Full Conversation- Howard Zinn at 100: A People’s History, Urgent Lessons for the Present
01/19/23 • 35 min
Historian Howard Zinn would have turned 100 in 2022. His monumental work, A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980, continues to have an impact today. For Zinn’s’ centennial we explore what made his model of history different with three guests who were influenced by his bottom-up approach: Anthony Arnove worked with Zinn throughout the latter part of his life, and wrote the introduction for the 35th-anniversary edition of Zinn’s classic work; Jamaican poet, performer and writer Staceyann Chin performed in The People Speak, a documentary film based on A People's History; and Imani Perry, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University who just won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her own bottom-up history: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. What lessons can we take from Howard Zinn’s model of history for this time?
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Full research and reading list to further delve into the conversation is available here on Patreon in our posts.
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Historian Howard Zinn would have turned 100 in 2022. His monumental work, A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980, continues to have an impact today. For Zinn’s’ centennial we explore what made his model of history different with three guests who were influenced by his bottom-up approach: Anthony Arnove worked with Zinn throughout the latter part of his life, and wrote the introduction for the 35th-anniversary edition of Zinn’s classic work; Jamaican poet, performer and writer Staceyann Chin performed in The People Speak, a documentary film based on A People's History; and Imani Perry, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University who just won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her own bottom-up history: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. What lessons can we take from Howard Zinn’s model of history for this time?
The Laura Flanders Show is made possible by listeners like you! We do not take advertising or government funding. Please become a member today for as little as $3 a month. Patreon supporters receive early access to listen and download the full uncut conversation from our weekly show.
Full research and reading list to further delve into the conversation is available here on Patreon in our posts.
Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.
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ACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel
Previous Episode
Abigail Disney: The American Dream or Nightmare for Workers?
Is the American Dream dead? When Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of one of the founders of Disney, received a message from a worker at Disney’s flagship theme park, she discovered that some employees were earning one two-thousandth of the earnings of CEO Bob Iger. She wrote to Iger, testified in Congress and ultimately made a film, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” In one scene she asks a group of workers, “How many of you know someone that works at Disney that sleeps in their car?” Abigail underscores the need to tax the top 1%, speaks out against corporate greed and calls out the policies and values that created such gaping inequality at Disney and across the business world. The median net worth of the top 10 billionaires in the world has nearly tripled over the last decade while most Americans are earning less than their parents and economic mobility is on the decline. Abigail Disney is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, an activist and the granddaughter of Roy Disney who co-founded the company with Walt. The film, co-directed with Kathleen Hughes is available for streaming now. Laura and Abigail ask how long can corporations sustain the “American Dream” at the expense of their workers.
“There was a woman who played Winnie the Pooh for many years . . . six days a week, who died in her car. That was really a galvanizing moment for a lot of the folks that I spoke to, because the wrongness of this was all concentrated in this one moment.” - Abigail Disney
“Absent collective bargaining, we are all subject to the tender mercies of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Collective bargaining is the only way workers have to democratically represent their own interests in the workplace.” - Abigail Disney
Guest:
Abigail Disney: Documentary Filmmaker & Social Activist; Co-Director & Producer, The American Dream & Other Fairy Tales; Founder Fork Films; Producer & Host "All Ears"
Full conversation & show notes are available at Patreon.com/theLFShow
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Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.
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ACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel
Next Episode
Johann Hari: Get Your Mind Back / Save Democracy?
Are we too distracted to think? The answer is worse than you’d expect. In his latest book, New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari says we’re all the victims of attention theft and the consequences are catastrophic, for our personal lives and our democracy. Adults in the workplace focus on a task for 3 minutes on average, and that number is declining. “We've got so many crises we need to deal with that require sustained focus and attention on the part of the citizenry,” Hari tells Laura, but our focus has been stolen by companies out to make a profit. “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again” was named one of the best books of 2022 by many publications and is out in paperback this month. In this wide-ranging conversation, Johann and Laura discuss how we got here, what structural changes we need, and how we need to stop beating ourselves up. It's not our fault we can't focus, says Hari, but we do need our minds back if we want society to function. All that and a commentary from Laura on Luddites.
“The nice people are muffled, the angriest people are amplified . . . Imagine that applied to a whole country. Except you don't have to imagine it, because we are living it.” - Johann Hari
“We are not medieval peasants begging at the court of King Zuckerberg for a few little crumbs of attention from his table. We are the free citizens of democracies and we own our minds. If we follow the scientific evidence, we can take our minds back if we want to.” - Johann Hari
Guest- Johann Hari, Bestselling Author, “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again”
Full conversation & show notes are available at Patreon.com/theLFShow
The Show is listener and viewer supported thanks to you! Please donate and become a member.
Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.
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ACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel
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