This is an interesting book, I think, because Zinn did more than just present a linear view of his life; he showed how the actions of so many people he came in contact with encouraged him to make a difference. He also illustrated how he was influenced to change his outlook, both by his experiences (growing up poor, manual labor with mixed races, fighting in WWII) and by the occasional comment made by someone which led him to think and consider. I think his openness to thinking about new ideas is probably one of his most important characteristics.
This book was familiar because I lived through a lot of what he talks about, although at a younger age. It was also instructive because I didn't have a useful framework in which to understand all the events of the times.
Every chapter seems to end, somewhere on the last page, with an inspiring summary. I'm sure every reviewer has expressed amazement that Zinn continued to be hopeful in the face of the long, hard, struggle to create a world in which we all have a chance to be our better selves. He shows us that every person who takes a small step is important. ( )

This memoir was an inspiring read. I knew Zinn from The People's History of the United States, but that was about the extent of it. Learning about his activism and devotion to his beliefs was inspiring. The end statement about hope in the face of seemingly overwhelming power was a good way to end this look at a life devoted to social justice, challenge, and change. ( )

Howard Zinn was an amazing person. I was very lucky to get to hear him speak a few times, back when I still lived in Boston, a couple years before he died.

I've read a lot of Zinn, but had never gotten around to this, which is a brief memoir of his times in the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 1970s. This book was great, but if you've read a lot of Zinn, you've probably read all of this in bits and pieces in his other work. That said, it was nice to read after many years since I've read anything he's written. ( )

I received an advanced review copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

This book serves as an autobiography of the historian and activist Howard Zinn, and intersects with America's history of inequality and imperialism, as well as the work of activists towards justice and equality. Zinn grew up poor in Brooklyn and worked at the Brooklyn Naval Yard where he formed bonds with the other laborers. He signed up with the Army Air Force during World War II in order to fight fascism, but was also exposed to segregation in the armed forces and participated in a napalm bombing raid in France that he felt was more of a show of American military might than a strategical necessity. Zinn began his academic career at Spellman College in Atlanta in 1956 where he served as a mentor to Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. He also became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Zinn was fired for insubordination in 1963, and accepted a professorship at Boston University in 1964. Zinn's arrival BU coincided with the movement against the war in Vietnam of which he became an active leader. Zinn's courses were extremely popular but he also had to contend with prickly and conservative BU president, John Silber.Despite the dominance of inequality and opression in the world, Zinn remains optomistic. He sees the changes made in people in the various movements as a net positive. He notes that while tyranny is a danger in a short term it also will be defeated by the people in the long term. ( )

I didn’t know much about Howard Zinn going into this book, other than he wrote The People’s History of the United States (which has been sitting on my shelves, unread, for years) and that his political views, like mine, are left of center, and by a fair amount.

So it was quite a surprise to read this extremely interesting, quick-moving, and most of all, inspiring, autobiography. Written in 2002, eight years before his death, Zinn uses 15 chapters to tell stories of his life - from growing up poor during the depression to hard-working parents, to teaching at a historically black college and helping students find their voices in the culture rights movement, to protesting the Vietnam war and his time as a bombardier in World War II and how it shaped his future views on war. Any one of these topics could make for a good book - that Zinn covers them all rather concisely and as part of an overall background to a life of civil disobedience makes for a great, compelling book.

After the 2016 presidential elections and the changes which followed, many on the left became discouraged and even somewhat depressed. This is the book those people - print company included - needed to read. As gripping of an autobiography this is, the bigger takeaway and a point that Zinn drives home repeatedly is that in even against tremendous odds, it is important to stand for what you believe in and protest as needed. In fact, failed attempts at resistance are important to bring likeminded individuals together and to further strengthen their beliefs. It tells the reader that standing up for what’s right is important and that individual voices are important, as eventually those voices form a group and that group can institute major change. I started the book thinking I was glad Zinn wasn’t around to see our current political environment, but finished wishing he was. He would have been thrilled to see Black Lives Matter, Indivisible, Action for a Better Tomorrow and the #MeToo movement. This book is a great starting point for those who are upset about the world, are unsure if their voice will make a difference and have no idea where to start. ( )