What do you think?
Rate this book
Dreams Die Hard
Book by Harris, David
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
2 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2013
I enjoyed this memoir of the 1960s a lot. A few years ago, I read a biography about Allard Lowenstein, the architect of the "Dump Johnson" campaign, but it didn't resonate with me as much as this book did.
Author David Harris was a Stanford University student body president who knew both Lowenstein and the schizophrenic former protege who shot him, Dennis Sweeney. I'd never heard of Harris before, but he was a draft resister who was briefly married to Joan Baez and who went to prison for refusing induction.
I thought this book was both a loving and honest telling of the 60s and the idealism and disillusion that the decade brought. Here was one passage I highlighted about Harris and his circle of friends in 1966:
"It is hard for me to describe us and what we were about that summer without lapsing in what now sounds trite. The intervening decade and a half has reduced much of the language we then used to describe ourselves into a rubble of jargon that, however I try to arrange it, now reads like parody. We were all still students. We were all still confident in the way only people who think they have their whole lives ahead of them can be. We all wanted to become 'human.' 'aware,' 'honest,' and 'true to our beliefs,' traits few of our elders seemed to possess. We all believed the war mirrored everything wrong with America. We all, to one degree or another, found a discredited America impossible to reconcile with who we wanted to be be. It was a sign of the times that, without hesitation, we all assumed we could resolve that discrepancy in our favor. The society we were expected to adhere to had been so thoroughly compromised, we said, that it now demanded an entirely new formulation. We believed we were laying the foundation of a New Age. Being hopelessly outnumbered only added to the adventure. We weren't a parody, whatever has since become of our words. We were the 'real thing.' As far as we were concerned, no one had ever done what we were doing.
"Fifteen years later, I have no choice but to look back at us across much accumulated cynicism, both my own and the country's. Nothing is simple anymore, so it is hard not to be embarrassed by how simple it all seemed then. Such embarrassment is a disservice to memory. Not because we weren't occasionally clumsy in our definitions and even simplistic, but because, even so, things were indeed simpler. Life and death was obviously at issue, and we were obviously surrounded by a nation with oatmeal in its heart. At the time, complexity was most often used as an excuse for ignoring what was actually happening to people. It was a sign of character, if not wisdom, that we latched onto the simple truths no one else wanted to see and rode them until their wheels fell off."
Author David Harris was a Stanford University student body president who knew both Lowenstein and the schizophrenic former protege who shot him, Dennis Sweeney. I'd never heard of Harris before, but he was a draft resister who was briefly married to Joan Baez and who went to prison for refusing induction.
I thought this book was both a loving and honest telling of the 60s and the idealism and disillusion that the decade brought. Here was one passage I highlighted about Harris and his circle of friends in 1966:
"It is hard for me to describe us and what we were about that summer without lapsing in what now sounds trite. The intervening decade and a half has reduced much of the language we then used to describe ourselves into a rubble of jargon that, however I try to arrange it, now reads like parody. We were all still students. We were all still confident in the way only people who think they have their whole lives ahead of them can be. We all wanted to become 'human.' 'aware,' 'honest,' and 'true to our beliefs,' traits few of our elders seemed to possess. We all believed the war mirrored everything wrong with America. We all, to one degree or another, found a discredited America impossible to reconcile with who we wanted to be be. It was a sign of the times that, without hesitation, we all assumed we could resolve that discrepancy in our favor. The society we were expected to adhere to had been so thoroughly compromised, we said, that it now demanded an entirely new formulation. We believed we were laying the foundation of a New Age. Being hopelessly outnumbered only added to the adventure. We weren't a parody, whatever has since become of our words. We were the 'real thing.' As far as we were concerned, no one had ever done what we were doing.
"Fifteen years later, I have no choice but to look back at us across much accumulated cynicism, both my own and the country's. Nothing is simple anymore, so it is hard not to be embarrassed by how simple it all seemed then. Such embarrassment is a disservice to memory. Not because we weren't occasionally clumsy in our definitions and even simplistic, but because, even so, things were indeed simpler. Life and death was obviously at issue, and we were obviously surrounded by a nation with oatmeal in its heart. At the time, complexity was most often used as an excuse for ignoring what was actually happening to people. It was a sign of character, if not wisdom, that we latched onto the simple truths no one else wanted to see and rode them until their wheels fell off."
January 6, 2013
Although Harris is a professional journalist and the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, my appreciation of this work is less for the quality of his writing or research than it is deeply personal. Although I came to the Movement late, being six years younger than the author, I grew up well aware of the Civil Rights Stuggle of the early sixties, the Mississippi aspect of which constituted his inauguration to the radical Left, and became myself active in progressive politics by the age of fifteen with the invasion of the Dominican Republic.
Most of Harris' book is occupied with the years from 1966 through 1970. Most of his political attention is focused on, first, SNCC in Mississippi, the first link between him, Lowenstein and Sweeney; second, Lowenstein's involvements in electoral politics, particularly the McCarthy and RFK campaigns; and, third, Harris and Sweeney's anti-draft organization, The Resistance. My own links were primarily with the McCarthy campaign (through which I briefly--and glancingly--met Lowenstein) and with draft resistance.
The point of The Resistance was to promote active, personal opposition to the military draft during the Vietnam war. This was illegal and thousands, including Harris himself, served time in jail. I resisted as well, returning my draft card--with letters explaining my reasons for refusing to cooperate--to the Selective Service on two occasions. Luckier than others, although I initially faced prosecution, the napalming of the offices of the local Des Plaines draft board apparently let me off the hook.
This book stuck me as authentically capturing the spirit of the sixties as I and my most politically involved associates lived it.
Most of Harris' book is occupied with the years from 1966 through 1970. Most of his political attention is focused on, first, SNCC in Mississippi, the first link between him, Lowenstein and Sweeney; second, Lowenstein's involvements in electoral politics, particularly the McCarthy and RFK campaigns; and, third, Harris and Sweeney's anti-draft organization, The Resistance. My own links were primarily with the McCarthy campaign (through which I briefly--and glancingly--met Lowenstein) and with draft resistance.
The point of The Resistance was to promote active, personal opposition to the military draft during the Vietnam war. This was illegal and thousands, including Harris himself, served time in jail. I resisted as well, returning my draft card--with letters explaining my reasons for refusing to cooperate--to the Selective Service on two occasions. Luckier than others, although I initially faced prosecution, the napalming of the offices of the local Des Plaines draft board apparently let me off the hook.
This book stuck me as authentically capturing the spirit of the sixties as I and my most politically involved associates lived it.
September 13, 2025
Five stars for content (maybe 4 for writing style)
David Harris does a straightforward chronological rendering of the lives of three 60s activists as their lives intersect from 1963-67 and then move away from each other, and then intersect calamitously in 1980, when Dennis Sweeney murders Allard Lowenstein.
This book is a wondrous rendition of life in the "movement" in the 60s, when young activists felt their drive to change the world could have a nation-changing impact. It also is a terrible description of the progression of severe mental illness. The amount of detail and the depth of his investigations is impressive although the lack of attributions frequently bothered me ("the Boston student who drove him that day", "a journalist who later ended working in the State Department" -- why couldn't these people be named? ). Trying to "show not tell" motivations and pathways of 60s activists is challenging and he does a great job. I really appreciated his step-by-stop sometimes month-by-month descriptions of how these men came to intertwine their lives.
I'm very glad I read this; it brought back a lot of the 60s/70s and has a number of good history lessons. It was written in the early 80s so at times its level of naivetee and concentration (eg whether Lowenstein was gay;) is a little painful. But I'm very glad I read it. And I'm glad David Harris wrote it.
David Harris does a straightforward chronological rendering of the lives of three 60s activists as their lives intersect from 1963-67 and then move away from each other, and then intersect calamitously in 1980, when Dennis Sweeney murders Allard Lowenstein.
This book is a wondrous rendition of life in the "movement" in the 60s, when young activists felt their drive to change the world could have a nation-changing impact. It also is a terrible description of the progression of severe mental illness. The amount of detail and the depth of his investigations is impressive although the lack of attributions frequently bothered me ("the Boston student who drove him that day", "a journalist who later ended working in the State Department" -- why couldn't these people be named? ). Trying to "show not tell" motivations and pathways of 60s activists is challenging and he does a great job. I really appreciated his step-by-stop sometimes month-by-month descriptions of how these men came to intertwine their lives.
I'm very glad I read this; it brought back a lot of the 60s/70s and has a number of good history lessons. It was written in the early 80s so at times its level of naivetee and concentration (eg whether Lowenstein was gay;) is a little painful. But I'm very glad I read it. And I'm glad David Harris wrote it.
November 22, 2018
This book recounts an important era in modern American history, and for me, personally, it brought back loads of memories. I was a student at Stanford University in 1961. I had just recently moved out of Stern Hall, where Allard Lowenstein was the new Director. I took his seminar course on The Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa along with about a dozen other students. What I remember most about the course was not Lowenstein, but the subject matter, which I found fascinating. As it was my senior year, I asked Lowenstein to write me a letter of recommendation for Harvard Law School and it proved good enough for them to accept me. Despite Harris’ repeated accounts of how Lowenstein recruited young protégés for his causes, I do not recall any attempt to recruit me.
The book successfully interweaves the lives of Lowenstein, Dennis Sweeney and David Harris. I found the stories riveting. Harris writes well and includes plenty of details. There are, however, a few shortcomings: some errors (e.g. David Newman instead of David Neuman; 1977 instead of 1967), no index, no notes identifying the source of quotations, and no illustrations.
The book successfully interweaves the lives of Lowenstein, Dennis Sweeney and David Harris. I found the stories riveting. Harris writes well and includes plenty of details. There are, however, a few shortcomings: some errors (e.g. David Newman instead of David Neuman; 1977 instead of 1967), no index, no notes identifying the source of quotations, and no illustrations.
June 25, 2010
I learned a lot about what was going on literally in my back yard while I was growing up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews