Letters to a Young Activist (Art of Mentoring) [Hardcover]

Todd Gitlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2003 | Series: Art of Mentoring

"Be original. See what happens." So Todd Gitlin advises the young mind burning to take action to right the wrongs of the world but also looking for bearings, understanding, direction, and practical examples.In Letters to a Young Activist, Todd Gitlin looks back at his eventful life, recalling his experience as president of the formidable Students for a Democratic Society in the '60s, contemplating the spirit of activism, and arriving at some principles of action to guide the passion and energy of those wishing to do good. He considers the three complementary motives of duty, love, and adventure, and reflects on the changing nature of idealism and how righteous action requires realistic as well as idealistic thinking. And he looks forward to an uncertain future that is nevertheless full of possibility, a future where patriotism and intelligent skepticism are not mutually exclusive.Gitlin invites the young activist to enter imaginatively into some of the dilemmas, moral and practical, of being a modern citizen--the dilemmas that affect not only the problems of what to think but also the problems of what to love and how to live.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gitlin, a Columbia University professor of sociology and journalism, is a former president of Students for a Democratic Society, SDS, an influential radical '60s group, one of whose primary focuses was anti-Vietnam War activities. Although his stated intention is to provide a guide for future activists, Gitlin may find a more receptive audience among baby boomers who participated in the '60s antiwar protests and have struggled to extract meaning from their own history. While Gitlin tries hard to convince his target audience that he understands them and once felt as they now feel-angry, impatient, outraged and above all convinced of his own rightness-it is unclear whether they would embrace his conclusions any more than Gitlin's generation embraced the suggestions of the Old Left. Such a response might be unfortunate, as Gitlin, who writes earnestly and has a knack for aphoristic observations, has some unusual points. For example, he derides Ralph Nader's third-party run for president as "narcissism wearing a cloak of ideals." He also offers insightful observations on the need for both outsider activists and sympathetic insiders to make meaningful changes in public policy, the dangers of identity politics and the requirement that activists willingly seek and accept institutional power. He eloquently argues for the need to resist the temptation of violence. On more than one occasion, however, Gitlin's prose is abstract and convoluted, verging on the overwrought. He also sometimes loses control of his metaphors ("when guilt and rage slip their leash, they murder the future in the name of an unsalvageable past"). By and large, though, this is a generous and well-meaning book, which may interest aging activists and, perhaps, the young audience at which it is aimed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gitlin, Columbia University journalism professor and former president of the 1960s activist group Students for a Democratic Society, offers encouragement and cautionary notes to current-day activists. Written in the form of a personal letter to today's idealists, Gitlin's book concedes a focus on liberal causes, noting that the conservative impulse is to avoid change even when it is for the good: "no noise, no improvement." Looking back on his own experiences, Gitlin ponders those principles that have guided his own political actions and acknowledges the ponderous shadow that 1960s activism casts over the current generation. He encourages steadfastness, historical perspective, idealism tinged with realism, and faith. In separate chapters, all interspersed with recollections from the 1960s protest movements, Gitlin focuses on the character and discipline needed to sustain social movements, the need for compromise and tempering anger, and how to maintain patriotism and democratic ideals and continue to agitate for social justice. For former and current activists, this is a thoughtful and philosophical look at the personal delight and social efficacy of activism. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1ST edition (April 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465027385
• ISBN-13: 978-0465027385
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Todd Gitlin is the author of fourteen books, including, most recently, The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election (with Liel Leibovitz); The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals; other titles include The Intellectuals and the Flag; Letters to a Young Activist; Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives; The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars; The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage; Inside Prime Time; The Whole World Is Watching; Uptown: Poor Whites in Chicago (co-author); two novels, Sacrifice and The Murder of Albert Einstein; and a book of poetry, Busy Being Born. These books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. He also edited Watching Television and Campfires of the Resistance.

In February 2011, Counterpoint will publish his novel, Undying.

He has contributed to many books and published widely in general periodicals (The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Boston Globe, Dissent, The New Republic, The Nation, Wilson Quarterly, Harper's, American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, The American Prospect, et al.), online magazines (tnr.com, prospect.org, openDemocracy.net), and scholarly journals (Theory and Society, Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, et al.). He is on the editorial boards of Dissent and the Progressive Book Club, and a contributing writer to Mother Jones.

He is a regular contributor to the blog TPMcafe.com and the "Entanglements" and "The Book" blogs at The New Republic online.

He has been a columnist at the New York Observer and the San Francisco Examiner. During the 2008 campaign he is wrote a weekly "Sunday Watch" column for Columbia Journalism Review online and the Huffington Post. His poems have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Yale Review, and The New Republic.

In 2000, Sacrifice won the Harold U. Ribalow Prize for books on Jewish themes. The Sixties and The Twilight of Common Dreams were Notable Books in the New York Times Book Review. Inside Prime Time received the nonfiction award of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association; The Sixties was a finalist for that award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

He holds degrees from Harvard University (mathematics), the University of Michigan (political science), and the University of California, Berkeley (sociology). He was the third president of Students for a Democratic Society, in 1963-64, and coordinator of the SDS Peace Research and Education Project in 1964-65, during which time he helped organize the first national demonstration against the Vietnam War and the first American demonstrations against corporate aid to the apartheid regime in South Africa. During 1968-69, he was an editor and writer for the San Francisco Express Times, and through 1970 wrote widely for the underground press. In 2003-06, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Greenpeace USA.

He is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia University. Earlier, he was for sixteen years a professor of sociology and director of the mass communications program at the University of California, Berkeley, and then for seven years a professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University. During 1994-95, he held the chair in American Civilization at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has been a resident at the Bellagio Study Center in Italy and the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California, a fellow at the Media Studies Center in New York, and a visiting professor at Yale University, the University of Oslo, the University of Toronto, East China Normal University in Shanghai, and the Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis in Tunisia.

He lectures frequently on culture and politics in the United States and abroad (Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Greece, Turkey, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Morocco). He has appeared on many National Public Radio programs including Fresh Air as well as PBS, ABC, CBS and CNN. He lives in New York City with his wife, Laurel Cook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars appreciation for Gitlin's "Letters" from a non-activist, July 23, 2006

By 

D. Leland - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Activist (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

I'll start out with my basic reason for reading this book at all, and a little bit of background. I only read this book because Todd Gitlin has been enough of a friend of Kate Coleman, a former lover of mine, that I was able to meet him at a reading Kate gave at the NYU Journalism School in March of 2005 for "The Secret Wars of Judi Bari". Todd was (still is) teaching there at the time, though the event was held under the auspices of Bruce Porter, also teaching there. Although I have not read any other of Todd's books (nor Bruce's at that time), I saw this one being remaindered (!!!) and picked it up on a chance.

I was never an activist during the 60s - by the time I was old enough to get out in the streets, the activism had degenerated into factional infighting, and it was clear that the Left was intent on killing itself in a purification rite before it would bother crossing swords with any real adversary. So I was a hedonistic hippie instead, and also bothered to get great grades in school, where I did join protests, but only if they didn't cut into my nookie time and my stoning time. Thenceforth, I went through Law School, passed the Bar, and practiced.

I did bring some of the idealism of the 60s with me, but not by becoming a docrinaire libertarian lawyer, just by letting the wholistic healthy attitudes of the bygone days permeate my practice. I retired from the Bar after about 12 years, it really wasn't good for me to be an adversarial professional, even though I did some aspects of it very well, including three winning briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Maybe I was activist enough, in my way.

"Letters" is a well organised series of mini-treatises, each tightly focussed on a tightly - defined theme. There are Letters about self-perception, about taking a stance, about one's setting in the world, and about what might be appropriate expectations for the results of one's activism. Here's a man who has "been there and done that", but he does not condescend - rather he commiserates. He does not pontificate, rather he relates his feelings about having seen the limitations of the viewpoints of himself and those around him, and gives to the reader the wish that they will learn from both the successes and failures of his generation, that the new group may truly stand on their shoulders, and thus be as giants in the struggle to get some good done in this world.

It is very much about "this world" that Gitlin writes. Not only generally about this world, but about being American, being an activist for social and political good, and being in the present day reality. He is an avowed "anti-anti-American", though himself a founder of the SDS, he hung out the American Flag at his New York house in the days following "9-11". Whilst lamenting the squandered opportunities that the U.S.A. had to hand in the weeks and months after those events, he seeks to spur on the new activists to greater achievements whilst cautioning them against many of the dead-end-streets available, the distractions, the freeloaders and those who would hijack an activists movement and sap their energies.

Gitlin writes in a familiar, almost folksy tone, reminiscent of a relaxed afternoon conversation in comfortable surroundings. Whilst sometimes circuituous in getting to a point, or neglecting to reach a conclusion in a clear manner, he gets his message across in a manner that's at once experienced, learned and of heartfelt urgency. With the reader's progress through the Letters, there is greater clarity to the writing, or else one simply becomes accustomed to his style, so it reads more smoothly and seems more focussed and clear.

I appreciated reading this contribution to the series "The Art of Mentoring", and hope that it has a positive place in the libraries of activists, both now and in the future. If I had been minded towards a life of activism, I would see great value in these hard-won lessons, and would value these Letters as though they'd been written - or spoken - directly to me.

©2006 David C.P. Leland

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sage Advice from a Veteran Activist, May 31, 2009

By 

Valerie J. Saturen (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Activist (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

"Be original. See what happens."

With eloquence and insight, former Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) president Todd Gitlin imparts to the younger generation the wisdom acquired over five decades of activism. His LETTERS TO A YOUNG ACTIVIST is both a celebration of the joy and necessity of social change and a cautionary note regarding the traps of nihilism, black-and-white thinking, and self-righteous purity.

For those young people who despair that the era of dramatic social change is over, Gitlin offers some valuable perspective. In reflecting on the Sixties--for many of today's activists, an idealized decade that dwarfs everything since--Gitlin reminds the reader that the decade was as traumatic as it was exhilarating. Crucially, he also points out that "The Sixties" didn't simply explode out of thin air; the social movements that characterized the time emerged slowly, amid much initial opposition.

Gitlin urges young activists to remain passionate and playful, but also to think strategically and be mindful of the consequences of their words and actions. LETTERS has the feel of a friendly yet animated chat, and Gitlin's advice never approaches condescension. As an activist who has experienced frustration and burnout, I found this book to be a reminder of why I became an activist in the first place.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Lessons of the 1960s Still Apply Today, August 20, 2003

By 

Paula D. Matuskey (Ellicott City, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Young Activist (Art of Mentoring) (Hardcover)

One of the values of this book is that it looks back on the 1960s without glossing over the problems, some of the misdirected idealism, etc. It does serve as a testament to social action as a high calling, and in that regard, attempts to encourage activism in today's culture. I thoroughly enjoyed it because I was a teenager in the 1960s, but I also recently sent the book to my 28-year-old son because it presents thoughtful arguments without getting into trite analysis. I totally disagreed with the review by Publishers Weekly. It's well worth reading.