As a World War II combat soldier, Howard Zinn took part in the aerial
bombing of Royan, France. Two decades later, he was invited to visit
Hiroshima and meet survivors of the atomic attack. In this short and
powerful book, Zinn offers his deep personal reflections and political
analysis of these events, their consequences, and the profound
influence they had in transforming him from an order-taking combat
soldier to one of our greatest anti-authoritarian, antiwar historians.
This book was finalized just prior to Zinn's passing in January 2010,
and is published on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the bombing of
Hiroshima.
Simultaneous publication this August in the U.S. and Japan
commemorates the 65th anniversary of the USA's two atomic bombings of
Japan by calling for the abolition of all nuclear weapons and an end
to war as an acceptable solution to human conflict.
"Zinn writes with an enthusiasm rarely encountered in the leaden prose
of academic history …"—_New York Times Book Review_
"This collection of essays is a great book for anybody who wants to be
better informed about history, regardless of their political point of
view."—_O, The Oprah Magazine_
"Zinn collects here almost three dozen brief, passionate essays …
Readers seeking to break out of their ideological comfort zones will
find much to ponder here."—_Publishers Weekly_
"A bomb is highly impersonal. The dropper can kill hundreds, and never
see any of them. _The Bomb_ is the memoir of Howard Zinn, a bomber in
World War II who dropped bombs along the French countryside while
campaigning against Germany. After learning of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Zinn now speaks out against the use of bombs and what it can do to
warfare. Thoughtful and full of stories of an old soldier who regrets
what he has done, _The Bomb_ is a fine posthumous release that shares
much of the lost wisdom of World War II."—James A. Cox, _The Midwest
Book Review_
"Throughout his academic career, his popular writings and work as an
activist Zinn consistently, and often successfully, threw a wrench in
the works of the US war machine. He may be gone, but through his
powerful and passionate body of work—of which _The Bomb_ is an
excellent introduction—thousands of others will be educated and
inspired to work for a more humane and peaceful world."—Ian
Sinclair, _Morning Star_
"The path that Howard Zinn walked—from bombardier to
activist—gives hope that each of us can move from clinical
detachment to ardent commitment, from violence to
nonviolence."—Frida Berrigan, _WIN Magazine_
HOWARD ZINN (1922 2010) was raised in a working-class family in
Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War
II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war.
Under the GI Bill he went to college and received his Ph.D. from
Columbia University. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College
in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in
the civil rights movement, which he participated in as an adviser to
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and chronicled,
in his book _SNCC: The New Abolitionists_. Zinn collaborated with
historian Staughton Lynd and mentored a young student named Alice
Walker. When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his
protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading
critic of the Vietnam War.
In his liftetime, Zinn received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V.
Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award.
He is perhaps best known for _A People's History of the United
States_. City Lights Booksellers and Publishers previously published
his essay collection _A Power Governments Cannot Suppress_.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780872865426
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
City Lights Publishers
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter