Howard Zinn
Historian Howard Zinn died today. One of the patron saints of the Left from the early 1960s on, Zinn led a remarkably rich and valuable life, and toward the end of it he managed to knock at least one reader out with his essential decency and optimism:
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.
If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
(The Optimism of Uncertainty: The Nation, 9/20/2004)
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That excerpt is a lovely testament to Howard’s life. Optimism, despite all evidence against it (in 2004!), is a beautiful thing. I use the gist of “A People’s History” in discussions with my very young children, and it will be part of their continuing education as time goes on. A number of years ago, I did a great interview with him and his son, and it was inspiring to see the father-son relationship — strong, intellectually stimulating, loving, and always pursuing greater truth.
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