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traditional history creates passivity

"You know, traditional history creates passivity because it gives
you the people at the top and it makes you think that all you
have to do is go to the polls every four years and elect somebody
who's going to do the trick for you. And no. We want people to
understand that that's not going to happen. People have to do it
themselves."

- Howard Zinn, historian, in a December 2009 interview with Bill
Moyers. Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United
States, died on January 27, 2010.