Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works

by Howard Zinn (Editor)

Howard Zinn’s book on the way justice really works in the U.S. The book explores the reality of justice, which has always stood in contrast to the rhetoric about equal rights under the law. With sections on the police, the courts, prisons, housing, work, health, schools, and popular struggle, Justice in Everyday Life features classic essays by a diverse group of authors, including Jonathan Kozol.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Social Justice

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Howard Zinn was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist intellectual and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.

Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist." He wrote extensively about the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Beacon Press, 1994), was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work. Zinn died of a heart attack in 2010, at the age of 87.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will make you angry. Zinn compiles and occasionally writes essays and stories about real life civil rights violations and struggles in the Boston area during the 60s and early 70s. While most of the material feels dated (I'm not up on the current state of affairs in Boston's police dept., courts, hospitals, etc., but I imagine they're nowhere near as barbaric as they were 40 years ago), it still inspires horror at the level of racism, sexism, and class-ism that existed just a short time ago, and supposedly after the civil rights struggle was already "won." Zinn has a gift of putting a personal face on the theoretical and ideological concepts of justice and constitutional rights, a gift on display here just as in his masterwork A People´s History. My only criticism is that his solutions rely pretty heavily on idealism. Lauding the few reforms he narrates, he is quick (and accurate) to point out that all reform victories are basically worthless without changing the system that engenders such exploitative relations between its members in the first place. His sparse suggestions of how this can be brought about are lacking in number and unconvincing in content (perhaps because it's an impossible task). You can't really fault Zinn for that; nobody has better answers to my knowledge.

@pointblaek

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is uncanny, but also discouraging, is that this book was written in the early 70s and our systems haven't really changed much. Zinn writes in the conclusion that we have to stay in a posture of activism to make change stick and, so, our complacency is likely why it seems like we keep taking 10 steps back for every two steps forward. I recommend reading this to understand better the entrenchment of injustice and how ongoing vigilant we need to be.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book. Zinn and his students compile a cross section of every day injustice in boston--police brutality, judicial misconduct, prisoner abuse, abuses in the health care sector, abuse in education, abuse at work, housing injustice and finally, fighting back. Some good ideas and some harrowing stories. As I read it, I definitely could see myself and others compiling an updated version of this for Rochester, NY showcasing each of these issues now. When it comes to everyday injustice, it doesn't seem to stop. I appreciated his intersectionality. Zinn is always worth reading.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice look at gritty old boston in the 60s/70s as seen through the eyes of sheltered BU students.