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Agitation with a Smile: Howard Zinn's Legacies and the Future of Activism book cover

1st Edition

Agitation with a Smile Howard Zinn's Legacies and the Future of Activism

Edited By Stephen Bird, Adam Silver, Joshua C. Yesnowitz Copyright 2013
    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    256 Pages
    by Routledge
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    Agitation with a Smile offers a reappraisal of Howard Zinn's political thought and situates his efforts in a contemporary context, looking toward the nature of activism and dissent in the future. This is the first book to provide a substantive account and assessment of Zinn's philosophy and approach to collective action and, to a larger extent, democracy. The contributors to this book explore the most effective mechanisms by which to arouse public support for seemingly radical positions and how current technological advancements may alter our perception of Zinn's activism. The book is a valuable guide to a new generation of activists and scholars of politics in gauging the lasting relevance and legacy of Zinn's ideals, concepts, and methodology. The text is neither fawning nor unduly critical, unlike many discussions of Zinn in popular culture. Rather, the contributors engage the various complexities and tensions present throughout Zinn's work and subject them to contemporary assessment. This is a multidisciplinary and international approach to Howard Zinn's intellectual and activist canon.

    Chapter 1 Agitation with a Smile, Stephen Bird, Adam Silver, Joshua C. Yesnowitz; Chapter 2 Ludlow Massacre; Part 1 Zinn as Historian and Public Intellectual; Chapter 3 Legacies and Breakthroughs, Ambre Ivol, Paul Buhle; Chapter 4 The US Left in Generational Perspective, Ambre Ivol; Chapter 5 Thinking the Radical Public Intellectual, Paul Reynolds; Part 2 Zinn in Theory; Chapter 6 Against All Authority, Eric Boehme; Chapter 7 The Forbidden Word, Žiga Vodovnik; Chapter 8 Politics against the Law, Christopher C. Robinson; Chapter 9 Dear Diary, Alix Olson; Part 3 Zinn in Practice; Chapter 10 War Is a Condition in Need of a Cure, Patricia Moynagh; Chapter 11 Howard Zinn, Ross Caputi; Chapter 12 Archivists of Optimism, Alix Olson; Chapter 13 Walking, Martín Espada; Part 4 Zinn Today and Tomorrow; Chapter 14 Two, Three, Many Zinns, Edward P. Morgan; Chapter 15 For Howard Zinn, Irene Gendzier*I want to thank the three editors of this volume—Joshua Yesnowitz, Stephen Bird, and Adam Silver—for their initiative and commitment to its publication. I also wish to thank some of those former students at Boston University and friends of Howard Zinn who sent testimony of their appreciation on the occasion of the memorial for Zinn organized by members of the BU Political Science Department and other faculty on March 27, 2010, including José Velasco Cruz, from Mexico; Rachid Tlemcani, from Algeria; Bill Hansen, from Nigeria; and Danny Schechter, from New York.; Chapter 16 Reassessing Zinn, Stephen Bird, Adam Silver, Joshua C. Yesnowitz; afterword Afterword, Noam Chomsky;

    Biography

    Stephen Bird, Adam Silver, Joshua C. Yesnowitz

    "This book consists of thirteen chapters, a foreword by Frances Fox Piven and an afterword by Noam Chomsky. The configuration (of sections) is perfect for teaching the text.... Rich with significant concepts.....As I read each section of this book I imagined myself walking through passenger “cars” on Zinn’s famous metaphor of history as a “moving train” (2002) and each contributor sparked an inner dialogue with their unique readings and encounters with Zinn’s life."
    -Teacher's College Record
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