The Zinn Reader

October 15, 1997
In a dozen books (especially "A People's History of the United States," 1980, which has been through more than 25 printings and sold more than 400,000 copies) and scores of articles in academic and popular journals, Zinn has offered a model of the academic as activist. Now a Boston University emeritus professor of political science, he has participated in major events of the past half-century, from World War II through the movements of the '60s to today's debate over the proper roles of the university, and has studied earlier events in order to grasp what the past can teach about the present. Here, he gathers more than 60 articles, essays, and book excerpts, grouped under his six key concerns: race, class, war, law, history, and the complex means-and-ends issues of striving to remedy injustice. Readers raised on the consensus history of midcentury were startled by the insights generated by Zinn's bottom-up approach; those who still remember and value those insights will relish this collection. ((Reviewed October 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)

November 15, 1997
Historian, leftist activist, author of the popular People's History of the United States (New Pr., 1995) and other works of history, politics, and drama, retired professor Zinn has compiled 61 previously published essays on various historical topics and illuminates here his passionate commitment to social justice and political and economic democracy. The essays are arranged in six categories: race, class, war, law, history, and "means and ends." Lucid and at times poignant, they convey Zinn's belief that a historian's judgment about what should be written reflects her or his values. Some of the riveting events covered include the social revolution of the Civil Rights Movement, Allied atrocities during World War II, the murderous suppression of the Attica, New York, prison rebellion, and the hagiographic persistence of the Christopher Columbus narrative. Recommended for academic and public libraries.--Charles L. Lumpkins, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa.