"If you didn't applaud, thanks anyway," the renowned historian joked as he took the stage in Levin Ballroom Thursday. Howard Zinn had come to discuss his new book, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, and spoke to a 500-person audience. Zinn quickly turned to the serious aspects of his book, in which he argues that the United States' response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks unleashed unwise wars and served as a setback to democracy movements worldwide.

Zinn was highly critical of the American foreign policy in both the present and the past and compared the war in Iraq to previously fought wars, in particular Vietnam.

"We're always liberating somebody," he said. "But democracy did not flourish in all those places where we sent the marines."

Zinn asserted that America does not belong in Iraq and that its occupation is making life in Iraq more difficult.

"The question we should ask ourselves is whether our presence is preventing or provoking civil war," he said.

Zinn also said that government and citizens do not necessarily have the same interests, referencing a lack of care for people and soldiers in the government.

Many people might interpret his book as unpatriotic, Zinn said, but he argues that chronicling the government's actions is not an insult to America.

"Government is not the same thing as the country," he said. "And I am putting down the government, not the country."

Zinn closed his talk by arguing that the real power lies in the hands of the people.

"Historically the most powerful governments had to change policies when the people demanded it," he said.

With this book, Zinn said he is trying to form a connection between past and current events.

"I wanted to go into history and come out in the present," he said. "There is a desperate need to learn from history."

The event was sponsored by Back Pages Books, a bookstore on Moody Street founded by two Brandeis alumni.