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History Quotes by Howard Zinn

42 History quotes by Howard Zinn

All History quotes Howard Zinn’s page

If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday. Howard Zinn argues that history is a weapon of power, that official accounts are often ideologically distorted, and that understanding the past can protect people from being misled by those in authority.

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You can't be neutral on a moving train.

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If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday.

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“That, being as blunt as I can, is my approach to the history of the United States.”

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“There is an underside to every age about which history does not often speak, because history is written from records left by…

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I always emphasize the historic role of people of color in organizing and protesting to achieve justice.

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I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude…

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“Even allowing for the imperfection of myths, it is enough to make us question, for that time and ours, the excuse of…

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I suggest that if you know history, then you might not be so easily fooled by the government when it tells you…

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History is important. If you don't know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday,…

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The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and…

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There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions,…

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George Orwell said, "Whoever controls the past controls the future," by which he meant that history is incredibly important in shaping the…

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The chief problem in historical honesty is not outright lying. It is omission or de-emphasis of important data. The definition of 'important',…

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“A historian who studied Boston tax lists in 1687 and 1771 found that in 1687 there were, out of a population of…

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There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that…

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To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of…

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Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals the…

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The function of traditional history is to create a citizenry that looks to the top - the president, Congress, the Supreme Court…

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“My viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different: that we must not accept the memory of states as…

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Throughout American history, the political leaders have always exhorted the American people to be nice and quiet and leave things to them.…

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I did not know much history when I became a bombardier in the U.S. Air Force in World War II. Only after…

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“The willingness to undertake such action cannot be based on certainties, but on those possibilities glimpsed in a reading of history different…

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“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a…

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“The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent,…

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“My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is too late for that;…

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“Thus, in that inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the…

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“The workers stayed in the plant instead of walking out, and this had clear advantages: they were directly blocking the use of…

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“History is the memory of states,' wrote Henry Kissinger in his first book, A World Restored , in which he proceeded to…

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“It is not that the historian can avoid emphasis of some facts and not of others. This is as natural to him…

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The historian's distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interest, where any chosen…

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In the long run, the oppressor is also a victim. In the short run (and so far, human history has consisted only…

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I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number…

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“American slavery the most cruel form of slavery in history: the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture; the reduction…

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When I say history is a matter of life and death, I mean this: If you really don't know history, you are…

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Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and…

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Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have…

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“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities…

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What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our…

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History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the…

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If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would…

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More by Howard Zinn

“A black man, Benjamin Banneker, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, predicted accurately a solar eclipse, and was appointed to plan the new city…

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

“a good education is a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, because each enrich the other. The accumulation of knowledge, while…

The mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction-so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and…

Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that…

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence,…

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of…

Now I have been studying very closely what happens every day in the courts in Boston, Massachusetts. You would be astounded--maybe you wouldn't, maybe…

They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy.…

“Sexual purity was to be the special virtue of a woman. It was assumed that men, as a matter of biological nature, would sin,…

“Middle-class Americans might be invited to join a new elite by attacks against the corruption of the established rich. The New Yorker Cadwallader Colden,…

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will…

We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts…

Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence -- words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security -- there is the reality…

“George Washington had turned down the requests of blacks, seeking freedom, to fight in the Revolutionary army. So when the British military commander in…