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Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond
A nice Jewish boy from suburban Boston—hell, an Eagle Scout!—David Gilbert arrived at Columbia University just in time for the explosive Sixties. From the early anti-Vietnam War protests to the founding of SDS, from the Columbia Strike to the tragedy of the Townhouse, Gilbert was on the as organizer, theoretician, and above all, activist. He was among the first militants who went underground to build the clandestine resistance to war and racism known as “Weatherman.” And he was among the last to emerge, in captivity, after the disaster of the 1981 Brink’s robbery, an attempted expropriation that resulted in four deaths and long prison terms. In this extraordinary memoir, written from the maximum-security prison where he has lived for almost thirty years, Gilbert tells the intensely personal story of his own Long March from liberal to radical to revolutionary. Today a beloved and admired mentor to a new generation of activists, he assesses with rare humor, with an understanding stripped of illusions, and with uncommon candor the errors and advances, terrors and triumphs of the Sixties and beyond. It’s a battle that was far from won, but is still not the struggle to build a new world, and the love that drives that effort. A cautionary tale and a how-to as well, Love and Struggle is a book as candid, uncompromising, and humane as its author.
352 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2011
10 people are currently reading
556 people want to read
About the author
David Gilbert
11 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Gilbert is an American radical leftist organizer and activist who is currently imprisoned at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground Organization. After about ten years underground, he was arrested in October 1981, along with members of the Black Liberation Army and other radicals including Kathy Boudin, his partner and mother of Chesa Boudin. The details of his arrest are included in the entry on Kathy Boudin in the section entitled "1981 Brinks Robbery." He and she both participated in that robbery and were sent to prison for their part in the resulting murders of Nyack police officers Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady and Brinks guard Peter Paige. (In 2004 the US Post Office in Nyack was renamed in honor of the slain men.)
David Gilbert is an American radical leftist organizer and activist who is currently imprisoned at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground Organization. After about ten years underground, he was arrested in October 1981, along with members of the Black Liberation Army and other radicals including Kathy Boudin, his partner and mother of Chesa Boudin. The details of his arrest are included in the entry on Kathy Boudin in the section entitled "1981 Brinks Robbery." He and she both participated in that robbery and were sent to prison for their part in the resulting murders of Nyack police officers Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady and Brinks guard Peter Paige. (In 2004 the US Post Office in Nyack was renamed in honor of the slain men.)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 13, 2022
In his memoir, well-known Weatherman David Gilbert reminisces about his experiences as a student radical in the sixties and seventies. Although I dislike him as a person because of his participation in the Brinks armored truck robbery in New York, which resulted in the deaths of three innocent people, I have to say that he tells his story in a candid, engaging way.
Raised in a liberal Jewish household, Gilbert recalls becoming sensitive to injustice for the first time through education about the Holocaust. He locates the roots of his eventual radicalism in his sincere wish as a teenager that America “live up to the rhetoric of democracy.” The politically precocious teen became active in his Boston-area high school in protests against racism and American foreign policy, which often seemed to violate his country’s freedom-loving principles.
He went to Columbia, and it, with its highly traditional curriculum and imposing neoclassical architecture, represented to him the “pretense of humanism.” Despite its great wealth, the university paid its largely black and Hispanic workforce poorly. At orientation, the deans had warned the students not to stray into Harlem – especially not wearing Columbia sweatshirts. Curious and defiant, Gilbert promptly toured Harlem with a friend of his, and he later tutored a child there. He describes his experiences in Harlem and working with the campus chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality as far “more educational” than what he felt was the “mindless regurgitation” practiced at Columbia.
Although he graduated in 1966, he continued to be invested in activism on campus when student protests intensified in the spring of 1968. According to him, Columbia stood out in how the protests pushed the protesters — in ways both political and deeply personal — beyond the confines of the university. He was called before the faculty to discuss a possible student strike. He recalls the faculty asking: “Do you say you stand for democracy? . . . Would you stand by a referendum, of the students and faculty, everybody at the University?” "And I [Gilbert] was really torn between what I considered fundamental issues and the commitment to democracy, participatory democracy, and I sort of hesitated and said, “Well we would stand by a referendum, as long as the people in Harlem, and people in Vietnam, who are the ones most affected by this, can vote, because that’s really participatory democracy.”"
Historians have discussed the "white guilt" – social and economical privilege –that burdened the student radicals and motivated them to engage in violence more than the desire to help African Americans and the Vietnamese people. However, the guilt aside, those who chose violence did make efforts to determine how they should help others through it. The author recalls that his transition from pacifism to support for armed revolution had been "incredibly difficult", even traumatic. He also presents non-violence as a means of remaining pure and accepts that violence might tarnish one's moral purity, but he claims that "what had motivated me was the conditions of life of most people . . . and not to be willing to fight against the forces who actively use . . . violence to maintain these social conditions, was acquiescing to more violence." I am not sure whether I should believe him or treat his words as an attempt to excuse his past actions. I think that it might be a combination of both.
Notably, the author casts light on the close but strained relationship between the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. The two groups saw each other on a daily basis, and the Panthers used the Weathermen's printing press to put out their newspaper. However, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton publicly expressed his disapproval of the Days of Rage. The Panthers were also angry that the Weathermen did not act simply as their support group. A direct confrontation between them happened after Panther "Jake" Winters was shot dead by policemen in November 1969. The Panthers wanted the Weathermen to print their memorial poster for him, but the Weather Underground did not have the money. Then the Panthers, led by Hampton, stormed the Weathermen's office and beat members while muttering lines from Stalin. The Weathermen were stunned by this incident, but they knew that the Panthers were under great pressure. They were getting killed, and they could not deal with that. Just days after the incident, Hampton was dead.
According to the author, Hampton’s murder deeply affected the Weathermen, confirming what they, and the New Left as a whole, believed: that race was a basis of oppression and separated the experiences of white and black activists. Reflecting on the shock he felt, Gilbert underscored the apparent failure of whites to do enough: “There are Panthers being shot to death in their beds [and if] we’re a revolutionary movement worth its salt we can’t just say, ‘Oh we sympathize with them.’ We have to create pressure. . . . In terms of my personal experience, it was the murder of Fred Hampton more than any other factor that compelled us to take up armed struggle.” At the same time, the murder made the Weathermen wonder if the limited protection from police violence that they had because they were white would soon end.
Gilbert agrees with many of those who critiqued the Weathermen. He discusses the "macho culture" that challenged the student radicals to do things just to prove that they were men enough. He also considers the Days of Rage were a strange way in which the Weathermen tried to prove they were “better” than the rest of the white left. That belief made the Weathermen arrogant and fostered their "contempt" for the people who did not join the armed struggle. They told the protest movement that they were ready to fight and die, and that for them the society was divided in only two groups – those who joined them in their radicalism and "the pigs". Such an attitude did not win them many supporters.
LOVE AND STRUGGLE is a great memoir. Gilbert does not avoid self-criticism, although at times he tends to portray himself as a victim in situations in which he was not. For instance, his tone is heavily accusing when he describes the rough interrogation that he went through after he was arrested for the robbery in 1981, but there is not even a tinge of remorse in his voice. It is all about him and about the fact that the policemen are breaking the law by beating him, and not about the fact that three people are dead because of his comrades and him. This book is interesting, though. If you want to learn about the Weathermen from the perspective of an inside, it will be useful.
Raised in a liberal Jewish household, Gilbert recalls becoming sensitive to injustice for the first time through education about the Holocaust. He locates the roots of his eventual radicalism in his sincere wish as a teenager that America “live up to the rhetoric of democracy.” The politically precocious teen became active in his Boston-area high school in protests against racism and American foreign policy, which often seemed to violate his country’s freedom-loving principles.
He went to Columbia, and it, with its highly traditional curriculum and imposing neoclassical architecture, represented to him the “pretense of humanism.” Despite its great wealth, the university paid its largely black and Hispanic workforce poorly. At orientation, the deans had warned the students not to stray into Harlem – especially not wearing Columbia sweatshirts. Curious and defiant, Gilbert promptly toured Harlem with a friend of his, and he later tutored a child there. He describes his experiences in Harlem and working with the campus chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality as far “more educational” than what he felt was the “mindless regurgitation” practiced at Columbia.
Although he graduated in 1966, he continued to be invested in activism on campus when student protests intensified in the spring of 1968. According to him, Columbia stood out in how the protests pushed the protesters — in ways both political and deeply personal — beyond the confines of the university. He was called before the faculty to discuss a possible student strike. He recalls the faculty asking: “Do you say you stand for democracy? . . . Would you stand by a referendum, of the students and faculty, everybody at the University?” "And I [Gilbert] was really torn between what I considered fundamental issues and the commitment to democracy, participatory democracy, and I sort of hesitated and said, “Well we would stand by a referendum, as long as the people in Harlem, and people in Vietnam, who are the ones most affected by this, can vote, because that’s really participatory democracy.”"
Historians have discussed the "white guilt" – social and economical privilege –that burdened the student radicals and motivated them to engage in violence more than the desire to help African Americans and the Vietnamese people. However, the guilt aside, those who chose violence did make efforts to determine how they should help others through it. The author recalls that his transition from pacifism to support for armed revolution had been "incredibly difficult", even traumatic. He also presents non-violence as a means of remaining pure and accepts that violence might tarnish one's moral purity, but he claims that "what had motivated me was the conditions of life of most people . . . and not to be willing to fight against the forces who actively use . . . violence to maintain these social conditions, was acquiescing to more violence." I am not sure whether I should believe him or treat his words as an attempt to excuse his past actions. I think that it might be a combination of both.
Notably, the author casts light on the close but strained relationship between the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. The two groups saw each other on a daily basis, and the Panthers used the Weathermen's printing press to put out their newspaper. However, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton publicly expressed his disapproval of the Days of Rage. The Panthers were also angry that the Weathermen did not act simply as their support group. A direct confrontation between them happened after Panther "Jake" Winters was shot dead by policemen in November 1969. The Panthers wanted the Weathermen to print their memorial poster for him, but the Weather Underground did not have the money. Then the Panthers, led by Hampton, stormed the Weathermen's office and beat members while muttering lines from Stalin. The Weathermen were stunned by this incident, but they knew that the Panthers were under great pressure. They were getting killed, and they could not deal with that. Just days after the incident, Hampton was dead.
According to the author, Hampton’s murder deeply affected the Weathermen, confirming what they, and the New Left as a whole, believed: that race was a basis of oppression and separated the experiences of white and black activists. Reflecting on the shock he felt, Gilbert underscored the apparent failure of whites to do enough: “There are Panthers being shot to death in their beds [and if] we’re a revolutionary movement worth its salt we can’t just say, ‘Oh we sympathize with them.’ We have to create pressure. . . . In terms of my personal experience, it was the murder of Fred Hampton more than any other factor that compelled us to take up armed struggle.” At the same time, the murder made the Weathermen wonder if the limited protection from police violence that they had because they were white would soon end.
Gilbert agrees with many of those who critiqued the Weathermen. He discusses the "macho culture" that challenged the student radicals to do things just to prove that they were men enough. He also considers the Days of Rage were a strange way in which the Weathermen tried to prove they were “better” than the rest of the white left. That belief made the Weathermen arrogant and fostered their "contempt" for the people who did not join the armed struggle. They told the protest movement that they were ready to fight and die, and that for them the society was divided in only two groups – those who joined them in their radicalism and "the pigs". Such an attitude did not win them many supporters.
LOVE AND STRUGGLE is a great memoir. Gilbert does not avoid self-criticism, although at times he tends to portray himself as a victim in situations in which he was not. For instance, his tone is heavily accusing when he describes the rough interrogation that he went through after he was arrested for the robbery in 1981, but there is not even a tinge of remorse in his voice. It is all about him and about the fact that the policemen are breaking the law by beating him, and not about the fact that three people are dead because of his comrades and him. This book is interesting, though. If you want to learn about the Weathermen from the perspective of an inside, it will be useful.
August 3, 2023
Compelling and impressive, replete with interesting discussions of political theory, but glosses over events and facts (a good knowledge of SDS and WUO is a requirement for reading)
April 27, 2012
this is undoubtedly my favorite of the SDS/Weather memoirs. David Gilbert's story gets better and better as it goes, until he is finally arrested and faces trial for participation in the 1981 Black Liberation Army robbery of a Brinks truck.
David's writing is very human, sensitive and thoughtful. his self-criticisms, and criticisms of Weather are right on, although perhaps don't go far enough. the way he talks about his son and lover Kathy is heartbreaking. if there were any justice this man would be free and out right now, but as it stands he will never leave prison alive.
David's writing is very human, sensitive and thoughtful. his self-criticisms, and criticisms of Weather are right on, although perhaps don't go far enough. the way he talks about his son and lover Kathy is heartbreaking. if there were any justice this man would be free and out right now, but as it stands he will never leave prison alive.
October 23, 2017
In 2007, one of the best books I read was "Outlaws of America" by Dan Berger, which told the story of SDS and the Weather Underground informed by a focus on David Gilbert.
Now, here is David Gilbert's own story, which is compelling and honest and relevant.
If there was justice, David would be free; he has been imprisoned since October, 1981.
Now, here is David Gilbert's own story, which is compelling and honest and relevant.
If there was justice, David would be free; he has been imprisoned since October, 1981.
Read
July 31, 2012sad- yes the imperium is unjust and needs to change, but this was still a bank robbery and a really bad idea. lots of good references for reading materials on activism.
November 16, 2025
I have admired David Gilbert and others from the WUO for years. I was, and still am, inspired by their passion, commitment, courage& love for people.
For years, I have also wondered if he could provide any perspective to “the way” to accomplish what the WUO ultimately sought, liberation. For years I wanted to read this book& I am so glad I finally did.
As to his perspective, “The colossal social violence of imperialism does not grant those of us who fight it a free pass to become callous ourselves. Especially in fighting for a just cause, we need to take the greatest care to respect life and to minimize violence as we struggle to end violence.” (325)
“…working within the system got nowhere.” (22)
“…the only way to achieve change was to be organized to fight for it.” (87)
“ by this time, I blew it and all because I wasn’t radical enough in challenging the myths of liberal democracy.” (92)
“ The law, in it’s majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under the bridges to beg in the street and to steal bread.” (93)
For years, I have also wondered if he could provide any perspective to “the way” to accomplish what the WUO ultimately sought, liberation. For years I wanted to read this book& I am so glad I finally did.
As to his perspective, “The colossal social violence of imperialism does not grant those of us who fight it a free pass to become callous ourselves. Especially in fighting for a just cause, we need to take the greatest care to respect life and to minimize violence as we struggle to end violence.” (325)
“…working within the system got nowhere.” (22)
“…the only way to achieve change was to be organized to fight for it.” (87)
“ by this time, I blew it and all because I wasn’t radical enough in challenging the myths of liberal democracy.” (92)
“ The law, in it’s majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under the bridges to beg in the street and to steal bread.” (93)
September 22, 2022
Gilbert’s memoir of a revolutionary life is fantastic reading, and his candor and brutal honesty about both his mistakes and successes make this one of the more engaging books written by a Weather Underground member.
Read
May 26, 2013Gilbert presents a step by step rendering of his extraordinary journey from concerned student to convicted terrorist. It is difficult to forgive him but it is also difficult to condemn him any more than jail time already has. You will have to decide for yourself which of his actions were defensible and which were not. You will never doubt the sincerity of his commitment to all oppressed people and the need to not remain silent in the face of intolerance.
He is completely forthcoming in showing his weaknesses. While he does not go into details about the Brink's robbery that resulted in deaths and his imprisonment he does acknowledge the pain he caused so many people. He does not deny his guilt.
This book is both sad and wise. It was good to hear of his journey.
He is completely forthcoming in showing his weaknesses. While he does not go into details about the Brink's robbery that resulted in deaths and his imprisonment he does acknowledge the pain he caused so many people. He does not deny his guilt.
This book is both sad and wise. It was good to hear of his journey.
June 20, 2020
Gilbert comes across as a true revolutionary after all these years - sticks to his principles, genuinely concerned about others (chiefly those less fortunate than him), and unafraid to criticize his own mistakes as well as organizational missteps. Book suffers slightly from ordering issues, and Gilbert declines to expand in places where I would've appreciated more detail, whether that is from neglect or intentional is unclear. Still, the insights he has are understated but incredibly valuable, and I hope any aspiring revolutionary no matter how experienced can learn from his wisdom.
September 24, 2012
Definitely one of the most important books for 21st Century revolutionaries to read. I devoured it in a little under 24 hours - I just couldn't put it down. Gilbert's candid approach to the successes and failures of his time - and humbling honesty about his own shortcomings - is something to be admired. Read this book.
April 6, 2017
I enjoyed a lot of this - I learnt stuff I didn't know, and the political theory was interesting. Having said that, I found the authorial voice annoying, and somewhat smug. I don't know how much of this was because I was viewing the content from a 21st century perspective though.
July 8, 2025
Filled with incoherent left wing clap-trap. A criminal that shows no sign of guilt for his stupidity as a young man. In fact, he got off easily considering some of the stunts he and his terrorist friends pulled off. The only thing that makes it worth your time is the revealing fact that enemies of our country live amongst us.
March 26, 2023
The frankness and humility Gilbert shows here is moving. Even more so is his remarkable tenacity, whether it’s his commitment to struggling for oppressed people or watching Broncos reruns with literally nothing else to do while waiting weeks to hear about his resurfacing case.
July 9, 2024
An interesting look into the WUO and the activists left in its wake
June 6, 2014
I picked this book up on a whim because after several people were gratuitously rude to me, the guy at the book stand was nice and talked to me without being a patronizing jerk. It had a good title, and he said it was pretty good, so I got it with not knowing much about it.
Wow, I am glad I did. It turns out to be a memoir by one of the members of the Weather Underground, about which I had an extremely vague memory from some history class. (Coincidentally the father of the guy who wrote a book I read last year, Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America, a fact it took me a while to put together.)
Anyway, good stuff. It was slow going, because there are a million and twelve references sprinkled in that he either mentions in passing or recommends, and I looked up a lot of them. (Some were books, some were essays, some I have no idea. That would have been a nice appendix, a collected list.) There was an acronym list, which was handy, because not having lived through most of this, I wasn't familiar with the organizations at all, let alone would have recognized them by their initials. There are also a *lot* of people in here, most of whom appear briefly, then vanish from the narrative.
I love that the author is honest about his own failings - things he did wrong while organizing. I also love that at one point he tried to correct some of his earlier problems by going to women's and other groups and talking to their leaders, telling them his mistakes, and asking how he could help. I also love that the women's groups said the most concrete thing he could do was provide childcare for their meetings, so he did. So many parts of that sound so very 70's to me, and I'm delighted by them.
My minor criticisms have to do with the editing. There were a couple of places where I'm fairly certain one of the myriad people wasn't introduced. And there was one bit where he mentioned falling in love with the woman who bore his son, and then they broke up and the kid wasn't mentioned. I spent several chapters pissed that this guy who was doing all these great things abandoned his son and didn't even mention anything about it, until it transpired that the kid wasn't born until years later. Oh, okay, you're forgiven.
There's only a few paragraphs about the robbery that was the crime of which he was convicted. So if you're looking for that, this is not the place. But what it was was wonderfully evocative of the rest of his experiences. As someone who didn't experience the 60's or 70's and mostly knows about the politics from old Doonesbury cartoon collections, this book really transported me there. I felt the heady exhilaration, the potential. It really brought home for me some remote-seeming yet fairly recent history.
Recommended.
Wow, I am glad I did. It turns out to be a memoir by one of the members of the Weather Underground, about which I had an extremely vague memory from some history class. (Coincidentally the father of the guy who wrote a book I read last year, Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America, a fact it took me a while to put together.)
Anyway, good stuff. It was slow going, because there are a million and twelve references sprinkled in that he either mentions in passing or recommends, and I looked up a lot of them. (Some were books, some were essays, some I have no idea. That would have been a nice appendix, a collected list.) There was an acronym list, which was handy, because not having lived through most of this, I wasn't familiar with the organizations at all, let alone would have recognized them by their initials. There are also a *lot* of people in here, most of whom appear briefly, then vanish from the narrative.
I love that the author is honest about his own failings - things he did wrong while organizing. I also love that at one point he tried to correct some of his earlier problems by going to women's and other groups and talking to their leaders, telling them his mistakes, and asking how he could help. I also love that the women's groups said the most concrete thing he could do was provide childcare for their meetings, so he did. So many parts of that sound so very 70's to me, and I'm delighted by them.
My minor criticisms have to do with the editing. There were a couple of places where I'm fairly certain one of the myriad people wasn't introduced. And there was one bit where he mentioned falling in love with the woman who bore his son, and then they broke up and the kid wasn't mentioned. I spent several chapters pissed that this guy who was doing all these great things abandoned his son and didn't even mention anything about it, until it transpired that the kid wasn't born until years later. Oh, okay, you're forgiven.
There's only a few paragraphs about the robbery that was the crime of which he was convicted. So if you're looking for that, this is not the place. But what it was was wonderfully evocative of the rest of his experiences. As someone who didn't experience the 60's or 70's and mostly knows about the politics from old Doonesbury cartoon collections, this book really transported me there. I felt the heady exhilaration, the potential. It really brought home for me some remote-seeming yet fairly recent history.
Recommended.
December 3, 2015
David Gilbert is behind bars for life. Three people are dead as a result of an armed robbery that he took part in. He has nothing of value to show for his years of life and his Ivy League education. Back in the day I lived and worked with an underground newspaper collective so I am familiar with the endless, mind numbing political debates of the American Left. Who should lead the revolution? Should it be the third world liberation struggles, the white working class, or black nationalists? First of all; what revolution? It was all a pipe dream to begin with. The civil rights movement and the anti Vietnam War movements changed history in a positive direction, but it wasn't enough for elitists like Mr. Gilbert. He and other former student activists nursed a twisted desire to destroy the American State. Though the USA has fostered many immoral foreign and domestic policies, people of goodwill and sound judgement, unlike Gilbert, are needed to foment humane policies.
July 24, 2012
This is a really solid memoir of a participant in SDS and their involvement in the Weather Underground and other armed struggle efforts in the U.S. His analysis of race, his willingness to engage in self-criticism, and his role as someone outside the Weather Underground leadership clique make this a very interesting read.
It would be best enjoyed by someone who has some degree of familiarity with the general trajectory of SDS and the Weather Underground, but if you are a patient reader you could probably get something out of it without that larger context.
It would be best enjoyed by someone who has some degree of familiarity with the general trajectory of SDS and the Weather Underground, but if you are a patient reader you could probably get something out of it without that larger context.
April 17, 2012
Personal and honest, this book provides important insights into the successes and failures of Gilbert's anti-racist white solidarity and organizing in the 60s and 70s. Definitely inspiring and thought-provoking.
March 14, 2016
Couldn't finish it. Turgid and boring.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews