“Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as A People’s History of the United States, inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.

“His daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington, said he suffered a heart attack.

“As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), ‘From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than “objectivity”; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.’” (source: Boston Globe)

“Born in New York in 1922, Professor Zinn was the son of Jewish immigrants who as a child lived in a rundown area in Brooklyn and responded strongly to the novels of Charles Dickens. At age 17, urged on by some young Communists in his neighborhood, he attended a political rally in Times Square.

“‘Suddenly, I heard the sirens sound, and I looked around and saw the policemen on horses galloping into the crowd and beating people,’ he told The A.P. ‘I couldn’t believe that.’

“‘And then I was hit. I turned around and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up sometime later in a doorway, with Times Square quiet again, eerie, dreamlike, as if nothing had transpired. I was ferociously indignant.’

“War continued his education. Eager to help wipe out the Nazis, he joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and even persuaded the local draft board to let him mail his own induction notice. He flew missions throughout Europe, receiving an Air Medal, but he found himself questioning what it all meant. Back home, he gathered his medals and papers, put them in a folder and wrote on top: ‘Never again.’

“He attended New York University and Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in history. In 1956, he was offered the chairmanship of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, an all-black women’s school in segregated Atlanta.

“During the civil rights movement, Professor Zinn encouraged his students to request books from the segregated public libraries and helped coordinate sit-ins at downtown cafeterias. He also published several articles, including a rare attack on the Kennedy administration, accusing it of being too slow to protect blacks.

“He was loved by students — among them a young Alice Walker, who later wrote The Color Purple — but not by administrators. In 1963, Spelman fired him for ‘insubordination.’ (Professor Zinn was a critic of the school’s non-participation in the civil rights movement.) His years at Boston University were marked by opposition to the Vietnam War and by feuds with the school’s president, John Silber.

“Professor Zinn retired in 1988, spending his last day of class on the picket line with students in support of an on-campus nurses’ strike. Over the years, he continued to lecture at schools and to appear at rallies and on picket lines.” (source: New York Times)

One of Professor Zinn’s last public writings was a brief essay, published last week in The Nation, about the first year of the Obama administration.

“I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president–which means, in our time, a dangerous president–unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction,” Zinn wrote.

Learn more about Howard Zinn here

posted by: Brent Carter

From Histoire de Perlette by illustrator Béatrice Appia

Books aren’t usually the first medium that comes to mind when art is concerned – but take a look at BibliOdyssey and be prepared to be blown away.  Every entry features a piece of book art and (usually) an explanation about the art, the book it was originally published in, and other deliciously nerdy facts. Warning – between the pictures and the accompanying blurbs, you’ll be in BibliOdyssey land for hours and hours. It’s a day-killer, and it’s massive with tons of archives.  Also included are links to source material where available, which when clicked can open up a whole other treasure trove of rare, beautiful, and incredible images.   A must for anybody who loves books for more than the words,  is looking for a new place to find some amazing book art created from thousands of years ago to yesterday.

From Galvanizing Albini: Among the inspirations for Mary Shelley’s gothic classic ‘Frankenstein’ from 1818 were the (in)famous experiments carried out in public by the physicist Giovanni Aldini (1762-1834) at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1803.

From Nuclear Reactor Wall Charts: Snupps (Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System): Kansas City Power & Light Co., Burlington, Kansas. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, November 1975

See more here

posted by: Meghan Bainum

In the late seventies, at the age of eighteen and with a seventh-grade education, Dolly Freed (a pseudonym) wrote Possum Living about the five years she and her father lived off the land on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia. At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. And now decades later the good people at Tin House Books are reissuing Possum Living for the next generation of disillusioned people seeking an alternative to an economic system that uses everyone but only adequately provides for a few.

In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, garden, raise farm animals, dumpster dive, fish in public waters, avoid building permits, preserve herbs, make your own wine, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.

Thirty years later, Freed’s philosophy is world-renowned and Possum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. Especially her convincing argument that it’s hypocritical to buy meat in a store you wouldn’t or couldn’t kill yourself. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.

Following her success as an author, Dolly Freed grew up to be a NASA aerospace engineer. She put herself through college after acing the SATs with an education she received from the public library. She has also been an environmental educator, business owner, and college professor. She now lives in Texas with her husband and two children.

Watch a documentary about Possum Living below.

Possum Living will be re-released in January 2010 but you can pre-order it now through Tin House Books. Read an excerpt here. 224 pages, $11

posted by: Brent Carter

Synopsis:
Osamu Tezuka has often been called “the god of manga” and “the Walt Disney of Japan,” but he was far more than that. Tezuka was Walt Disney, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Tim Burton, and Carl Sagan all rolled into one incredibly prolific creator, changing the face of Japanese culture forever. Best known for Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, Tezuka was instrumental in developing Japanese animation and modern manga comics.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka is the first authorized biography celebrating his work and life and featuring over 300 images—many of which have never been seen outside of Japan. With text by respected manga expert Helen McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga pays tribute to the work of an artist, writer, animator, doctor, entrepreneur, and traveler whose curious mind spawned dozens of animated films, and over 170,000 pages of comics art in one astonishingly creative lifetime.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga also includes an exclusive 45-minute DVD documentary covering Tezuka’s prolific career, from his early manga characters to his later animation work. The package is out of the ordinary as well. It is a hardcover with an onlay and a vinyl jacket.

272 pages, hardcover, published by: Abrams ComicArts

The 1966 poster for the Japanese theatrical release of the first Kimba The White Lion movie entitled Jungle Emperor.

posted by: Brent Carter

Book Description:
“Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

“Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

“With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.”

Read excerpts from Born To Run here

posted by: Brent Carter