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Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision

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Publishers Weekly complained about this book: "...a little more objectivity would have improved this study of Zinn's life and work." This is the standard criticism, even dismissal of socially conscious intellectuals by mainstream gatekeepers in the United States. And what an outrage by that standard is a biography of the "people's historian" written by one of his ilk, and to top it off, an introduction by that radical Noam Chomsky! But, in fact, this is the combustion that makes the book exciting and enlightening and will lead readers to read all the works of all three socially conscious scholars.

Dr. Davis Joyce is an Oklahoma historian, one of the few in that state who is knowledgeable and writes of that state's radical roots. Joyce edited "'An Oklahoma I Had Never Seen Before': Alternative Views of Oklahoma," a book in the Zinn mode of "people's history," a great gift to Oklahoma readers and students. For readers not from Oklahoma, the book would be enlightening for those who assume that Oklahoma is about as "heartland" and conservative as a state can be. As Joyce, Zinn, and other socially conscious historians have demonstrated, there are deep socially and politically radical roots in every nook and corner of the country, many of them embedded in the most oppressed communities.

Howard Zinn, as a young scholar, learned that about his country when he went South in 1956, staying 8 years with deep involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Afterwards, that experience informed his scholarship and teaching and raised a model for a generation of aspiring scholars, that of the activist-scholar, making knowledge and critical skills available to the people.

That Davis Joyce admires Zinn is no secret. Clearly, Joyce took on the biography project to delve more deeply into the sources and motivations that created such an amazing citizen of the United States. The presumed "objectivity" of mainstream biographers amd historians more often than not mask support for oppressive structures and the status quo. Anyone who does not do so is then labeled "unobjective."

Read this book and judge for yourself, trust your own judgment.

I am a Howard Zinn fan and was thrilled to find that someone had written a biography of this amazing man. After reading Mr. Joyce's biography, I find myself even more thrilled, more in awe and deeply respectful of Howard Zinn. Mr. Zinn says about The People's History of the American People that this is the unreported history of the marginalized people. Reading Mr. Joyce's biography, you can understand even more why Mr. Zinn thought that writing their history was so important. The thing is that Mr. Zinn's life falls in the same category: a part of history that is under-reported and needs to be analyzed and studied. His life is very instructive and a clear guide to anyone interested in progressive causes.

I wanted to find out what Mr. Zinn had read, that along with his actual life experiences had inspired him. And boy did I get my answer. Starting with economics and economic theory, including the sweetest story ever about Charles Dickens, and moving on to Richard Wright and others. If you feel the need to understand the passions that have moved Mr. Zinn, then finding out what he was reading is very instructive. Thanks to Mr. Joyce for giving readers a guide. As if I needed anything to stoke the Zinn Passion, this book did it.

Davis Joyce's book, Howard Zinn: "A Radical American Vision", is a delightful read. As an individual who typically doesn't read biographies, I was pleasantly surprised by the readability of this work. Zinn, who I had heard about only in passing, is an exceptional person. His radicalism has extended from the civil rights era to the present. He is a man who views history as a tool to demonstrate the need for action in current society.

I was particularly interested in the discussions between objective and subjective reporting of history. Most people now recognize that any view of any event is seen through subjective eyes. To pretend otherwise is sheer hypocrisy. Its good to see that some individuals in the profession of history recognize Zinn's view.

Zinn seems driven to work for the benefit of the downtrodden. A review of his work documents his struggle with authority, with his need to be a family man and provider, with his need to be recognized within his profession. This makes his story one of remarkable dedication.

I appreciate Mr Joyce bringing to my attention the ongoing life and struggle of this extraordinary man. By reading this work I was inspired to purchase Zinn's A People's History. I am looking forward to further enlightenment of our people's history.

Frank Shanklin, Ada

Howard Zinn is best known for his 1980 book, "A People's History of the United States," but perhaps the title of his memoir, "You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train" sheds more light on his career as a "radical historian." Eschewing the typical scholar's cloak of objectivity, Zinn believes that historians must take a stand - and even involve themselves through social action - in the issues on which they write. For example, Zinn participated in SNCC as an adult advisor and at the same time sought to chronicle the Civil Rights movement as a historian. In that case, he wanted to be "a historian in the movement and of the movement." Zinn's unorthodox approach both in focus and method did not endear him to fellow historians, but probably accounts for his relative popularity with the public.

Joyce's book provides a detailed summary of Zinn's academic career, both as a writer and a teacher. Zinn wrote or edited over a dozen books, and is notable for his teaching career as a professor of political science at Spelman College in Atlanta and Boston University. Joyce recounts how he came to respect Howard Zinn, after reading his 1967 book "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal." Joyce writes with sensitivity and passion, stepping out of the way and letting Zinn explain himself through ample and lengthy quotes. Each of Zinn's books is placed in historical, and more briefly, personal context, with attention paid to the reviews of the day. Joyce's Zinn is funny, optimistic, passionate about his issues, and dogged in his pursuit of them.

In his introduction, Noam Chomsky, the social critic and MIT linguist, outlines the protest movements of the past decades and discusses Zinn's activism and scholarship: "It's a rare achievement to have interwoven both of these strands in one's life, as Howard Zinn has done."

Davis Joyce is the editor of "An Oklahoma I had Never Seen Before," which is a Zinn-influenced "people's history" of Oklahoma. He has taught history at University of Tulsa, East Central University, and currently, in his retirement, teaches part-time at Rogers State University.

This is a major book that is a must-read for anyone interested in one of the foremost radical figures of the twentieth century. Readers familiar with Zinn will remember his as a historian, activist, and proponent of radical social reform. He was a leader in the Civil Rights movement and one of the early opponents of the Vietnam War. His book "A People's History of the United States" has sold over a million copies and is considered a classic.
At age 80 Zinn continues to write, lecture, and promote his views of a better America through radical social reform. Always controversial and sometimes considered un-American, this is a great book about an American icon, and is a must-read, as noted by Noam Chomsky, "For those who value the diversity of American voices and appreciate the importance of radically different viewpoints outside the mainstream."
Davis Joyce is a first rate scholar and highly readable writer who can make you feel as if you were sitting at the kitchen table with him and a cup of coffee discussing Zinn and social issues of the day. He is that good. A superb job by a talented author. Highly recommended.

One reviewer wants to know Howard and Roslyn Zinn's thoughts on
child-rearing. I don't know if they've published anything about
that, but their daughter has, and the Zinns probably had some
influence because Myla and her brother Jeff did not turn out too
badly. With her husband, Jon Kabot-Zinn, Myla has written a book
called Everyday Blessings, a detailed exploration of the meaning
of respectful child-rearing.

The reviewer also wants to know if Howard Zinn shared his
progressive ideas while serving in the Army Air Corps during
WWII. Someone should ask him that, but here's some context.
Zinn's writing is informed by study and personal experience. He
attended college after WWII on the GI bill, and earned a B.A.
from NYU in 1951 and Ph.D from Columbia in 1958.

In mid-April, 1945, he was a bombardier with the 490th Bomb
Group and, from the air, he participated in the napalm bombing
of Royan, the French seaside resort favored by Picasso. Nineteen
years later, Zinn visited Royan, on the ground, and scoured
public records in its town library. From documents and
interviews he gathered in Royan, Zinn was able to inform and
correct the historical account of the bombing of Royan written
by historians who were not there. Zinn's detailed account of the
circumstances of the bombing of Royan is published in The
Politics of History and also included in The Zinn Reader. The
story is an eye-opener, both from the perspective of what
happened after D-Day and in tracing the evolution of Howard
Zinn's ideas. If radical means detailed and in context, he's
radical all right. Zinn's public speaking and his history books
are enormously popular because he never forgets the story-
telling. He's funny, and makes good use of irony.
by Bonnie Britt

it struck me as kind of hilarious that one of the main critiques i saw in regards to the book was that the author seemed to admire his subject and thus wrote about him in a less than scholarly fashion that tended to reveal a favorable bias. as i understand it, joyce's work was about a man who strived to popularize historical matter and bring a greater understanding to the general public by giving a distinct point of view, whether it was his own or another very personal account. besides, does anyone else see what a "duh" moment it is to pick someone you actually get along with in some facet to write your biography? anyone can write something boring about their subject, but only if they know the person can they actually make it cool.

i remember hearing the same sorts of things about how other hoity toity intellectuals aren't scholarly enough in their writing. well, i think if a book is geared towards the public, it should reflect that in style. that doesn't mean the book is dumb; rather, it's kind of a way to combat what i like to call "academic shamanism" in information by being able to translate what you know into normal language that interests the rest of us. being a pop culture junkie, i hate to read history books - especially biographies of any sort - with a bunch of blah bitty blah, footnotes that make no sense, and a bibliography longer than the text. so what if i'm a student? i still want to feel like there's an actual human or two involved. otherwise i could just sit around and read stereo instructions until i fall asleep. isn't it the responsibility of an academic to be able to share knowledge?

this book not only made me interested to read more from joyce himself, but also to go back and reread more of howard zinn's work. by making history and historians more accessible on a social level, the author has sparked curiosity and done the field of history a great service. i look forward to seeing more from him in the future.

BUY THIS BOOK as a gift for someone in need of hope.

In these times of desperation for so many among us around the world, it is in the inspiring story of Howard Zinn that the message every individual makes a difference, shines bright. That our collective efforts, both large and small, do indeed change the world.

Howard Zinn makes me proud to be a liberal and an intellectual, and his well-written biography gives me hope that in the end, reason, compassion, and common sense will prevail over prejudice and dogma. After reading it, I feel energized, and optimistic about the future, confident that my efforts at stemming the tide of ignorance in this country are worthwhile.

This book, is in my opinion, a must-read for all liberal-minded individuals. Howard Zinn's life is an inspiration, and his clear, concise viewpoints are brilliant -- a much needed counterpoint to Medieval, Dark-Age ideologies.

Zinn shows us that we are not, as special interests would like us to believe, "an obedient, acquiescent, passive citizenry." He articulates what many of us feel, that the ideologies which we take for granted "...are not the result of independent thought on our part, and indeed do not match the real world as we experience it..." A real eye opener. I enjoyed this book, and I'm sure you will too.

Davis Joyce takes on the enormous task of condensing and summarizing the long life and prodigious work of the phenomenon that is Howard Zinn, and succeeds wonderfully. The book is turgid, detailed and thorough, yet completely accessible, from Zinn's beginning to his present "failure to quit.�" While there is enough detail to allow us to gain a solid understanding of Zinn's most important points, the book serves well as a guide to Zinn for those who might want to take their interests to the horse's mouth. In the spirit of Zinn himself, Joyce makes no pretensions of neutrality towards his subject (clearly, he holds him in the highest regard), but neither does he come across as single-mindedly ingratiating. More importantly, the reader feels exactly the right degree of the author's presence. Joyce carefully narrates the story of Howard Zinn , the man and his contributions, in a way that allows that man to come alive and speak to us (Joyce makes extensive use of quotes from Zinn's writings and interviews to accomplish this). The story of Zinn's formative childhood experiences is particularly interesting, but in general the reader cannot help but gain insight into what moves Zinn to do what he does (whether that engenders deep respect or loathing may depend on the reader's own leanings, but it is hard not to empathize with a man who himself has so much empathy for humanity). Also in the spirit of Zinn, Joyce refuses to simplify his subject with abstract labels. Readers can judge for themselves whether they will call Zinn a communist,� humanist,� anarchist,� or whatever. They can read the specifics and conduct their own analysis, rather than having it handed to them presumptively by the biographer.