Review of Zinn, Howard. 1993. Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

By Brian Klocke I can understand pessimism, but I dont believe in it. Its not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give hope, because for hope we dont need certainty, only possibility. -Howard Zinn Failure to Quit, p. 157 Howard Zinn is a prolific writer and speaker. His books include Disobedience and Democracy, Declarations of Independence, A Peoples History of the United States, among several others. He has also written a couple of well-received plays. Howard Zinn grew up in the slums of Brooklyn, New York. The very first book he read he literally picked up on the street, with ripped pages and all.

I recommend Failure to Quit for those not familiar with Howard Zinn. It is a broad introduction to his conceptual ideas on life and political and social change. It covers a wide variety of topics from Columbus to war, the Supreme Court, the Bill of Rights, history and objectivity, and others. Failure to Quit is a great collection of Zinns lectures, writings and interviews at various colleges and social justice organizations, including a talk in Boulder in 1989 as well as previously published writings for alternative media such as Z magazine. The book begins with a transcript of an interview with Boulders own David Barsamian of Alternative Radio.

Zinn writes and talks in plain language, while packing a lot of historical information into his dialogue. This, as well as the books layout, enables a quick and easy read of this 164 page collection of speeches, essays and interviews. Although it may not be satisfactory to the well seasoned Zinn reader looking for a coherent theoretical construction of social change or an in depth discussion of the process of historical record keeping, as a sociologist, I found it

helpful in clarifying some important social dynamics I had been contemplating. Failure to quit also reveals more of the personal side to Howard Zinn, more so than his other books. For example, in his interview with Barsamian, he tells of his bombardier experience during World War II, among other things. He was part of a squadron that used napalm on a German occupied town in France. He tells of his coming to terms with his conscious as he returns to the town in France and attempted to speak to survivors of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Most importantly, Failure to Quit encouraged me to keep up my personal struggles against injustice and to recognize that where there is possibility there is hope for a brighter future.

Failure to Quit addresses constitutional issues in a fresh way. Zinn tells us that the fact that we have a constitutional right doesnt mean that were going to get that right. The constitution doesnt cover most of reality. It doesnt cover most daily situations, such as confrontations with police, employers, educational officials and other positions of power. As Zinn suggests, we have to get our rights ourselves. He goes on to discuss freedom of speech issues. Freedom speech is more than just a quality, it is also about quantity. We have freedom of speech as US citizens, but how much do we have as compared to corporations and government? Freedom of speech is meaningless if the CIA and corporations are able to hire people in the media to tow the official line. Unfortunately, as an associate of Zinns, Noam Chomsky, has pointed out, the press is a little too eager to be taken advantage of in this manner.

The mainstream press adheres to the doctrine of objectivity in reporting. Zinn demystifies scientific objectivity at length in several different sections of this collection of writings. This professor of history strongly believes that objectivity is not desirable nor possible. Its

not possible because all history is a selection out of an infinite number of facts. As soon as you begin to select, you select what you think is important. Therefore it is already not objective....The worst thing is to claim to be objective.....I decided early [in my career] that I would be biased in the sense of holding fast to certain fundamental valuesthe equal right of all human beings, whatever race, nationality, sex, religion, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He uses Colorados own Ludlow Massacre, as an example of subjective history that cannot be treated objectively, as well as US imperialism and industrial progress.

Zinn informs us that our history books in school extol the benefits of progress and civilization without telling of the human costs. Zinn recounts some of the human costs. The cotton industry was created off of the backs of black slaves, the textile industry was built by the labor of young girls who lived to only 25 years of age, the railroads were laid by Irish and Chinese immigrants, many who were literally worked to death, etc., all in the name of progress. The theft of Texas and much of Mexico by the US before the civil was is given as another example. Sam Houston, the first governor of Texas is quoted, The Anglo-Saxon race must pervade the whole southern extremity of this vast continent. The Mexicans are no better than the Indians and I see no reason why we should not take their land. Zinn also quotes Senator Henry Dawes, who authored legislation to break up communal lands of native nations, such as the Cherokee, which Dawes visited, there was not a family in that whole nation that had not a home of its own. There was not a pauper in that nation, and the nation did not owe a dollarit built its own schools and its hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they own their land in commontheir is not enterprise to make your home any better that that of your neighbors. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization.

The title, Failure to Quit comes from a protest against Reagans blockade of Nicaragua in which Zinn participated and was charged through an antiquated law with failure to quit the premises. There has been much recent debate lately about the perceived impotence of the US political left. Many have given the left the same death knell that the mainstream press gives to socialism and communism. The US left may be fighting its way out of a slump, but it has not quit. The strength of activism is in its tenacity to continually struggle against injustice, even when the odds for success seem low.

Zinn reminds us that many philosophers, historians and sociologists were pessimistic about social change at the beginning of the 1960s. The youth of the early 60s were labeled as the uncommitted generation, yet as we know, they participated in actions that shook the country and startled the world. Zinn comment about this by saying, I learned that it was a serious mistake to interpret lack of action as lack of thought, lack of feeling. Rather, it was the absence of opportunities, openings, examples to emulate, groups to joinbut when those appeared, the silence changed to an uproar. History proves that activism does make a difference. Activism not only works but is crucial to improving society. We must not wait for freedom to be handed to us on a plate, for it is likely to be rotten.