Zinn wrote about the history that polite society and Presidential historians prefer not to talk about. I minored in history and grew up visiting civil war battlefields on family vacations. But, being introduced to Zinn meant discovering a side of American history I had only glimpsed in college.
Two memories of him stick out in my mind, one impersonal and one personal.
The impersonal memory was the night of the invasion of Iraq. I was flipping through channels watching all the gung ho cheering for the shock and awe campaign, which predictably killed more civilians than the 9/11 attack. What name are we supposed to give a war tactic which intentionally bombs civilian targets in an effort to psychologically terrorize the population?
The corporate media's pathetic subservience to Bush was universal until I flipped to PBS. Howard Zinn was one of four panelists. He was the only voice I heard that night on any network with the courage to speak out against the invasion. I wasn't surprised when conservatives re-launched their attacks on PBS funding. What they really mean by "liberal media bias" is that they don't want to see any liberal viewpoints expressed on any network, ever.
Around that time, I was taking a few classes and thinking about grad school at the University of Tennessee when Zinn came to speak. I had read half a dozen of his books but decided to buy a hardback version of A People's History for him to sign.
I don't remember much of what he said, but I learned the importance of keeping a broader perspective than the conventional wisdom that otherwise intelligent people mindlessly accept. I learned that people who make well-reasoned, intelligent judgments on their own are usually vindicated in time over those who safely follow the crowd.
Zinn never had to apologize for his comments leading up to the Iraq war like so many others have (or should have).
I was involved with a student group supporting wage workers who were trying to form a union at the University. He agreed to meet with us after his speech. It ended up being an hour long informal rap session where we tried to grab as much knowledge and inspiration out of him as we could. He didn't simply have an academic concern for the average person in history. He had a genuine passion for people's movements of today.
That warm-hearted passion and ceaseless activism are why many mourn him today. The words he left will continue to vindicate him for years to come.