At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Making of an Activist

by Jo Freeman

Book Overview

This book is a memoir and a history of Berkeley in the early Sixties. As a young undergraduate, Jo Freeman was a key participant in the growth of social activism at the University of California, Berkeley. The story is told with the "you are there" immediacy of Freeman the undergraduate but is put into historical and political context by Freeman the scholar, 35 years later. It draws heavily on documents created at the time--letters, reports, interviews,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253216222
• ISBN13: 9780253216229
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

a multifaceted memoir of the 1960s

Jo Freeman has authored a multifaceted memoir of her years as an undergraduate campus activist at Berkeley. She entered Cal in the fall of 1961 as a 16 year-old from the San Fernando Valley and graduated in the spring of 1965 after the Free Speech Movement had shaken the Berkeley Administration and energized not only activists but seemingly an entire campus. It is part the story of a teenager growing up quickly, making dumb mistakes and surmounting them. It is part a story of civil rights activism, including the truly difficult decision of whether civil disobedience is justifiable when the conduct one is challenging is not illegal. (Freeman was arrested and tried three times, being convicted twice, and causing a split with her mother.) More importantly this is an insider's acccount of the Free Speech Movement, its politics and personalities. Freeman also strives to take account of the FSM's opponents: the Berkeley Administration, the Regents, the press, and, of course, politicians. It is no easy task to weave so many stories together in a coherent whole, and Freeman has done a fine job of bringing her knowledge as an adult to bear on her actions forty years ago. This is a terrific look at the optimism of the 1960s before Vietnam, summer riots, and drugs intervened to scar the decade.

At Berkeley in the Sixties is a Winner!

At Berkeley in the Sixties captures the essence of the FSM. I was a graduate student in Forestry at Berkeley from 1962 to 1965. I was not an activist but I followed many of the activities of the FSM. For me the most dramatic event was Mario Savio, an activist leader, being dragged off the stage by police at the Greek Theater in front of thousands of disbelieving students and faculty. It was high drama at its best. Jo Freeman does a masterful job of detailing the struggle between the students and the establishment. The book is a great read.

Thorough, fair and accurate

It is the most through and, to my mind,>most fair-minded treatment of those events and their<br>>meaning. I speak as a graduate student in English at Berkeley from<br>>1961 to 1968 (with one year away teaching in the<br>>South) and I received my degree to become a professor at<br>>Stanford. The scholarship and intrepid<br>>note-keeping that Ms. Freeman kept over the years have made those times in the<br>>'sixties come vividly alive to me. It is not true that if you can remember the 'sixties, you were not there. She was there, recalls it all, and is both fair and accurate.

The 1964 Berkeley Student Revolt

As an alienated high school student trapped in a segregated conservative Washington DC suburb, I viewed the 1964 Berkeley student revolt from across 3000 miles of physical distance and media distortion. But I knew one thing. I wanted to be in Berkeley.Jo Freeman was at Berkeley in 1964 and became one of the leaders of the Free Speech Movement which led the Berkeley uprising and help launch the general student revolt of that period. Now in 2004, she tells the inside story of what happened. Based on her own personal experience, extensive interviews and exhaustive archival research, her book not only details what happened, but also places it in the context of the Cold War and the civil rights movement.The Berkeley student revolt began when the school administration tried to limit student political and social activism. Berkeley students had grown up with the threat of nuclear destruction and the promise of the civil rights movement. There were already veteran peace and civil rights activists on campus. Many of these had been raised by parents who had participated in the struggles the 1930's and 1940's. These students were not about to give in easily. The main weapon of their revolution was the portable table for displaying literature and accepting donations. Their main tactics were the classic ones from the labor struggles of the 1930's: the picket-line, the strike and the sit-down.Freeman first came to Berkeley in 1961 at age 16, after having grown up in the culturally confining suburbs of LA's San Fernando Valley. Bright and ambitious, but painfully shy and naive, she flowered both politically and personally at Berkeley. The 1960's was a period of rapid personal as well as social transformation and her book is an excellent introduction to what that actually felt like. Jo Freeman has a fine sense of irony and casts her barbed wit with grace and style-- as often at herself as at others.Her book is actually three books skillfully combined into one. As a historian, she is able to place the Berkeley revolt into historical context. As a political scientist, she treats student politics as serious politics, without the snide condescension that it often receives. As a writer she weaves in her own coming-of-age story. One of my favorite chapters was her account of a 1964 hitchhiking trip across America. For anyone who grew up with the "On the Road" Kerouac legends, it's a wonderful feminist reality check.I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants more than a superficial understanding of the 1960's. But it is more than just an entertaining book about an interesting period. It's also a excellent resource for those involved in student politics today. Much has changed since the early 60's, but the book's exploration of the debates over tactics and strategy, the point-counterpoint between students and administration, the complexity of keeping a diverse and fractious coalition together and the challenges of working with strong but humanly flawed person

An inspiration to us today

Jo Freeman's memoir will take one backward and forward. Backward because it is an evocative recollection of a heady time when serious social change seemed in our grasp and but forward because it should inspire many today to redouble their efforts to make the world a better place.