The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s [Paperback]

Robert Cohen (Editor), Reginald E. Zelnik (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2002

This is the authoritative and long-awaited volume on Berkeley's celebrated Free Speech Movement (FSM) of 1964. Drawing from the experiences of many movement veterans, this collection of scholarly articles and personal memoirs illuminates in fresh ways one of the most important events in the recent history of American higher education. The contributors--whose perspectives range from that of FSM leader Mario Savio to University of California president Clark Kerr---shed new light on such issues as the origins of the FSM in the civil rights movement, the political tensions within the FSM, the day-to-day dynamics of the protest movement, the role of the Berkeley faculty and its various factions, the 1965 trial of the arrested students, and the virtually unknown "little Free Speech Movement of 1966."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When the University of California at Berkeley erupted in 1964 into protests over freedom of speech, it set the stage for campus unrest in the turbulent 1960s. At the center of the Berkeley protest was the eloquent Mario Savio, primary orator in the student rebellion that became known as the free speech movement. He died in 1996, and in his memory, the editors and authors reexamine the free speech movement, where it fit into the ferment for social change, and its impact on campus and other protests that ensued. Essays by veterans of the movement, faculty members who were involved in the crisis, the former president of the university, historians of civil rights, and constitutional scholars recall the atmosphere of the time, the struggle within universities to address growing discontent with the old model of docile students separate and apart from professors and administrators, and growing social and political ferment in the nation. This is an absorbing look back through personal accounts and political analyses at a student protest that continues to reverberate. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A superb book." - Todd Gitlin, author of Media Unlimited and The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage "This book gets the Free Speech Movement and its significance exactly right - from the civil rights origins to refusing to idealize the moment at the expense of what came later. And no two better editors could be doing it." - Michael Rogin, author of Ronald Reagan, The Movie, And Other Episodes in Political Demonology

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (October 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520233549
• ISBN-13: 978-0520233546
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Also 60's film--now a DVD..., May 25, 2004

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denny j Huber - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s (Paperback)

Tragic accident...Prof. Zelnik killed on campus,run-over. It was death of Savio at age 56..several years ago..that led him to co-edit this work-which has become definitive...