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You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

A Personal History of Our Times

Part of Beacon Classics

Author Howard Zinn
Hardcover
$24.00 US
Beacon Press
On sale Nov 04, 2025 | 232 Pages | 9780807024119
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A stunning, collectible edition of Howard Zinn’s landmark memoir that chronicles his lifelong commitment to social justice and steadfast belief that ordinary people can change history

A Beacon Classics edition, featuring spot gloss cover and retro, classic palette

Is change possible? Where will it come from? Can we actually make a difference? How do we remain hopeful?

Howard Zinn—activist, historian, and author of A People’s History of the United States—was a participant in and chronicler of some of the landmark struggles for racial and economic justice in US history. In his memoir, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn reflects on more than thirty years of fighting for social change, from his teenage years as a laborer in Brooklyn to teaching at Spelman College, where he emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. A former bombardier in World War II, he later became an outspoken antiwar activist, spirited protestor, and champion of civil disobedience. Throughout his life, Zinn was unwavering in his belief that “small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” This repackaged edition will inspire a new generation of readers to believe that change is possible.
Foreword 2018
Preface 2002
Introduction: The Question Period in Kalamazoo

PART ONE: The South and the Movement

1. Going South: Spelman College
2. “Young Ladies Who Can Picket”
3. “A President Is Like a Gardener”
4. “My Name Is Freedom”: Albany, Georgia
5. Selma, Alabama
6. “I’ll Be Here”: Mississippi

PART TWO: War

7. A Veteran against War
8. “Sometimes to Be Silent Is to Lie”: Vietnam
9. The Last Teach-In
10. “Our Apologies, Good Friends, for the Fracture of Good Order”

PART THREE: Scenes and Changes

11. In Jail: “The World Is Topsy-Turvy”
12. In Court: “The Heart of the Matter”
13. Growing Up Class-Conscious
14. A Yellow Rubber Chicken: Battles at Boston University
15. The Possibility of Hope

Acknowledgments
Index
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a world-renowned historian, author, playwright, and social activist best known for the perennially best-selling classic A People's History of the United States. His many highly acclaimed books include You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train; Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century; and Three Plays—The Political Theater of Howard Zinn: Emma, Marx in Soho, Daughter of Venus.  View titles by Howard Zinn

About

A stunning, collectible edition of Howard Zinn’s landmark memoir that chronicles his lifelong commitment to social justice and steadfast belief that ordinary people can change history

A Beacon Classics edition, featuring spot gloss cover and retro, classic palette

Is change possible? Where will it come from? Can we actually make a difference? How do we remain hopeful?

Howard Zinn—activist, historian, and author of A People’s History of the United States—was a participant in and chronicler of some of the landmark struggles for racial and economic justice in US history. In his memoir, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn reflects on more than thirty years of fighting for social change, from his teenage years as a laborer in Brooklyn to teaching at Spelman College, where he emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. A former bombardier in World War II, he later became an outspoken antiwar activist, spirited protestor, and champion of civil disobedience. Throughout his life, Zinn was unwavering in his belief that “small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” This repackaged edition will inspire a new generation of readers to believe that change is possible.

Table of Contents

Foreword 2018
Preface 2002
Introduction: The Question Period in Kalamazoo

PART ONE: The South and the Movement

1. Going South: Spelman College
2. “Young Ladies Who Can Picket”
3. “A President Is Like a Gardener”
4. “My Name Is Freedom”: Albany, Georgia
5. Selma, Alabama
6. “I’ll Be Here”: Mississippi

PART TWO: War

7. A Veteran against War
8. “Sometimes to Be Silent Is to Lie”: Vietnam
9. The Last Teach-In
10. “Our Apologies, Good Friends, for the Fracture of Good Order”

PART THREE: Scenes and Changes

11. In Jail: “The World Is Topsy-Turvy”
12. In Court: “The Heart of the Matter”
13. Growing Up Class-Conscious
14. A Yellow Rubber Chicken: Battles at Boston University
15. The Possibility of Hope

Acknowledgments
Index

Author

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a world-renowned historian, author, playwright, and social activist best known for the perennially best-selling classic A People's History of the United States. His many highly acclaimed books include You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train; Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century; and Three Plays—The Political Theater of Howard Zinn: Emma, Marx in Soho, Daughter of Venus.  View titles by Howard Zinn

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