
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian and professor from Brooklyn, New York. Zinn considered himself to be a radical. In 1980 he wrote A People's History of the United States, which is a book that tells the history of the United States from the perspective of common people instead of people who were in power. This included people who were oppressed. As of the time of Zinn's death, the book had sold almost two million copies.
Zinn died of a heart attack while swimming on January 27, 2010 in Santa Monica, California, aged 87.