The Politics of History
SECOND EDITION With a New Introduction
HOWARD ZINN
© 1970, 1990 by Howard Zinn. Reprinted by arrangement with "The Howard Zinn Revocable Trust".
A Note on the Contents:
The essay “Knowledge as a Form of Power” has appeared in the Saturday Review, “History as Private Enterprise” appears in the Festschrift for Herbert Marcuse, The Critical Spirit, edited by Kurt H. Wolff and Barrington Moore, Jr., published by Beacon Press. “LaGuardia in the Jazz Age” is drawn from various material in my book LaGuardia in Congress, published by Cornell University Press and the American Historical Association, © 1958 by Howard Zinn, © 1959 by the American Historical Association, used here by permission of Cornell University Press. “The Limits of the New Deal” is the introductory essay in my book New Deal Thought, copyright © 1966 by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., published by Bobbs-Merrill. “Abolitionists and the Tactics of Agitation” appeared in the Columbia University Forum. The part of Psychoanalyzing the Dissenter: Two Cases” that deals with Lewis Feuer was a review in The New Republic. “Vietnam: The Moral Equation” and “The Prisoners: A Bit of Contemporary History” appeared as articles in The Nation. The Hiroshima part of “Hiroshima and Royan” is an adaptation of an article in the Columbia University Forum. “Freedom and Responsibility” is an adaptation of an essay that appeared on page two of The New York Times Book Review.
Titles in Print by Howard Zinn
ARTISTS IN TIMES OF WAR (Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 2003)
THE BOMB: Essays (Open Media/City Lights Publishers, 2010)
DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order (Vintage 1968, reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
EMMA (South End Press, 2002)
FAILURE TO QUIT: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (Common Courage Press, 1993; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
THE FUTURE OF HISTORY: Interviews with David Barsamian (Common Courage Press, 1999)
HOWARD ZINN ON DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION, with Donald Macedo, (Paradigm, 2008)
HOWARD ZINN ON HISTORY (Seven Stories Press, 2001)
HOWARD ZINN ON WAR (Seven Stories Press, 2001)
JUSTICE IN EVERYDAY LIFE: Eyewitness Accounts (Beacon Press, 1977; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
A JUST WAR, with Moises Saman & Gino Strada (Charta Press, 2006)
LAGUARDIA IN CONGRESS, (Cornell UP, 1959; reprint 2010)
LA OTRA HISTORIA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS (Seven Stories Press, 2001)
MARX IN SOHO: A Play on History (South End Press, 1999)
NEW DEAL THOUGHT, Ed. By Howard Zinn (Bobbs-Merrill, 1966, reprint edition Hackett Publishing Co., 2003)
ORIGINAL ZINN: CONVERSATIONS ON HISTORY AND POLITICS, with David Barsamian (HarperCollins/Perennial, 2006)
PASSIONATE DECLARATIONS: ESSAYS ON WAR AND JUSTICE, formerly DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE (HarperCollins/Perennial, 1990, 2003)
A PEOPLES HISTORY OF EMPIRE; written with Paul Buhle & illustrated by Mike Konopack,(Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2008, graphic edition)
A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., updated edition 2003 (HarperCollins/Perennial)
A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., Abridged Teaching Edition, (New Press, 1997)
A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., the wall charts (New Press, 1995)
THE PEOPLE SPEAK: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (HarperCollins/Perennial, 2004)
THE POLITICS OF HISTORY, second edition (University of Illinois, 1990)
POSTWAR AMERICA: 1945-1971 (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
A POWER GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SUPPRESS (City Lights Publishers, 2007)
SNCC: THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS (Beacon Press, 1964; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
THE SOUTHERN MYSTIQUE, (Knopf, 1964; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
TERRORISM AND WAR, with Anthony Arnove (Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 2002)
THREE PLAYS: THE POLITICAL THEATER OF HOWARD ZINN – EMMA, MARX IN SOHO, DAUGHTERS OF VENUS (Beacon Press, 2010)
THREE STRIKES, with Dana Frank and Robin D.G. Kelley (Beacon Press, 2001)
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: A PEOPLES HISTOR, updated. 2003 (HarperCollins/Perennial)
UNCOMMON SENSE: FROM THE WRITINGS OF HOWARD ZINN (Paradigm Press, 2009)
UNRAVELING OF THE BUSH PRESIDENCY (Seven Stories Press, 2009)
VIETNAM: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL (Beacon Press; 1967; Reprint edition South End Press, 2002)
VOICES OF A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., with Anthony Arnove (Seven Stories Press, 2004; second edition 2010)
YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF OUR TIMES, second edition (Beacon Press, 2002)
A YOUNG PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S.: Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff (Seven Stories Press, 2007)
THE ZINN READER: WRITINGS ON DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY (Seven Stories Press 1997, second edition 2010)
To, for, with Roslyn
“Other historians relate facts to inform us of facts. You relate them to excite in our hearts an intense hatred of lying, ignorance, hypocrisy, superstition, tyranny; and the anger remains even after the memory of the facts has disappeared.”
—DIDEROT, WRITING OF VOLTAIRE
Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
1 Knowledge as a Form of Power
2 History as Private Enterprise
3 What Is Radical History?
PART TWO ∙ ESSAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
CLASS:
4 Inequality
5 The Ludlow Massacre
6 LaGuardia in the Jazz Age
7 The Limits of the New Deal
RACE:
8 Abolitionists and the Tactics of Agitation
9 Psychoanalyzing the Dissenter: Two Cases
10 Liberalism and Racism
11 Albany, Georgia, and the New Frontier
NATIONALISM:
12 Aggressive Liberalism