Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and JusticeFrom 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. |
From inside the book
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... John Le Carré's novel The Russia House , a dissident Russian scien- tist is assured that his secret document has been entrusted " to the author- ities . People of discretion . Experts . " He becomes angry : I do not like experts . They ...
... John Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk when they told the public the United States was not responsible for the 1961 invasion of Cuba , although in fact the invasion had been organized by the CIA . The escalation of the war in ...
... John Stockwell , Frank Snepp , and Ralph McGehee . For the United States , as for other countries , Machiavellianism domi- nates foreign policy , but the courage of a small number of dissenters suggests the possibility that some day the ...
... John Stuart Mill : " Of all the vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences upon the human mind , the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to ...
Contents
1 | |
32 | |
FOUR The Use and Abuse of History | 48 |
The American Class System | 147 |
Second Thoughts on the First Amendment | 182 |
The Black Experience | 231 |
ELEVEN The Ultimate Power | 278 |
NOTES | 303 |
INDEX | 333 |