Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist “A People’s History of the United States” sold millions of copies to become an alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said.
Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, “A People’s History” was a people’s best seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the nation; numerous companion editions were published, including “Voices of a People’s History” and a volume for young people.
At a time when few politicians dared even call themselves liberal, “A People’s History” told an openly left-wing story.
Zinn charged Christopher Columbus and other explorers with genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.
In a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, Zinn called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter — not the last — of a new kind of history.
