What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About the American Empire

Empire or Humanity? by Howard ZinnNarratted by Viggo Mortensen Click here see an autobiographical section of the new book A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn, focusing on his early years. (Click on each illustration to view a single page of text.) With an occupying army waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with military bases and corporate bullying in every part of the world, there is hardly a question any more of the existence of an American Empire. Indeed, the once fervent denials have turned into a boastful, unashamed embrace of the idea. However the very idea that the United States was an empire did not occur to me until after I finished my work as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in the Second World War, and came home. Even as I began to have second thoughts about the purity of the "Good War," even after […]