inequality and war, versus a liberal, who favors equality and peace but does not stray from the existing structures to try to bring them about.
  
  The book is divided into three sections. The first details Zinn's involvement with the civil rights movement of the late '50s/early '60s. He was a professor at Spelman College, which at the time was an all-Black all-female institution in Atlanta, Georgia. Zinn's tenure there coincided with the sit-ins, non-violent demonstrations, voting registration drives, and other actions that were taking root throughout the South, and he was an active participant. He believed that any positive action among ordinary people bonding together can eventually foster change--indeed that's the theme that runs through the entire book.
  
  What stood out for me, sadly, is how little things seem to have changed. There's a section about a voter registration drive in the early 1960s during which hundreds of Black men and women stood in line in a driving summer rain, waiting to get admitted into the courthouse where they could fill out the necessary forms. As they were deliberately kept waiting by the people in charge, allies attempted to give them water and food...and were arrested. This sounds too eerily like something happening right now, this year, in the United States. And that's shameful.
  
  The second section starts with Zinn's experiences as a bombardier in World War II, and how his thinking about his participation in the war evolved as he came to understand the costs of warfare to humanity. He became a virulent critic of the War in Vietnam in the 1960s/1970s, and his descriptions of demonstrations being broken up by police and bureaucrats again reminded me of recent events (Black Lives Matter, for example).
  
  The final section covers some of his battles with university administrators as he strove to teach his students not just book knowledge but lived experience, encouraging them to challenge what seems to be unjust or wrong. He makes the very important distinction between being opposed to the government, which is a bunch of people in power, versus being opposed to the country, which is the moral idea of all the people.
  
  Zinn ends his book optimistically, which is wonderful, though given all that we know has happened in the years since its publication (originally, 1994), it's not always easy to share in that optimism. It is, though, entirely necessary.