Goines, David Lance. The Free Speech Movement: Coming of Age in the 1960s.
Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1993. 767 pages.
The conventional wisdom of talking heads and columnists, for the last
two decades, has frequently blamed our current cultural malaise on the
excesses of the 1960s. Now we have the real story on a portion of that
period straight from a major participant. Without a doubt, many of those
who sat in at Sproul Hall in 1964 were smarter, more competent, more
ethical, more democratic, more sensitive to important issues, less racist,
and better educated than their parents, their university administrators,
and their representatives in Washington. Yes, drugs and sex were part of
the bargain, but that was merely frosting on the cake.
The story of the 1960s has not been told by our mainstream media;
either you were there, or you ferret it out on your own, or you still don't
know. This period has fallen victim to our ahistoricism. Today it is so far
removed from of our culture's capacity for experience, that most observers
look back without a clue. Instead the 1960s have become a repository for
throw-away lines from know-nothings. It's refreshing, then, to find a thick
book that knows intimately what it's describing. This is the definitive
history: the names, the photographs, the blow-by-blow -- and best of all,
the essential spirit.
ISBN 0-89815-535-5
Extract the names from this source
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