Truth Has a Power of Its Own

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist and the author of the bestselling A People’s History of the United States, as well as Truth Has a Power of Its Own: Conversations About A People’s History (The New Press). He received the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs Award for his writing and political activism.Ray Suarez is co-host of the public radio program and podcast World Affairs. He was chief national correspondent for PBS NewsHour and the host of Talk of the Nation on NPR. He is the author of several books, including Latino Americans, as well as Truth Has a Power of Its Own: Conversations About A People’s History (The New Press). He lives in Philadelphia and Washington.

“No historian—and few public figures—have ever made radical politics as deliriously and deliciously attractive as Howard Zinn. These conversations with Ray Suarez resurrect Howard for a new generation, including those youth who are fed up with politics as usual. Buy it for the young rabble rouser in your life. As Howard liked to say, ‘We must know our history not only to have knowledge of the past, but to change the future.’”—Dave Zirin, author of A People’s History of Sports in the United States and sports editor, The Nation “In this short, rich volume, Zinn connects the dots from the abolitionists to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, leads the reader to question whether there is any ‘good war,’ and encourages us all to see civil disobedience as important as voting in a democracy. It is a guidebook for organizers.”—Deborah Menkart, executive director of Teaching for Change and co-director of the Zinn Education Project “Truth Has a Power of Its Own is a virtual epilogue to Zinn’s classic work, A People’s History of the United States, and it eloquently shows that Zinn’s mission was not to demonstrate our exceptionalism or our superiority. Instead, he urges us to look squarely at our stained past for the glimmers of human decency and courage which so often have welled up among the ordinary people historians too often ignore.”—Frances Fox Piven, distinguished professor of political science emerita, The Graduate Center, City University of New York “The conversations in Truth Has a Power of Its Own sing with Howard Zinn’s wisdom, humanity, and wit. Zinn explains how despite unspeakable brutality and exploitation throughout U.S. history, we find hope rising from the social movements that have sought equality and justice. This is a marvelous introduction to the history—a people’s history—of our country.”—Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools, and co-director of the Zinn Education Project