Book Description: "Thank you, Howard Zinn. Thank you for telling us what none of our leaders are willing to: The truth. And you tell it with such brilliance, such humanity. It is a personal honor to be able to say I am a better citizen because of you."-- Michael Moore, director of the film Fahrenheit 9/11, and author of the New York Times bestseller, Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!
Find here the voice of the well-educated and honorable and capable and human United States of America, which might have existed if only absolute power had not corrupted its third-rate leaders so absolutely.-- Kurt Vonnegut, author of A Man Without a Country
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, is a major new collection of essays on American history, class, immigration, justice, and ordinary citizens who have made a difference. Zinn addresses America's current political/ethical crisis using lessons learned from our nation's history. Zinn brings a profoundly human, yet uniquely American perspective to each subject he writes about, whether it's the abolition of war, terrorism, the Founding Fathers, the Holocaust, defending the rights of immigrants, or personal liberties. Written in an accessible, personal tone, Zinn approaches the telling of U.S. history from an active, engaged point of view. "America's future is linked to how we understand our past," writes Zinn; "For this reason, writing about history, for me, is never a neutral act."
Zinn frames the book with an opening essay titled "If History is to be Creative," a reflection on the role and responsibility of the historian. "To think that history-writing must aim simply to recapitulate the failures that dominate the past," writes Zinn, "is to make historians collaborators in an endless cycle of defeat." "If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, and occasionally win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare."
Buzzing with stories and ideas, Zinn draws upon fascinating, little-known historical anecdotes spanning from the Declaration of Independence to the USA PATRIOT Act to comment on the most controversial issues facing us today: government dishonesty, how to respond to terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the loss of our liberties, immigration, and the responsibility of the citizen to confront power for the common good.
Considered a "modern-day Thoreau" by Jonathon Kozol, Zinn's inspired writings address the reader as an active participant in history making. "We live in a beautiful country," writes Zinn, in the book's opening chapter. "But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."
Featuring essays penned over an eight-year period, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress is Howard Zinn's first writerly work in several years, an invaluable post-9/11-era addition to the themes that run through his bestselling classic, A People's History Of the United States.
Howard Zinn is a veteran of World War II and author of many books and plays, including the million-selling classic, A People's History of the United States.
Misguided Power Zinn accurately points out that a disgruntled citizenry can overpower the guns and force of the largest governments. He correctly identifies problems with our current system of government; however his solutions are misguided at best.
He puts too much faith in the ability of government to fix problems and actually calls for more government intervention - apparently oblivious to the fact that government almost always exasperates the very problems it attempts to solve.
He riles against government subsidies to large corporations yet lauds government subsidies to "the disadvantaged". He is vehemently opposes a society segregated by class and in the same breath extols a welfare system that reinforces such segregation. He mocks the idea of a free market while never admitting that no such market has ever existed in this country due to government intervention.
As a historian, it should be obvious to Zinn that his utopian socialist society, while arguably pretty on paper, is disastrous in the real world. His solutions are not new and are based on ideals that have proven to be inefficient, if not tantamount to slavery.
A real solution to the issues he brings up is one that has not been tried and failed but one that is based on principal; one that completely opposes the initiation of force against everyone in society; one that reserves and restricts government power to defending the sovereignty of the nation and protecting it's citizen's inalienable freedoms.
Master Teacher Zinn Ther are very few writters such as Teacher Zinn that can prose reality such as he does. Giving readers the truth is one thing, delivering it with such clarity is truley enlightening to say the least. This text should be available, along with Howard Zinn's other works for every American school child in the middle and high school curriculum. The truth will empower them and just maybe set us all free. As "Flava Flave" of Public Enemy would declare, "do you know what time it is, boyee!" After reading Zinn's "A Power," you will!
a powerful message this book was very informative, for me at least, a student of math.
however, as i think someone already mentioned, the prose is often lame and unimaginative.
examples: "we are always in need of radicals who are also lovable, and so we would do well to remember eugene v. debs." - p. 231
"the world has been at war, again and again all through the twentieth century, and here it is, a new century, and we still have not done away with the horror of war." - p. 189
but this is really not important; what's important is zinn's overall message, encapsulated in the book's title. in fact one could argue that the dull prose makes it more accessible to laypeople (who are the backbone of social change, as zinn emphasizes time and time again) and easier to read.
and though there's a bibliography, there is no footnoting, as opposed to chomsky's books, which all seem to be extensively footnoted. i found this lack of rigour annoying and slightly unprofessional.
these are minor complaints. ultimately i give this book my highest recommendations. i'm a much better person for having read it, and it's a great book to awaken any american to the realities of the world he/she lives in.
a fantastic "must" read! howard zinn is a true hero in our age of myopia and deceit. this book is filled with invaluable information. read it! keep it! pass it on! with all the information zinn places in your hands, it's amazing that he still leaves you with a positive message which one cannot ignore!
Validates my choice to oppose Cheney & attack on Iran Earlier today I reviewed The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America by Peter Dale Scott, and coined a new term of praise, "erudite patriot." That was one of many reviews from my long recent trip to the Middle East that I could finally post.
I would never have anticipated that in reading this book today, I would not only encounter a second "erudite patriot," but that my somewhat anxious decision to directly and repeatedly focus public attention on the high crimes and misdemeanors of Dick Cheney, would be so elegantly validated with a firm grounding in public resistance to tyranny and amorality.
The author, an eminent historian, is the people's historian. He alone has documented the many times in which public resistance brought odious government programs to a stop.
Although a collection of past essays, this book actually reads fast and well as a survey of the fundamentals empowered by historical example and accuracy. I was strongly reaffirmed in my beliefs by this book, reinforced in my relatively recent commitment to bringing Cheney to justice.
The author, unique qualified to do so, informs us that people have resisted before, that the osmosis of truth ultimate swings the public, and as the book title suggests, no government can resist an aroused public.
The author suggests, and I agree, that impeachment of Cheney first, is essential. Our government has lost all legitimacy in my eyes, and I would resist arrest by this goveernment to the death of them or I, after first attempting to persuade the good-hearted people sent to arrest me that they should disobey the illegal order to arrest me, and live to see their families that night.
Every single essay in this book is moving, intelligent, cogent, and relevant to the greatest crisis our Republic has ever faced. The author's review of our greatest betrayal, of the wounded from Gulf I and Gulf II (he does not mention that unlike Gulf I, Gulf II produced 16 instead of 6 wounded for every death, and we have 75,000 amputees across the land, lives shatted by Dick Cheney's lies, by Paul Wolfowitz's lies, by Donald Rumsfeld's idiocy and arrogance).
The author is compelling in stating that war is the enemy, and one is reminded of the outcome of War Games: the only winning strategy is not to play at war for profit or any other reason.
The author is compelling in cataloging the litany of lies by our Presidents, and the manner in which our Founding Fathers designed the government to protect the rich and enslave the poor.
The author is compelling in pointing out that we must all question authority, and that the one thing we should all recognize now is that we can unite and be invincible, non-violently invincible, in demanding dignity, justice, and liberty for all--not just all Americans, but every person on the planet and especially those repressed by the 44 dictators, 42 of whom are Bush-Cheney "allies."
The author is compelling in damning the hypocrisy of this Administration, and I will tell everyone for a fact that below the White House level, most political appointees are shocked, scared, scared, angry, and hopeful that America will impeach the idiot-in-chief and the thief-in-chief. I am an estranged moderate Republican, and I never, ever, imagined that the Republican Party would become the runner up to global crimes so grotesque and extensive that only Hitler and his genocide against the Jews rate above it.
The author is compelling in calling for new new ways, for waging peace instead of war, for undertaking a general strike (I even thought the time has come to make all our tax payments to an escrow account instead of to the existing hijacked government).
I stand with the author in commiting to non-violent opposition to this totalitarian and amoral White House. Non-violence works. All that We the People need to do is withdraw our obedience. I really like the idea of a general strike, and I respectfully suggest to one and all that if America attacks Iran with Israel, that is the day when we should all go on indefinite general strike, and not return to work, nor pay taxes, until all US forces are withdrawn from the Middle East.
Under existing law & regulations, the above statement could be interpreted by Bush-Cheney as giving comfort to the enemey, and I could be arrested and all my property confiscated. That is how low this Republic has gone.
I must say, Howard Zinn's brilliance and integrity have bathed me with a warm glow of confidence in We the People. I feel protected, reinforced, encouraged, renewed, heartened by his wisdom. With such great minds as his speaking out, I am confident We the People will prevail.
You must, absolutely, buy this this book, read it, and recommend it to others. Other books that I have reviewed and recommend:
The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents) Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
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