A true American hero died . Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian and Professor of Political Science at Boston University from 1964 to 1988. He was the author of more than 20 books. Zinn was active in and wrote extensively about the civil rights, civil liberties and anti-war movements. In his best-selling A People's History of the United States (1980), "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. Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the time." While traveling, Zinn died of an apparent heart attack while swimming in Santa Monica, California on January 27, 2010.

I am deeply saddened by this .