La Guardia in Congress. [Hardcover]

Howard Zinn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Exceedingly well written and highly readable... Professor Zinn's volume is well documented. He has drawn heavily from the personal papers of La Guardia and his contemporaries as well as from the interpretive studies of the period.”–American Political Science Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint (December 7, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837164346
• ISBN-13: 978-0837164342
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,460,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People's History of the United States, "a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those ... whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories" (Library Journal). The book, which has sold more than two million copies, has been featured on The Sopranos and Simpsons, and in the film Good Will Hunting. In 2009, History aired The People Speak, an acclaimed documentary co-directed by Zinn, based on A People's History and a companion volume, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Zinn grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class, immigrant household. At 18 he became a shipyard worker and then flew bomber missions during World War II. These experiences helped shape his opposition to war and passion for history. After attending college under the GI Bill and earning a Ph.D. in history from Columbia, he taught at Spelman, where he became active in the civil rights movement. After being fired by Spelman for his support for student protesters, Zinn became a professor of Political Science at Boston University, were he taught until his retirement in 1988.

Zinn was the author of many books, including an autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the play Marx in Soho, and Passionate Declarations. He received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Glance at Honesty in a Historian, January 9, 2005

By 

Chris A. Politz (Denton, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Guardia in Congress. (Hardcover)

Howard Zinn comes off one of two ways, and usually both at the same time. He is either a bleeding heart liberal/socialist, or a professor who loves the pursuit of knowledge, and moreover, cherishes the gift of giving it to his students. Of the two I slant more to the latter. In his first jaunt, during his Georgian days, he tackled the days of La Guardia in Congress, by using primary sources close to La Guardia himself, and by giving the history. Unlike his contemporaries, or even those before the deconstructionist age, he is not a guerilla historian spin doctoring the La Guardia Era for the benefit of a political angle, nor to romaniticize a man as contrary to right, historically, as he was right. This coupled with the stellar People's History of the United States are welcomed additions to any historian/history buffs bookshelf.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Progressive unlike Today's Republicans., November 27, 2008

By 

Sean Mulligan (Alpharetta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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Laguardia was a Republican, but he was more like Abraham Lincoln then todays Republicans such as Newt Gingrich and Dubya. Laguardia called himself a Progressive instead of a Conservative. Fiorello Laguardia is most famous for bing the Mayor of New York City during much of the 1930's and 40's but before that he was one of the leading progressives in Congress. During the "Roaring Twenties" he tried to expose the vast amount of poverty that existed in Americaeven before the depression. Laguardia supported civil liberties and redbaiting. He supported public power and labor. He opposed imperialism. He called for indepencence for the Philippines, self-government for Puerto Rico, and withdrawel of U.S. troops from Haiti. The policies Laguardia supported in in Congress were precursers of the New Deal and Laguardia can be considered one of the first New Dealers. A New Dealer even before FDR.