Wed 10/28 @ 6:00PM
Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street

Join us for a conversation with Dave Zirin on his biography of iconic radical historian Howard Zinn, examining his life and work as a progressive icon and thought leader through the story of the times that shaped him as well as the United States of America.

From The Nation magazine columnist and New York Times bestselling author Dave Zirin, The People’s Historian is a deeply researched biography of Howard Zinn, the beloved author of the classic national bestseller with more than four million copies sold, A People’s History of the United States.

The People’s Historian shows Zinn’s presence on the great canvases of the 20th century: from the Depression to World War II to the Civil Rights Movement to the war in Vietnam all the way until his death in 2010. With intimately researched stories from Zinn’s life and career, such as the way Atlanta’s small Spelman College, where Zinn taught as a young professor, helped launch the Civil Rights Movement, Zinn’s work traveling to Hanoi to engineer the release of POWs, and his continuing influence in the emerging Democratic Socialist movement, The People’s Historian explores Zinn’s past while also demonstrating how his 75 years of political engagement with the social struggles of his time informs our perilous present.

With input from family and access to Zinn’s personal papers, The People’s Historian paints a picture of the man behind A People’s History, examining his work and legacy in the broader context of the United States.

“David Zirin – our premier sports historian and cultural critic – has written a brilliant and heartfelt book on the great Howard Zinn – our premier peoples’ historian and social critic! In these grim and dim times, we so badly need Zinn’s genuine witness of deep humanity and prophetic voice of hope and compassion!” —Dr. Cornel West, New York Times bestselling author of Democracy Matters

“In this compelling portrait of the indomitable Howard Zinn, Dave Zirin offers a definitive account of the nation’s most influential radical historian… Arriving at an urgent moment, this book reminds us that Howard Zinn still has much to teach about resisting the latest threats to American democracy.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of #From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation

“Dave Zirin always comes on time because he never stops writing beautiful prose pointed at injustice. The People’s Historian shook free an understanding of Zinn I’d never felt, and made me know that we are so, so prepared to live and fight in 2026.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

“Howard Zinn spoke truth to power… In Dave Zirin, Zinn now has the right biographer: Zirin has given us a book that is clear-eyed and thoughtful and personal and full of levity. A clarion call we have never needed more than in the present moment.” —Jonathan Coleman, author of Long Way to Go: Black and White in America

Dave Zirin is the sports editor for The Nation, a columnist for the Progressive, and the author of eight books on the politics of sports, including What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States and A People’s History of Sports in the United States. He was named in Utne magazine’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World” and was a finalist for the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.

Brian Jones has taught many ages and grades in New York City’s public schools and recently returned to teaching in the PhD Program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He served as the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools at the New York Public Library and as the associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where he was also a scholar in residence. He is currently NYPL’s senior director of Reading and Engagement. Brian is a board member and contributing artist to the organization, Voices of a People’s History, and the author of two books: The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History and Black History Is for Everyone.