In memoriam, Howard Zinn

I read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States about two decades ago and it transformed my way of reading history, helping to shift my view away from the great men and standard narratives of the history books we had in school and toward a narrative of average people battling elites, fighting for change and to make the dream we have long talked about into a reality.

Like Studs Terkel, he was a radical interested in speaking for those whose voices are all too often silenced.

Through four presidential elections and three wars, I found his voice a necessary tonic -- especially at a time when progressives have ceded their activism during Democratic presidential administrations, as too many have now.

Zinn's people-centric approach informs my poetry -- I tend to write narratives about people we normally ignore or forget about and I try to make connections between the big issues (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) and the people caught in the whirlwind.

I didn't know Zinn, but I felt like I did and I am better for it and I hope the world is, as well.

Some people writing about Zinn:

Daniel Ellsberg

Matt Rothschild in The Progressive

David Zirin in The Nation
And, of course, Zinn in his own words.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.