false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166720025m/16192.jpg 16192 5 By any standards, Howard Zinn has led a remarkable life as teacher, writer, and social activist, a life in which those three categories are viewed not as compartmentalized tasks but as part of a unified identity. <I>You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train</I>, a title taken from his advice to students about his take on American history and current events, is a powerful testament to that life.<p> It begins with his 1956 acceptance of a teaching post at Atlanta's Spelman College, a school for black women that would soon be caught up in the civil rights movement. Zinn, who had already been radicalized on the streets of Brooklyn as a teenager, got caught up along with his students (who included the future head of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, and author Alice Walker), and was kicked out in 1963 for "insubordination." He moved to Boston University, where he became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and would prove a constant thorn in the side of university president John Silber throughout the 1970s and 1980s.<p> Zinn writes in plain language that brooks no nonsense when it speaks of moral urgency, but he isn't above a sense of humor. Noting that the FBI was watching him constantly during the war era, he wryly observes that, "I have grown to depend on them for accurate reports on my speeches." Individual scenes leap out at the reader: Zinn's horror when he realized, years after WWII, that he had dropped napalm bombs on German troops; a meeting in a college classroom with the sister and parents of one of the victims of the Kent State massacre; Selma, Alabama, police beating blacks attempting to register to vote while federal agents stand by and do nothing. Through it all, Zinn writes, "I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience." <I>--Ron Hogan</I> 878739 1994 You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times total:475|5:202|4:187|3:76|2:7|1:3| 475 2003 697 43 5 1 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 1997 Sun Dec 23 13:32:19 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 23 13:39:22 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 22:06:43 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 22:13:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 18:20:35 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 18:23:30 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 16:48:59 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 06 16:58:50 -0800 2007
Lest we forget, it was not long ago that people were being beaten, shot and hauled off to prision for-- wanting to vote-- for-- wanting equal rights. Zinn tells his personal account of the Civil Ri...more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jan 24 06:37:31 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 06:41:41 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 16:41:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 16:57:04 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Tue Sep 04 10:13:11 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 10:16:19 -0700 2007 making history. Most of the book centers on Zinn's life teaching in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.

check this link out (its the whole book online):
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Tra...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 22 08:44:24 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 08:46:20 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 01 12:50:37 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 12:52:09 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Jul 15 16:24:24 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 16:24:53 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Tue Feb 20 19:11:06 -0800 2007 Tue Feb 20 19:29:24 -0800 2007 A Peoples History of the United States) has a really incredible story, and this is his autobiography.

The part that stands out the most in my memory is his accounts of his work in the civil rights movement.

It's one of those books that...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Sun Sep 07 13:16:08 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 13:16:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 true false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 17 22:34:59 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 22:38:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon May 19 17:10:45 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 08 03:24:38 -0700 2009 anyone interested in how to ma...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Feb 14 07:30:51 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 14 07:42:34 -0800 2008
zinn is concise but brilliant, as usual. defending his own opinions while encouraging others to simply form one of their own, his is a voice that shouts clearly above the ruckus of politics.]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 06:47:40 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 06:49:51 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Mon May 28 14:35:46 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 14:35:48 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Fri Jul 04 06:47:35 -0700 2008 Wed May 27 16:15:28 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Sep 25 14:02:01 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 25 14:03:01 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Sun Feb 17 10:51:02 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 10:52:25 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=16192