Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice

by Howard Zinn

Overview

“A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse.” — Los Angeles Times

From the bestselling author of A People's History of the United States comes this selection of passionate, honest, and piercing essays looking at American political ideology.

Howard Zinn brings to Passionate Declarations the same astringent style and provocative point of view that led more than a million people to buy his book A People's History of the United States. He directs his critique here to what he calls "American orthodoxies" —that set of beliefs guardians of our culture consider sacrosanct: justifications for war, cynicism about human nature and violence, pride in our economic system, certainty of our freedom of speech, romanticization of representative government, confidence in our system of justice. Those orthodoxies, he believes, have a chilling effect on our capacity to think independently and to become active citizens in the long struggle for peace and justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060557676
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/17/2003
Series:	Harper Perennial
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a historian, playwright, and social activist. In addition to A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies, he is the author of numerous books including The People Speak, Passionate Declarations, and the autobiography, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xvii
1	Introduction: American Ideology	1
2	Machiavellian Realism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Means and Ends	9
3	Violence and Human Nature	32
4	The Use and Abuse of History	48
5	Just and Unjust War	67
6	Law and Justice	106
7	Economic Justice: The American Class System	147
8	Free Speech: Second Thoughts on the First Amendment	182
9	Representative Government: The Black Experience	231
10	Communism and Anti-communism	259
11	The Ultimate Power	278
	Notes	303
	Index	333

Editorial Reviews

“An unabashedly subjective challenge to American orothodox beliefs.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse.” — Los Angeles Times

“In these informal, challenging essays that link the personal to the political, Zinn aims to shake complacency, to challenge what he calls ‘American orthodoxies’ or recieved opinions about history and government.” — Publishers Weekly

“Zinn’s ambitious goal is not only to identify a dominant pattern of American ideas but to determine the soundness of that American ideology by putting the individual axioms on trial....A timely and important wake-up call to Americans who slumber in the netherworld of ideology.” — In These Times

“It has been Zinn’s life work to illuminate the subjectivities others have ignored....It joins his pioneering...A People’s History of the United States to form what could be called the essential Zinn.” — Boston Phoenix

From the Publisher

It has been Zinn’s life work to illuminate the subjectivities others have ignored....It joins his pioneering...A People’s History of the United States to form what could be called the essential Zinn.

Boston Phoenix

Zinn’s ambitious goal is not only to identify a dominant pattern of American ideas but to determine the soundness of that American ideology by putting the individual axioms on trial....A timely and important wake-up call to Americans who slumber in the netherworld of ideology.

In These Times

A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse.

|Los Angeles Times

A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse.

Los Angeles Times