By April MacIntyre Jan 28, 2010, 2:43 GMT
Author, historian, teacher, activist, and television producer Dr. Howard Zinn died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, his family said. He was 87.
Zinn was an energized man on a mission. The History channel breathed new life into his controversial tome "A People's History of the United States," and enlisted the A-List of Hollywood to provide readings of key documents, speeches, personal letters and poems from America's past that revealed a turbulent struggle for equal rights, freedom and justice.
Not everyone agreed with Dr. Zinn, and many conservative commentators argued his teachings were anti-American and revisionary leftist propaganda.
Dr. Zinn served alongside the executive producers Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Josh Brolin, and Anthony Arnove, and the History channel to bring his teachings as a message to high schools and college campuses, and on television.
Zinn, 87, served as a history professor for most of his professional career, and in the lecture hall and in his writings, particularly his very popular A People's History of the United States, he taught history "from the ground up" in an engaging way.
In 2004 Zinn joined with Dr. Anthony Arnove to publish a collection of primary source documents titled Voices of a People's History of the United States, an academic bestseller on college and high school campuses. The materials range across the length of American history and feature letters, petitions, poems, speeches, and songs from "women and slaves, immigrants and youth, soldiers and students."
This History Channel documentary "The People Speak" used these words with famous voices to read selected passages that celebrated activism, protested politics and demanded social reform.
"This documentary is designed to effect and cast light on social change from the bottom up, by everyday people coming together and causing enough trouble that the changes are made," Matt Damon told M&C at the Summer press tour (TCA's) in Pasadena. "Ideas of slavery, and the right of women to vote, workers' rights, all created by social rage and protest."
In the documentary, Damon read from the Declaration of Independence.
Morgan Freeman read Frederick Douglass’ commentary of slavery in the 1850s.
Christina Kirk and Josh Brolin read Susan B. Anthony’s letters after her courtroom trial.
Marisa Tomei read Genora Johnson Dollinger’s account of the pre-unionization strikes at General Motors in 1937.
David Strathairn read retired Navy Adm. Gene La Rocque’s comments after Vietnam that there is no such thing as a "good" war.
The documentary also featured dramatic and musical performances by Allison Moorer, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Robinson, Danny Glover, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Don Cheadle, Eddie Vedder, Harris Yulin, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Kathleen Chalfant, Kerry Washington, Lupe Fiasco, Martín Espada, Michael Ealy, Mike O'Malley, Q'orianka Kilcher, Reg E. Cathey, Rich Robinson, Rosario Dawson, Sandra Oh, Staceyann Chin, and Viggo Mortensen.
There is an excellent obituary posted online by reporter Mark Feeney at Boston.com here
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