Throughout American history, the political leaders have always exhorted the American people to be nice and quiet and leave things to them.… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The historian's distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interest, where any chosen… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I don't think we can depend on Congress. In the American political system - we have been brought up to believe that… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I have no regrets about my political activity, only that I sometimes got carried away with it and didn't find the right… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
There is the past and its continuing horrors: violence, war, prejudices against those who are different, outrageous monopolization of the good earth's wealth by a few, political power in the hands of liars and murderers, the building of prisons instead of schools, the poisoning of the press and the entire culture by money. It is easy to become discouraged observing… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
I was just a seventeen-year-old kid, going to Times Square to participate in this left-wing demonstration. The signs were for peace and justice and so on. But then I was attacked by police mounted on horseback and on foot. Before I knew it, I was clubbed and knocked unconscious. So it gave me a radical view of the United States,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience... War is not inevitable, however persistent it is, however long a history it has in human affairs. It does not come out of some instinctive human need. It is manufactured by political leaders, who then must… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
We cannot be secure by limiting our liberties, as some of our political leaders are demanding, but only by expanding themWe should… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
If you work through the existing structures you are going to be corrupted. By working through political system that poisons the atmosphere, even the progressive organizations, you can see it even nowadays in the US, where people on the "Left" are all caught in the electoral campaign and get into fierce arguments about should we support this third party candidate… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
Here's a president who gets 47 or 48 percent of the vote and takes 100 percent of the power, as if he… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Music can be a distraction and an escape. Sometimes a welcome escape. You need it. But music can also serve a very… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
The UN should arrange, as US forces leave, for an international group of peacekeepers and negotiators from the Arab countries to bring together Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and work out a solution for self-governance that would give all three groups a share in political power. Simultaneously, the UN should arrange for shipments of food and medicine, from the United States… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
“A black man, Benjamin Banneker, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, predicted accurately a solar eclipse, and was appointed to plan the new city of Washington, wrote to Thomas Jefferson: I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“a good education is a synthesis of book learning and involvement in social action, because each enrich the other. The accumulation of knowledge, while… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
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,… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
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… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy.… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
“Sexual purity was to be the special virtue of a woman. It was assumed that men, as a matter of biological nature, would sin, but woman must not surrender. As one male author said: “If you do, you will be left in silent sadness to bewail your credulity, imbecility, duplicity, and premature prostitution.” A woman wrote that females would get… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
“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, in his Address to the Freeholders in 1747, attacked the wealthy as tax dodgers unconcerned with the welfare of others (although he himself was wealthy) and spoke for the honesty and dependability of “the midling rank… — Howard Zinn Copy Share
If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will… — Howard Zinn Copy Share Image
