The Berkeley Student Revolt: Facts and Interpretations

by Seymour Martin Lipset (Editor), Sheldon S. Wolin (Editor), Free Speech Movement (Contributor)

The student revolt on the Berkeley campus of the University of California, which began in September 1964 and lasted until the next January, is unprecedented in American university history.

One of the world's largest and most famous centers of learning was brought to the edge of collapse, and the implications extended far beyond the locale--both because the University of California has often been regarded as a prototype of the future form of public higher education and because of what was revealed about a new generation of students.

In this volume, two professors at Berkeley, themselves in disagreement over the meaning of the revolt, have tried to assemble as wide a range of significant views--from participants on both sides and from outside observers--as possible. They have also provided a detailed chronology of events and a generous sampling of the manifestoes, pamphlets, broadsides, and statements--again from both sides--that were distributed during the disturbance. Several of the essays were commissioned for this book and have not appeared elsewhere.

Genres: Activism, Politics

599 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Seymour Martin Lipset was an American political sociologist, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about the conditions for democracy in comparative perspective.