If you’re both overcome and angered by the atrocities of our time, this will inspire a “new generation of activists and ordinary people who search for hope in the darkness” (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor).
Is change possible? Where will it come from? Can we actually make a difference? How do we remain hopeful?
Howard Zinn—activist, historian, and author of A People’s History of the United States—was a participant in and chronicler of some of the landmark struggles for racial and economic justice in US history. In his memoir, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn reflects on more than thirty years of fighting for social change, from his teenage years as a laborer in Brooklyn to teaching at Spelman College, where he emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. A former bombardier in World War II, he later became an outspoken antiwar activist, spirited protestor, and champion of civil disobedience. Throughout his life, Zinn was unwavering in his belief that “small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” With a foreword from activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, this revised edition will inspire a new generation of readers to believe that change is possible.
“A powerful, politically electric book from one of the most engaging social critics in the nation.”
—Jonathan Kozol
“A history and a history maker to give us hope.”
—Alice Walker
“Zinn explains his involvement in the struggles for civil rights, against war, and in support of organized labor by citing his ‘abhorrence of any kind of bullying.’ These are lively tales.”
—Patricia O'Connell, New York Times
“Pick up this book! Start reading it! I guarantee you won’t stop. The most influential teacher I’ve ever had continues to teach us about life and humanity and hope.”
—Marian Wright Edelman
Foreword 2018
Preface 2002
Introduction: The Question Period in Kalamazoo
PART ONE: The South and the Movement
1. Going South: Spelman College
2. “Young Ladies Who Can Picket”
3. “A President Is Like a Gardener”
4. “My Name Is Freedom”: Albany, Georgia
5. Selma, Alabama
6. “I’ll Be Here”: Mississippi
PART TWO: War
7. A Veteran against War
8. “Sometimes to Be Silent Is to Lie”: Vietnam
9. The Last Teach-In
10. “Our Apologies, Good Friends, for the Fracture of Good Order”
PART THREE: Scenes and Changes
11. In Jail: “The World Is Topsy-Turvy”
12. In Court: “The Heart of the Matter”
13. Growing Up Class-Conscious
14. A Yellow Rubber Chicken: Battles at Boston University
15. The Possibility of Hope
Acknowledgments
Index