American Historian and political activist, Howard Zinn passed away on 27 January 2010 Wednesday while travelling in Santa Monica, Calif. He was living in Auburndale, Mass and was 87 years old. According to his daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn, the cause of death was a cardiac arrest. Howard Zinn was professor of political science at Boston University and was the author of a large number of books. His most popular book “A People’s History of the United States” inspired young and old and it went to sell millions of copies as an alternative of a good text book of history.

Howard Zinn was a liberal activist and he was the first antagonist of United States involvement in Vietnam. He was a big supporter of civil rights, political, civil liberties; anti-war movements were the basic topics of his writings.

His famous book “A People’s History of the United States” was first published in 1980. Initially almost 5000 copies of the book were published but the book attracted and inspired public to such an extent that its sale reached to about one million in the year 2003. Though he wrote this book from the view point of a general reading but his book was widely taught in schools, colleges and afterward numerous editions were published for the book.

New York born Howard Zinn, was a shipyard employee and he took part in World War II. He received his degree of doctorate from Columbia University and he taught for almost 28 years at different institute as at Spelman, Atlanta, Georgia, and then at Boston University, retired from Boston University.