Synopses & Reviews
When the historian Howard Zinn died in early 2010, millions mourned the loss of one of our foremost intellectual and political guides: a historian, activist, and truth-teller who, in the words of the
New York Timess Bob Herbert, peel[ed] back the rosy veneer of much of American history.”
Designed to highlight Zinns most important writings, The Indispensable Zinn includes excerpts from Zinns bestselling A Peoples History of the United States; his memoir, You Cant Be Neutral on a Moving Train; his inspiring writings on the civil rights movement; and the full text of his celebrated play Marx in Soho. Noted historian and activist Timothy Patrick McCarthy provides essential historical and biographical context for each selection.
With an introduction from Zinns former Spellman College student and longtime friend Alice Walker and an afterword by Zinns friend and colleague Noam Chomsky, The Indispensable Zinn is both a fitting tribute to the legacy of a man whose work changed the way millions of people saw the past” (Noam Chomsky) and a powerful and accessible introduction for anyone discovering Zinn for the first time.
About the Author
Timothy Patrick McCarthy is Lecturer on History and Literature and on Public Policy at Harvard University, where he directs the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. An award-winning scholar, teacher, and activist, he is editor of
The Indispensable Zinn and co-editor of
The Radical Reader,
Protest Nation, and
Prophets of Protest, all published by The New Press. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Howard Zinn, the famed peoples historian and peace activist, was born in 1922 and died in 2010.