While reading American Studies at the University of Sussex in the 1980's, the history element of the degree course was massively geared around what was then still sometimes called "the new social history".
At the forefront of this "history from below" approach was the American academic Howard Zinn, who died last month, and whose influential work, A People's History of the United States
, was one of the first books I read at Sussex and my first encounter with this grass-roots approach to historical thought.
Noam Chomsky writes a tribute to Howard Zinn here, a reminder not only of the life of the man himself, but of that distinctive role of the academic-political activist, a role that seems less common at the present time, though the need would appear as strong as ever.
At the forefront of this "history from below" approach was the American academic Howard Zinn, who died last month, and whose influential work, A People's History of the United States
, was one of the first books I read at Sussex and my first encounter with this grass-roots approach to historical thought. Noam Chomsky writes a tribute to Howard Zinn here, a reminder not only of the life of the man himself, but of that distinctive role of the academic-political activist, a role that seems less common at the present time, though the need would appear as strong as ever.
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