Full-Length Talk
Filmed in Cambridge, MA
February 10, 2002
55 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 contrasting the "war on terrorism’s" stated aims with it’s actual realities. He then presents an historical perspective detailing the United States military interventions in Latin America, the Carribean, the Pacific and the Middle East over the last century. Zinn explains that war is often used by governments to supress dissent and deflect attention away from governmental and corporate policies that perpetuate inequities and injustice. He encourages people to keep democracy alive by actively organizing and speaking out.

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