AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.

The majority of Americans have been taught a red, white and blue history of this country. In our grade schools, middle schools, high schools, we’re taught Columbus discovered America. We’re taught people who shaped history were the so-called great men, like Columbus and Washington. We’re taught we can all achieve success, no matter how poor we grew up or what kind of racism we experience, if we just try hard enough. We’re taught America is the best country in the world.

Well, in 1960, a former shipyard worker and World War II Air Force bombardier decided to take on these myths and redefine patriotism. He spent the next two decades researching and a feverish year writing. In 1980, he published a new kind of history of the United States, a history that looks at how ordinary people experience life in this country from the ground up: a people’s history.

Who would have thought a history book would become a best-seller? Who would have thought a history book could not only become a best-seller, but could become ever more popular over the years? Who would have thought a little while ago that historian Howard Zinn would have sold the millionth copy of his book, A People’s History of the United States?

Well, that’s happened. And on Sunday night in New York City, a group of renowned authors, actors, editors gathered to pay homage to the book that changed history. Historian Howard Zinn, authors Alice Walker and Kurt Vonnegut, actors Alfre Woodard, Marisa Tomei and Danny Glover, editors Hugh Van Dusen of HarperCollins and Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive magazine, as well as Professor Zinn’s wife, Roslyn Zinn, were all there. Here’s just a little clip of what they had to say.

HOWARD ZINN: No, I’m feeling wonderful because of the people who came here tonight, because of this wonderful group of artists, of actors and writers who came here —

AMY GOODMAN: This is Howard Zinn.

HOWARD ZINN: — to do this set of readings of voices of people, you know, and it was just a pleasure to listen to them and to hear the responses of the audience. And I don’t know of any other event exactly like this, and we didn’t know how it would go off, you know, 27 readings, you know. But it seemed to work.

AMY GOODMAN: How long did it take you to write A People’s History of the United States?

HOWARD ZINN: I’m embarrassed. How long did it take? It took like 20 years of gathering material and less than a year to write. Yeah, I’m a fast writer. Slow thinker, fast writer. So, once I had in my mind what I wanted to do with this, I sat down and just didn’t stop, hardly slept, until I was finished. I didn’t have a computer at that time, did it on my old manual typewriter, typed it out once, went through it with pen and ink, typed it out again, and that was it.

AMY GOODMAN: If you were to summarize it for a student who is just about to open this tome, what would you say is the most —

HOWARD ZINN: Tome? Did you call it a tome?

AMY GOODMAN: What would you say is the most important message that you want to convey in this?

HOWARD ZINN: I suppose the most important message I want to convey is that you don’t depend on the authorities, you don’t depend on the people in power, to solve problems of injustice and war, that you, you know, as a person, as a citizen, if you get together with other people, you can accomplish amazing things. We’ve seen this again and again in history. And it’s a matter of having the hope, the faith, by looking at history and by seeing how often it’s been done, by having a faith that if enough people do enough things, however small they are, that at a certain point in history, things will change.

ALICE WALKER: My name is Alice Walker, and I’m here at the 92nd Street Y to be part of the celebration of the millionth copy selling of Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States. Now, I have known Howard Zinn, he says, for 40 years, which is just really a long time, but I think he’s right. He was my teacher at Spelman College for a semester. And he was teaching Russian literature, history and language. And I had gone to the Soviet Union the year before and knew nothing about where I was going, except I didn’t want to go to war with the Russians. And I came back and I took his class. He was wonderful. And he has remained wonderful, a friend, a mentor, just someone totally admirable and brave and smart and funny and just great. So, I’m very, very happy to be here tonight to celebrate with him.

AMY GOODMAN: You and he have been speaking so much against war. Your thoughts now on what war means and how it’s being covered in this country?

ALICE WALKER: Well, war means that we are killing ourselves. You could never kill other people without eventually, and even at the same time, simultaneously, doing yourself in. That’s why it’s so repetitive. And that’s why you think that you have actually conquered people, and their children grow up to kill you. I mean, it is so archaic. It is so obsolete. It is so wrong. And I’m just amazed that people don’t understand that the best substitute for war is intelligence. And we have in America a lot of intelligence. I mean, that’s what you get from studying Howard Zinn’s book, for instance, that we — that you know, the regular history books have not covered the kind of intelligence, the ingenuity, the persistence of just regular American people. There are some incredibly, wonderfully intelligent people who, given the opportunity, could change the world, you know, without dropping a bomb on anybody. And they would do it in just great, fun ways. And they should be encouraged. We should be encouraged.

KURT VONNEGUT: Hi, I’m Kurt Vonnegut and a good friend of Howard Zinn. He was a bombardier. I was bombed. Anyway, he, in my mind, is one of the most valuable Americans alive today. And his book, A People’s History of the United States, is a masterpiece, and every civilized American should read it.

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Yeah, I’m Matt Rothschild. I’m the editor at The Progressive magazine. And Howard Zinn has had just a tremendous influence on the way that, you know, we understand political history in this country. It’s no longer the great man history or the history of one battle or the history of one president after another. So, you know, I credit him for really changing the way social history, or American history, anyway, is taught.

AMY GOODMAN: You have Howard Zinn on the cover of The Progressive magazine. Why?

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Howard Zinn’s cover story in our latest issue, of course, against war is the way — is a way for him to explain to our readers, and to anyone who picks up the magazine, how important it is, this rising peace movement. And actually, he wrote it before the February 15th protests, and he anticipated the outgrowth, the outpouring. You know, one of the central tenets of Howard Zinn’s theory is that there are these explosions of social protest. I refer to it as the volcanic theory of social change, because things just erupt. And we’re in the midst of that eruption now, and he predicted it. And he explains how it’s going to grow even more in the months to come. So, we’re glad to have that on the cover.

ALFRE WOODARD: I’m Alfre Woodard, and I am here tonight — I came from California — to show my support for Howard Zinn. He has, with his book, delivered our history to us. Stories get passed down through families, but to make sure that it never disappears and just — it’s become part of the oral tradition. It’s very important to have it in print. And so, he has done that. That’s an inheritance that he’s given us. And I just, you know — I feel like, you know, we’re writing history constantly, every day. And if someone reported about this time period that we’re in now, we can imagine the people that have access, what they would say is going on now, but yet it’s a very vibrant, active time, where people are celebrating democracy, and they’re practicing dissent when they need to. And I think, you know, that’s so exciting to me, because if ge hadn’t laid down in a book, in a very — researched it in a historical, factual way, we wouldn’t even know that people like us have always been the driving force behind democracy staying alive and vibrant. We are the protectors. We’re the keepers of the flame. Right now as we record history, hopefully, there are young people and our children who will record, no matter what the victors, you know, say, if it is the Bush administration, what comes out of the present war we stand on the brink of. Our children will already have an example of how it is important for the people to record their own history as they go along to bear witness, so that it’s a full picture for the future.

AMY GOODMAN: Actor Alfre Woodard, writer Alice Walker, editor Matt Rothschild and writer Kurt Vonnegut, celebrating the millionth copy sold of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. When we come back, we’ll hear from Marisa Tomei and Danny Glover and the editor of the book, as well as Howard Zinn’s wife, Roslyn Zinn. And then we’re going to hear Howard Zinn delivering a major address. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Can’t Hide Sinner,” Sweet Honey in the Rock, here on Democracy Now!, The Exception to the Rulers. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue with the actors and editors who were celebrating Howard Zinn on Sunday night, the millionth copy sold of A People’s History of the United States.

MARISA TOMEI: My name is Marisa Tomei, and I’m here tonight to celebrate the millionth copy of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. And Howard asked me to come after we met in September at the Not in Our Name rally. And I’m just so — growing up, you just don’t learn the history of the people. You just — there’s not a context even for what’s going on right now, for me anyway, with this particular imbroglio, this war. And sometimes the corporate structure just seems like it’s just going to be very hard to fight the corporations and live in a decent way, respecting the planet, and people being fed and clean air to breathe. And when you read what Mr. Zinn has compiled, and you speak with him, that it gives a lot of hope, it gives a lot of context for what’s going on. When you’re sitting home going, “Well, what can little old me do?” and, you know, “I don’t have the right color hair, or I’m too old, or I’m too this, or I’m too that,” it really was in individuals who were — who took that step, who took that step. And then — and Mr. Zinn brings it to life.

AMY GOODMAN: In Hollywood now there’s an increasing relationship between the Pentagon and Hollywood, where the Pentagon approves scripts, like Black Hawk Down, and they give a lot, millions of dollars —

MARISA TOMEI: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: — and weapons and advisers. And what do you think of that relationship?

MARISA TOMEI: Well, I haven’t had a direct experience with that. But even in my, let’s say, small way, like, in a scene, someone will give me something — it’s called product placement. And so, it’s like you’re supposed to like kind of — I had to like hand someone a coffee cup in one scene, and they wanted me to, like, have this chain, this coffee chain, emblazoned on this cup. And I was supposed to give it to the other actor. You know, your own little subversions, you put your hand over the thing. But they have someone on set who’s like representing that company and making sure that their name gets out. And where — what if I don’t — what if — I don’t know what that company is about. I don’t know who they’re exploiting. Personally, I’m not even a coffee drinker. But, I mean, it doesn’t even matter. It’s like, why should I be subjected as an artist to, you know, corroborate in this, in the corporate — basically, I’m really against the corporate structure, and I really want to see people get the power back in their communities. So, it’s a dilemma. I can say that. And it’s not like I walked off the set that day. But that was the day that made me think about it, because I hadn’t encountered it before.

DANNY GLOVER: I’m Danny Glover, and — but it was just absolutely — I mean, we all should be full, and we all should be just proud and excited, you know, in some sense, whenever we get a chance to sit down and begin to commune with ourselves and talk about our stories, which is — this just essentially was, you know, that Howard’s book, the People’s History of the U.S., is about our stories. Our stories. And we could reaffirm those stories and to come at each other and to look at each other in the face and know that we have a legacy. And our legacy is the legacy of resistance. It’s always been a legacy of resistance, whether we’re women, whether we’re white, whether we’re Black, whether we’re Asian. You know, it’s always been a legacy. And to reaffirm that, to come here tonight and reaffirm that and know that it hasn’t stopped, we must continue, and that we need to muster all the energy we can to stop this war, this war against Iraq, to stop this war against the people of the world. We have to do that.

HUGH VAN DUSEN: My name is Hugh Van Dusen, and I’m an editor at HarperCollins, the publisher. And I’ve been the editor for the book for about 20 years. It started very slowly. And then every year it’s sold more copies than the year before. And as I said, I can’t think of another example of a book that’s done that, from any publisher, not just Harper’s, that sold more copies every year than the year before.

AMY GOODMAN: How did HarperCollins advertise it, publicize it?

HUGH VAN DUSEN: We didn’t do a lot of publicity. We’ve never done a lot of publicity, not because we’re lazy, just because the book was doing so well. It’s all word of mouth. And that sells more books than anything else, than publicity or advertising or radio and TV.

AMY GOODMAN: When you first read it, what were your thoughts?

HUGH VAN DUSEN: It’s a very unusual book. When it was published, it was a very unusual book, because it’s history from the bottom up rather than from the top down, in terms of Indians and women and minorities, Blacks. And most history isn’t written that way.

ROSLYN ZINN: I’m Roslyn Zinn. I’m thrilled that this could happen. And it gives me great hope, great hope that things will change.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you ever expect that you’d be standing here celebrating the millionth copy? Do you remember when Howard was writing this?

ROSLYN ZINN: I remember it so clearly. So clearly.

AMY GOODMAN: How long did it take him?

ROSLYN ZINN: It took a very long time. We just kept at it. And he wrote it. And it was hard to write, because we had two little children, and he still had to work, you know, to put bread on the table. So, he did it. He did it, you know? And I’m happy did it.

AMY GOODMAN: Roslyn Zinn, wife of Howard Zinn, also Hugh Van Dusen, editor of Zinn’s book, Danny Glover and Marisa Tomei, actors, all honoring professor Howard Zinn, celebrating the 1 million copies sold of his book, A People’s History of the United States. Special thanks to Alex Wolfe and Denis Moynihan.