You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

This book was excellent. Zinn has shown a side of history that you wouldn't get from a basic educational history class. Teachers and professors always mention a strike here, a demonstration there, and x amount of people died as a cause of this event. In his autobiography, Zinn stops and explains the history that is skipped over and dodged in the classroom. I live in Ohio (which is dominantly a conservative, republican state) and have had too much exposure to the conservative opinion. He does an excellent job of showing a liberal, more sensitive side to things. I had always wondered why liberal thinkers do what they do and Howard Zinn has taught me the reasoning behind their actions. He passes his beliefs of peace and love for all people in this book.

Let's face it. Most autobiographies are ego-massaging personal recollections that shed little light on what makes the author tick. But this book represents what an autobiography should be, because it covers Zinn's political history and how his political and historical views have shaped his life. So in reading this book, we not only know something about Zinn, we learn a great deal about the history of the United States over the past 50 years. To the extent Zinn discusses his personal history, it is usually in the context of his political education, for example, working at Brooklyn shipyards as a youth or flying airplanes in World War II or teaching college in the South during the early 1960's. These personal events shape Zinn's views on labor, war and civil rights. Like Forrest Gump, Zinn was there during the 20th Century's most important events. He has lived an extraordinary life and his views on history deserve the greatest respect. Read this book to see what a real autobiography should look like.

I really enjoyed this book. What does come through over and over is Zinn's sense of hope for the future - a sense of hope based on the changes that people can make individually when they speak up and act. Part of what I enjoyed was that the history is connected in a personal way to Zinn and his life, which provided an added richness. This is an interesting story of a fascinating man, but it is also a compassionate and personal view into history and some tumultuous times in the last 30 or 40 years. It's hard to read this and not ask yourself questions about what you would have done in the same situation, and it seems to me that it's also difficult to avoid questioning what you can do now. Not that you need to agree with everything Zinn says, by any means. It's a push towards living by your own values, and standing up for what you see as right, even in very small ways.This is not a hard-boiled-hit-you-on-the-head kind of memoir. Zinn has a sense of humor about himself, and doesn't lose a sense of reality. At one point he refuses to pay a fine and spends time in jail. After a night with the cockroaches he changes his mind and pays the fine. He doesn't come off as the perfect saint, only someone consistently willing to say something and someone who consistently tries to do the right thing. I admire him for that. And because of his humanity I can identify with him - and share his hope.

This was the first book I had read by Howard Zinn and it opened many doors for me. I hadn't really formulated any cohesive thoughts about my political views, but this book helped immensely. What Zinn writes about makes sense. The hardship he felt when he realized that he bombed a village in France with napalm, the fights he joined in the Civil Right mvt. in Georgia, the struggles he went through growing up, his realization that history is not clearly written in the textbooks -- it is real. He writes from his heart and with conviction. He knows his ideals are unorthodox, but he doesn't care because they are his and he see them as right.Anyone who has read some of Zinn's other writings, anyone who has an interest in progressive politics, anyone who wants to find out more about this amazing man should read this book. It is a must for any Howard Zinn fan!!

Zinn's casual biography is a really pleasant read, probably because he doesn't attempt to write an exhaustive account of his illustrious life. Rather, he spends more time describing the events he witnessed and, more importantly, the people he met. "You Can't Be Neutral" can be read simply for the joy of it or to get some more background information on one of America's premier social historians, but it can also be used as a supplementary source for the civil rights movement and even the effects of World War II on war veterans. Zinn's description of his experiences in the South just before and during the Civil Rights movement are fascinating, they really give the reader a feel for the frustration felt by the movement's protagonists and the atmosphere of hope they created. I highly recommend to this book to anyone.