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
Results 1-5 of 8
... asked , “ Would a return to a policy of the past work in Central America ? There is no persuasive reason for believing it would not . . . . Right - wing governments will have to be given steady outside support , even , if necessary , by ...
... asking questions . They were professionals , to- tally consumed with doing “ a good job " and they would do that job for whoever happened to be in power . So , when Hitler was defeated and Von Braun was brought by military intelligence ...
... asking that he get the Soviets to intercede and indicating that Japan was ready to end the war , so long as it was not unconditional surrender . On August 2 , the Japanese foreign office sent a message to the Japa- nese ambassador in ...
... asked to speak to the group . When my turn came , I stood up and felt I must get something off my conscience . I wanted to say that I had been an air force bombardier in Europe , that I had dropped bombs that killed and maimed people ...
... asked by Oppenheimer to be his associate director at Los Alamos , refused to join . He was heavily in- volved in developing radar , which he thought important for the war , but he found it abhorrent , as Oppenheimer reported , that ...
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 |