A Power Governments Cannot Suppress - Softcover

Zinn, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872864758 ISBN 13: 9780872864757

Publisher: City Lights Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress is a major collection of essays on American history, race, class, justice and ordinary people who stand up to power. Zinn approaches the telling of U.S. history from an active, engaged point of view, drawing upon untold histories to comment on the most controversial issues facing us today: government dishonesty, terrorism, the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, the loss of our liberties, immigration and the responsibility of the citizen to confront power for the common good. A Power Governments Cannot Suppress is an invaluable post-9/11 era addition to the themes that run through Howard Zinn's bestselling classic, A People's History of the United States.

"Thank you, Howard Zinn. Thank you for telling us what none of our leaders are willing to: The truth. And you tell it with such brilliance, such humanity. It is a personal honor to be able to say I am a better citizen because of you."—Michael Moore, director of Fahrenheit 9/11

"This strong, incisive book by Howard Zinn provides us with a penetrating critique of current U.S. policies and embraces the sweep of history. . . . A Power Governments Cannot Suppress leaves us with the faith that citizens have what it takes to confront power and to reverse the dangerous and unjust acts of our government."—Jonathan Kozol, author of The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

"Find here the voice of the well-educated and honorable and capable and humane United States of America, which might have existed if only absolute power had not corrupted its third-rate leaders so absolutely."—Kurt Vonnegut, author of A Man Without a Country

"Howard Zinn is a unique voice of sanity, clarity, and wisdom who reads history not only to understand the present but to shape the future . . . . Profoundly insightful . . . A Power Governments Cannot Suppress should be read by every American, over and over again."—Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine

"Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose of academic history. . ."—New York Times Book Review

"Zinn collects here almost three dozen brief, passionate essays that follow in the tradition of his landmark work, A People's History of the United States . . . Readers seeking to break out of their ideological comfort zones will find much to ponder here."—Publishers Weekly

Howard Zinn is an acclaimed historian, playwright, and combat veteran of World War II. He is the author of more than two dozen books, including his masterpiece A People's History of the United States, and The Historic Unfulfilled Promise (City Lights).

About this title

About the Author

Howard Zinn served as an air force bombardier in WWII, and afterward received his doctorate in history from Columbia University. He is author of A Power Governments Cannot Suppress and the million-selling classic A People's History of the United States.

Reviews

Prolific author, WWII veteran and outspoken history/political science professor Zinn collects here almost three dozen brief, passionate essays that follow in the tradition of his landmark work, A People's History of the United States, taking up the cause of ordinary Americans fighting for social justice. Shunning conventional notions of American history, Zinn instead strives to decouple the country's history from its "mythology," in part by examining familiar contemporary concerns like class, race, civil liberties, immigration and the Iraq War. Indeed, this veteran's profound disillusionment with war suffuses the work, but a polemic against the Bush administration this is not; while Zinn scarcely shies from critiquing the governing elite, he prefers to focus on little-known or underappreciated historical episodes such as Revolutionary War soldiers driven to mutiny or 1999 World Trade Organization protestors in Seattle. He also revisits and reframes well-known events, including the Boston Massacre and the Holocaust, and invokes figures like union organizer Eugene Debs and Vietnam War protestor Philip Berrigan to point the way forward. Though his observations can be bleak, Zinn's belief that "history is powerful" and will "break down the credibility of the war makers" gives his book a great sense of hope. Readers seeking to break out of their ideological comfort zones will find much to ponder here.
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Edition details

• Publisher: City Lights Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0872864758
• ISBN 13: 9780872864757
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308