"People's History Author" Howard Zinn dies at 87

Howard Zinn, author, educator and political activist, whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" has sold one million copies alternative to general texts and a favorite of celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, who died Wednesday. He was 87th Tin died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn says. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass., was published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5000, "A People's History" - in line - a best-selling popular, attracts a wide audience through the mouth and ear to 1 million euro turnover in 2003. Although tin was written for a general readership, his book taught in high schools and colleges across the country and guide has been published on many issues, including "Voices of a People's History", volume for young people and a graphic novel "I can ' t think of all the influence so powerful and benign, "said the linguist Noam Chomsky and activist colleagues, a close friend of tin. "His career has changed the way millions of people have ever seen." Call at a time when few politicians dared to be liberal, "History of a People's Party", a story that says openly left wing. Tin charged Christopher Columbus and other explorers of genocide, contributed to President Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and anti-war. Even liberal historians are uncomfortable with tin. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once said: "I know he considers me as a dangerous reactionary. And I do not take it seriously. It is a polemicist, not a historian." In a 1998 interview with the Associated Press, tin, he did not give trying to write an objective history, completeness or person. He called his book an answer to the traditional works, the first chapter - and not least - a new kind of history. "There is not anything like a story, each story is incomplete," said Zinn. "My idea of the orthodoxy that has already been done a thousand times." A People's History "were some famous admirers, including Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two grew up near Tin were friends and family gave the book a plug in her Oscar-winning screenplay for" Good Will Hunting. "If nearly married Affleck Jennifer Lopez, tin was on the guest list. "He taught me how precious - how dissent necessary to democracy and to America itself," Affleck said in a statement. " He taught that the story of ordinary people there, not the elites. I was fortunate to know him personally, and I will give to me, try to take what I learned from him - and my own children - in his memory. "Oliver Stone was a fan, and Springsteen, whose dark" Nebraska "album on the part of" A People's History inspiration. "The book was the basis of a 2007 documentary," Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, "and even saw on "The Sopranos" in the hands of the son of Tony was a man of tin AJ impressive appearance, tall and robust, with wavy hair. A skilled orator, he was modest and the participation of people more interested in persuasion than in the confrontation. Born in New York in 1922, tin was the son of Jewish immigrants who lived a child in a rundown section of Brooklyn, and responds to strong the novels of Charles Dickens. At 17, some of ur ged com Young Communists in his neighborhood, he attended a political rally in Times Square. "Suddenly I heard the sound of sirens and looked out and saw the police on horseback into the crowd and beat people blew up. I could not believe that he told the AP." And then I was hit. I turned around and I was stunned. I woke up later under a porch, with the Times Square once again quiet, strangely, dreamily, as if nothing had happened. I was fiercely indignant. … It was a lesson very shocking for me. "The war has continued his studies. Hilfsbereit you remove the Nazis came, tin the Army Air Corps in 1943 and is even believed to have the local draft board to their own mail notice induction. The performance of missions throughout Europe, where an Air Medal, but he was concerned that all this means. Back at home, he collected medals and records, put them in a folder and wrote about them: "Never again". He attended New York University and the Columbia University, where he earned his doctorate in history. In 1956 he became the chair of history and social science department at Spelman College, a school, all black women in Atlanta and then segregation. During the civil rights movement, Zinn encourages its students to books public libraries and a separate application to the coordination of sit-ins in cafeterias center city. Tin also has several items, including a then rare attack on the Kennedy administration as being too slow to protect blacks. He has been from students - among them a were young Alice Walker, who later wrote "The Color Purple" - but not by the directors. In 1963, Spelman was dismissed for "insubordination." (tin, a critic of school non-participation in the civil rights movement.) The years at Boston University marked by opposition to the war in Vietnam and disputes with the president of the school, John Silver. pewter retired in 1988 and spent his last day of class on the picket line with a strike of nurses to students on campus support. Over the years, he drove to the school paper and appear at rallies and on picket lines. "This is Howard was pleased that in recent years, could it get satisfaction out that his contributions were so impressive and recognized," said Chomsky. "He could hardly cope with all invitations to speak." Elsewhere "A People's History," Zinn has written several books, including "The Mystique of the South", "Guardia in Congress" and the statement: "can you not a moving train "neutral", the title of a 2004 documentary about Tin Damon says. He has also played three times. One of the last written public Tin is a short essay, published last week in The Nation, the first year of the Obama administration. "I am looking for hard facts," he said, adding that he was not disappointed because he did not expect much from Obama. "I think people are blinded by the rhetoric of Obama, and that people begin to understand that Obama will be a mediocre president - which means in our time, a dangerous President - unless a national movement to push him in a better direction. "wife and longtime collaborator tin, Roslyn, who died in 2008. They had two children, Myla and Jeff. ___ Associated Press Rodrique Ngowi contributed to this report from Boston.