Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Jan 28, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Howard Zinn who was an author, a Boston University historian, a teacher and a political activist who opposed US involvement in Vietnam, died on Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. His family reported he was 87. His book “A People’s History of the United States” became one of the most popular leftist texts. His daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said he died of a heart attack.

His book, “A People’s History” was published in the year 1980 without much promotion. In its first printing 5,000 copies were published. It gradually turned out to be a best-seller drawing a lot of people’s attention. By 2003, 1 million copies of this book were sold and was still in demand. Though his target was general readers, the book was taught in high schools as well as colleges across the country. Various companion editions also came out which included “Voices of a People’s History.” Young boys and girls were the target readers of this edition, which was a graphic novel.

Howard Zinn was born in New York in the year 1922. His father was a Jewish immigrant. He loved reading Charles Dickens as a young boy. He was a socially conscious person from a very young age. He studied from New York University and Columbia University. At an early age he had joined Army Air Corps in 1943, his target was to wipe out Nazis. He received an Air Medal for his services but when he was back home, he had put all the medals and papers in a folder and wrote “Never again.” Howard Zinn wrote a lot of books. His last published short essay came out last week in “The Nation”. It talked about President Barack Obama’s administration in the first year.