Anthony Arnove Interview

Anthony Arnove is the editor of Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War . He also regularly writes for the political magazine "The international Socialist Review." Arnove has also co-written the new Book, Voices of a People's History of the United States , with famed historian and Activist Howard Zinn.

Arnove has worked for seven years as an editor and publisher at South End Press. Residing in Brooklyn, he is now a freelance editor and agent for authors Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy.

You've received a BA from Oberlin University and a PhD in Modern Culture and Media from Brown. Has your education had any practical application in your career as an editor and agent?

Well, what I would say is that the most valuable education I received has been outside of the classroom. It wasn't though my academic work but really through being involved in activism and in organizations working for social change. That's really were I did the reading and learned the communication and writing skills that have been most useful to me as an editor and as a writer. It was partly out of a desire not to be isolated in the ivory tower.

So would you say that your degrees were window dressing to get you into the publishing industry?

When I decided that I didn't want to be an academic I started pursuing work in the field of publishing and editing, and I actually started to work in South End press in Boston which is a publishing collective that, at that point, had been around for twenty years and published a number of writers that I really respected - such as Noam Chomsky. I didn't actually need my degree to start that job, and I don't think that was essential to my being hired. They were actually interested in me having movement experience, and also that I had developed editing and writing skills, but a lot of those skills I had developed outside of the class room. So for me, going into publishing was a departure from Academia in a way. I never received any formal training or the training that some people received going to publishing such as getting a degree in editing or publishing.

You're currently a freelance publishing agent. When you receive a manuscript, or even the idea for a book, what features do you look for?

I think there are a few things I look for, and what I ask is, "does the writing express a radical critique in a way that can reach an audience that isn't already convinced of a certain set of politics?" The goal of writing is really to spread ideas and win people, to convince people to see the world in a new way. So I'm particularly interested in writers, such as Arundhati Roy, who have a way of helping to alter people's way of understanding the world and hopefully convince them to be a part of changing the world.

What made you want to leave the Ivory Tower?

I really felt that if I wanted to be politically engaged and politically active I would be hindered by being an academic. So much of academic life was about the petty disputes of campus politics. And the intellectual debates that reigned on the campus were so disconnected from the issues that I thought were really of concern - whether practically, or even intellectually - that I felt I would be isolated by being in academia and that to be politically active I would really, you know [ chuckles ], need to leave the "ivory tower." That isn't to say that there aren't very good people who are academics who are doing very important political work - there are. I just felt, for me, it would be very hard to balance my political commitments with the demands of academia.

As a writer, what roll do you feel you should play in the current political climate?

I certainly hope that I can play the role of not just giving a critique of the current U.S. war on terror, it's resulting occupation of Iraq, and the threat of wars in other countries. But I also want to convince people that there is a history of organized resistance in this country and that if it's renovated or rejuvenated can change things. That it's not just a matter of saying the world is going to hell in a hand basket but about providing alternatives and ways in which people can struggle and change the course of history. That's one reason that I was particularly enthusiastic to work with Howard Zinn on the new book that we did called Voices of a people's history of the United States . Because the theme of that book is that people have always had to struggle for change and that when they have come together collectively they have been able to achieve it.

Besides Voices of a People's History you've also edited Iraq under siege . Do you feel that certain opportunities have been lost to you because of the radial nature of your politics? If so do you think this has been increasing?

I don't really feel that avenues have been closed to me. I actually feel like more avenues have been open to me as a result of my politics. I've gotten to meet - and work with - amazing people not only in the United States, but from around the world. People who share a passion for social justice and change and who are engaged in critical resistance to what's going on it the world. We're not in a time like the Mccarthy era (although there are some people who would like to return us to such a time) in that there's much more freedom for dissent and speaking out. Of course there are some people who are being targeted. Particularly if they are people of color, particularly if their immigrants, particularly if they're members of vulnerable populations. But there's also a strength in numbers that we have and I think we sometimes underestimate the numbers that are on our side, and I find if you speak out you quickly find that you're not alone. That there are a lot of people who share you're beliefs and ideas.

When researching for Voices I assume you must've know much of the information already, but was there any particular speech or letter that you were surprised to come across?

There were a number of surprises in the book. One was to come across people who are presented in a mainstream light of US history, but whose ideas have been watered down. People like Helen Keller, who was a socialist and a brilliant critic of World War I. People like Susan B. Anthony who edited a newspaper called "The Revolution," which I hadn't known. She [Susan B. Anthony], in the reading that we include from her in Voices, had a remarkable defense of her actions of voting illegally (at a time when women couldn't vote in a presidential election), and refusing to pay a fine that was given by the courts for voting. There were a number of people who I came to appreciate much more than I had before. Also, I was struck, again and again, by the courage that people have shown. People who were part of an uphill or seemingly hopeless battle, (slavery, the right to vote, the right to be in a union) and yet achieved their aims.