Howard Zinn Summary

American political scientist and historian Howard Zinn (born 1922) was a leading exponent of the New Left perspective in scholarship and a political radical known for his activity in the civil rights ... Read more

In the following review of The Southern Mystique, Ellison praises Zinn for providing a constructive blueprint for solving the civil rights crisis in the South. Howard Zinn's The Southern Mys... Read more

In the following review, Green discusses Zinn's rejection of the possibility of achieving objectivity in historical writing. The purpose of Howard Zinn's excellent collection of essay... Read more

In the following review of Postwar America: 1945-1971, Michelson praises Zinn's critique of liberalism, but ultimately finds his account of postwar politics a romanticized version of events. ... Read more

In the following review of Declarations of Independence, Knoll praises Zinn for offering new ways of thinking about issues of social and political justice. Howard Zinn is a radical in the true sens... Read more

In the following review, Scialabba dismisses Declarations of Independence as “mostly authorial commentary.” The erudite essayist Walter Benjamin once proposed writing a book that woul... Read more

In the following review, Kazin praises Zinn's exposure of the fallacies associated with conventional historical truths despite the weakness of some of his arguments. Howard Zinn writes the t... Read more

In the following review of Zinn's autobiography, Buhle asserts that You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train is not Zinn's best work, but insists that it is nonetheless an engaging ... Read more

In the following review, Isserman calls Zinn's autobiography “lucid and unpretentious.” Howard Zinn arrived at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, in August 1956 to take up du... Read more

In the following review of The Zinn Reader, Wasserman applauds the hopeful tone of the essays in Zinn's collection. Howard Zinn, with characteristic innocence, introduces his pathbreaking es... Read more

In the following review, O'Brien maintains that Zinn overestimates SNCC's potential to effect major changes in America unrelated to racial issues. From February 1, 1960 when the first... Read more

In the following review, Cohen praises Zinn's Disobedience and Democracy as an insightful book that should be widely read and discussed, although he challenges the bases for many of Zinn'... Read more

In the following review of Disobedience and Democracy, Davis describes Zinn's reasoning as “intricate and sometimes contorted.” One would not look to Supreme Court justice Abe ... Read more