Howard Zinn Chapter 1 Summary

Throughout Howard Zinn’s life he embodied every characteristic that could be found in the rebel described by Rollo May in Power and Innocence chapter 11 “The Humanity of the Rebel”. She details how the rebel acts, behaves and what they aim to achieve. When Zinn was young he was eager to fight fascism so he joined the airforce as a bombardier in World War II, through his experiences in the combat zones his stance on war dramatically changed to the point he was totally against it in every way, shape or form. In the first 2 minutes of the film he is giving an interview and says “The world is already moving in certain directions, and to be neutral, to be passive in a situation like that, is to collaborate with whatever is going on. And I, as a teacher, do not want to be a collaborator with whatever is happening in the world.” (Zinn Film). He knew that he couldn’t stop the ongoing snowball effect of violence in the

Zinn’s power was the power given to him by his students, friends and political enemies. He got power from his students and friends because they believed in him,they placed a lot of trust in him and supported his message. His political enemies gave him power because they just pushed him to work harder and harder. In real rebel fashion, he also shared the power bestowed upon him. “What Howard did was lift us onto the pages of history.” (Zinn Movie), Howard Zinn had quite a bit of influence and when he got together with a group he usually forced them to push forward. He did this with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), by forcing them onto the world stage. Zinn was a very generous man and did his best to share the power of the people with other people and groups he deemed worthy of it. Zinn’s power enabled him to get a large following at Boston University and across the globe. He also stated that he “had 400 students a semester” (Zinn Movie). He was a very popular professor who inspired his students to take action, but he always led by