Full-Length Talk
Filmed at Brown University
Providence, RI • November 14, 2002
57 minutes • VHS Color

Nationally Broadcast on
Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now
and on Free Speech TV

      Howard Zinn is one of the country’s most beloved and respected historians, the author of numerous books and plays, and a passionate activist for grassroots social change for over 50 years. His classic,
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, has gone into more than 25 printings and is widely used in college and university classrooms across the country. This book tells American history from the point of view of the powerless and disenfranchised, those whose circumstances are usually omitted from history books.

      Zinn is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Boston University. An insightful social critic and acclaimed historian, he is the author of fourteen books, including  YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN,  THE HOWARD ZINN READER,  DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE, and his most recent  TERRORISM AND WAR.

      In this talk, Zinn begins by examining the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. He emphasizes the importance of knowing history in order to understand today’s government policies. He addresses the root causes which lead to terrorism and presents an historical overview of the United States involvement in overthrowing governments around the world. He talks about the impending U.S. war on Iraq and describes how a U.S. attack will affect Iraqi civilians. He ends by reminding the audience that dissent is patriotic and that today’s peace movement is growing at a faster pace than the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s.