I've been asked a few times about "Lest We Forget" being a regular feature here on the DU

[Omaha Steve]

Several DUers have asked in private about making a regular feature of "Lest We Forget" items. Not just about labor that I seem to be known for on the DU. About the history of progressive politics and the democratic party. Lost memories about the USA in general i. e., Howard Zinn.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1777180

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1740255



Howard Zinn

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html

Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87

By HOWARD POWELL
Published: January 27, 2010

Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.

The cause was a heart attack, which he had while swimming, his family said.

Proudly, unabashedly radical, with a mop of white hair and bushy eyebrows and an impish smile, Mr. Zinn, who retired from the history faculty at Boston University two decades ago, delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy.

Almost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980, “A People’s History of the United States” has sold nearly two million copies. To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.


FULL obit story at link.


A new group? I'm game. Thoughts?

I still want a Made in USA group too.

OS

[Cirque du So-What]

1. K & R for the lessons of history!

Whatever comes out of this, I believe any efforts toward advancing historical awareness are great. My only caveat is that a new group runs the risk of marginalizing the information contained in OPs, which would be a terrible waste of the researcher's time & energy.

[MineralMan]

2. I think the best way to do that is just to do it.

Post 'em in GD. Add each to your Journal, so people can access them or see if they've missed one, an mention that in each post.

[Omaha Steve]

3. Sounds like the way to go

My first two are in there. Thanks for the great idea.

OS

[truedelphi]

4. Sounds good to me. n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. It's a great idea, Steve!

Go for it...

Recommended.