Zinn, Howard (1922– )

US historian and social activist. Active in social and political affairs throughout his life and an authority on the history of American civil disobedience, he participated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As a prominent protester against US aggression in Vietnam, he helped secure the release of the first three US prisoners of war. His LaGuardia in Congress received the Beveridge Prize in 1959.

Born in New York, New York, he received an Air Medal and battle stars for service in the US Army Air Forces (1943–45). He was educated at New York University, gaining a BA in 1951, and Columbia , gaining an MA in 1952 and a PhD in 1958. He taught at Upsala College (1953–56), Spelman College (1956–63), and Boston University (1964–88; professor emeritus 1988).

He drew upon personal experience to discuss civil rights in SNCC – The New Abolitionists (1964) and US militarism in Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967). His work A People's History of the United States (1980) approaches history from the viewpoint of working class and minority groups.