The anti-war warrior..............

Howard Zinn was like a daddy to Boston University students of the Vietnam War era — the students who protested and resisted the war, that is. He arrived on campus in 1964, when I was a sophomore, and within two years was the most publicly outspoken and visible member of the faculty, much to the consternation of conservative administrators. The mere mention of his name could send BU presidents into apoplexy. But they couldn't drive him out or shut him up. The author of A People's History of the United States, which has sold two million copies, has been revered by generations of students, reviled by more conventional academics, and, mostly, re-read. His literary career started modestly with SNCC: The New Abolitionists, about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of which he was a founding member in the years when white people were included. As a professor at tiny Spelman College in Atlanta in the late '50s and early '60s, he thoroughly integrated himself with black students — ultimately, his uncompromising views got him canned. Then BU took him on. Born poor in Brooklyn in 1922, Howard had a working-class perspective. He worked in the shipyards before joining the Army Air Force as a bombardier. The young man who bombed innocent civilians evolved into the pacifist professor who simply did not believe that any war was good or just. And while other teachers were terrified to go beyond signing petitions, the guy put his body on the line for his principles...Link