Howard Zinn 津恩

Howard Zinn passed away on Jan 28, 2010. No, my google news feed page that I open almost religiously on a daily basis did not alert me to the sad news. I was busy preparing my trip back home for Chinese New Year that I did not learn about it until more than a month and a half later when I was reading an education listserv on U. S. Government and Politics. More than ten years ago I gave colder than lukewarm response when a friend of mine recommended me his book: A People's History of the United States. My friend even xeroxed Chapter One for me. I am glad that I read it, for calling the book an eye opener to me is an understatement.

Zinn started Chapter 12 The Empire and the People with:

Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897: "In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."

while this paragraph from Chapter 24 The Coming Revolt of the Guards:

One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.

clearly struck a chord with me. Whether you are from the third world, or the first or industrialised world, the developing South or the developed North, rich or poor, East or West, (former and existing or defacto) colony or (part of any) declining or ascending empire, regardless of your political leanings, you are bound to relate to some, if not many of the points made in this book.


May Zinn's spirit continues like an eternal flame, under downpours or sandstorms or sunshine.
Part of A People's History of the United States can be found here. Read it for the sake of humanity!

霍華德·津恩（Howard Zinn） 離世，但當天打開谷歌新聞的網站也沒有他的消息。我是在一個多月後無意中在我訂閱的社會學的電郵裏發現。寫這博客時邊做點兒研究，驚覺中國網也有一遍關於津恩文章。驚訝是因為中國裏的一些津恩一遭關起來。如果你從沒有聽說過津恩這人的話，快找他最有名的著作《美國人民的歷史》來讀讀吧。不要用中、美兩國現在的關係的態度去看，而是以一個平民看政府、看帝國、看種族關係、看戰爭、看一般平民的聲音等等的出發點去看，你必能得到啟迪。