Customer Reviews

The Battle For Morningside Heights

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Kahn's skill at capturing and conveying nuance, the highlight of his sports books, is not as evident in this effort, but it is still an interesting take on one of the better known student revolts of the 60's. Student revolt in the 60's, a phenomenon entirely apart from the "turn on, tune out" hippie movement, is a topic beyond the scope of a single volume, but the fact that both the students and administrators were still feeling their way in those days is skillfully conveyed. There is a negative review of this book on Amazon whose author seems to have an agenda beyond his or her review. One can't quibble that most Columbia students came from financially secure homes but I don't think that distinguished this skirmish from those taking place at other universities, or serves to trivialize the phenomenon at all. This book is worth the read.

Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who led the country out of the disaster called Vietnam, called this the finest book written on the issue of student unrest. Some anonymous character wants to use words like mastubatory and argue with the Senator. The First Amendment gives him that right. However, what Mr. Kahn does in this landmark work is focus on a troubled time that reverberates today. Kennedys and Dr. King Murdered. Universities ignoring students and jumping at governement funds to do war research. Nixon working his enemies list and warming up for Watergate. This is an American classic. It would be a shame if listeners or readers are put off from buying this great work by a bigoted anonymous postcard.

This only interesting thing about this trite and dated account of the student revolt is that the author takes these self-indulgent kids so seriously. These self-styled "revolutionaries" came from comfortable homes and went on to yuppie lives but spent their college years engaged in self-congratulatory political masturbation. They should simply have been expelled at their first violation of the laws, and they are worth a magazine article at best, certainly not a tedious and ideologically shrill book. Grayson Kirk was right.