Zinn, Howard

Zinn, Howard

(1922– ) historian; born in New York City. Educated at New York (B.A. 1951) and Columbia (M.A., 1952; Ph.D., 1958) Universities, he taught at Upsala College (1953–56), Spelman College (1956–63), and Boston University (1964–88; professor emeritus 1988). He received an Air Medal and battle stars for service in the U.S. Army Air Forces (1943–45). Active in social and political affairs throughout his life and an authority on the history of American civil disobedience, he participated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As a prominent protester of American aggression in Vietnam, he helped secure the release of the first three American prisoners of war. He drew upon personal experience to discuss civil rights in SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964); and American militarism in Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967). His work, A People's History of the United States (1980), approaches history from the viewpoint of working class and minority groups. His LaGuardia in Congress (1959) received the Beveridge Prize.