MB Civic

Henry Giroux – A few days before his death, [Howard] sent me an email commenting on something I had written .. He wrote: “Henry, we are in a situation where mild rebuke, even critiques we consider ‘radical’ are not sufficient .. Raising the temperature of our language, our indignation, is what you are doing and what is needed. I recall that Sartre, close to death, was asked: ‘What do you regret?’ He answered: ‘I wasn’t radical enough.'”

Harvey Wasserman – [In 1971] I sent Howard a rambling 300-page manuscript under the absurdly presumptuous title A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1860-1920 .. He replied with a cordial note typed on a single sheet of yellow paper, which I still treasure. I showed it to Hugh Van Dusen at Harper & Row, who said .. if Howard Zinn would write an introduction, they’d publish it .. Thankfully, Hugh then had the good sense to ask Howard to write a REAL people’s history by someone—the ONLY one—who could handle the job. He did….and ALL our lives have been changed forever.
David Zirin – When I was 17 and picked up a dog-eared copy of Zinn’s book, I thought history was about learning that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. I couldn’t tell you what the Magna Carta was, but I knew it was signed in 1215. Howard took this history of great men in powdered wigs and turned it on its pompous head
Daniel Ellsberg – On Saturday night, June 12, 1971, we had a date with Howard and Roz to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Harvard Square. But that morning I learned from someone at the New York Times that-without having alerted me-the Times was about to start publishing the top secret documents I had given them that evening