History 476

Devine

Fall 2013

 

David Steigerwald, “The Reddish Decade”

 

  1. Why were the ideas of the Old Left not much help to the New Left in its attempt to critique the “Affluent Society”?  Why did Paul Goodman, C. Wright Mills, and Albert Camus prove more attractive to New Leftists looking for inspiration?

 

  1. Why were there disagreements between SDS (the New Left) and LID (the Old Left)?

 

  1. How did the New Left propose to address the problems of apathy, alienation, and the ills of bureaucratized society? 

 

  1. Who did SDS see as potential allies?  How did it plan to structure its organization?  What were some of SDS’s weaknesses from the very outset?

 

  1. Why didn’t the ERAP project work out like the New Leftists had hoped?  Why did the poor not make good “revolutionaries”?

 

  1. How does the author contrast Tom Hayden (who led the ERAP movement) with Mario Savio (who led the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley)?  More broadly, what is the difference between “radicalism” and “rebellion”?

 

  1. Why did opposition to the Vietnam War prove a good catalyst for mobilizing SDS on a national level?

 

  1. What was “corporate liberalism” (p. 136) and why did the New Left oppose it?

 

  1. How did the later New Lefists’ ideas about “revolution” (expressed by Gregg Calvert) differ from those of the early New Leftists (expressed in the Port Huron Statement)?  (see p. 137)  Why did they pursue revolution, when, according to the author (and common sense), revolution was “objectively impossible”?

 

  1. What happened in Chicago during the summer of 1968?  Why was it an important benchmark for the New Left?

 

  1. What explains the violence of Weatherman?  According to the author, why did young people join such an organization?