Freedom's Orator Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960s

by Cohen, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780195182934
• ISBN10: 0195182936
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Here is the first biography of Mario Savio, the brilliant leader of Berkeley's Free Speech Movement, the largest and most disruptive student rebellion in American history. Savio risked his life to register black voters in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964 and did more than anyone to bring daring forms of non-violent protest from the civil rights movement to the struggle for free speech and academic freedom on American campuses. Drawing upon previously unavailable Savio papers, as well as oral histories from friends and fellow movement leaders, Freedom's Orator illuminates Mario's egalitarian leadership style, his remarkable eloquence, and the many ways he embodied the youthful idealism of the 1960s. The book also narrates, for the first time, his second phase of activism against "Reaganite Imperialism" in Central America and the corporatization of higher education. Including a generous selection of Savio's speeches, Freedom's Orator speaks with special relevance to a new generation of activists and to all who cherish the '60s and democratic ideals for which Savio fought so selflessly.

Author Biography

Robert Cohen teaches social studies and history at New York University and chairs the department of Teaching and Learning in NYU's Steinhardt School of Education. A Berkeley graduate, he is the author of When the Old Left Was Young and the co-editor of The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s . He lives in Greenwich Village.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Education of an American Radical
Child of War	p. 19
The Making of a Civil Rights Activist	p. 35
Freedom Summer	p. 49
Avatar of Student Protest: Leading the Free Speech Movement
From Polite Protest to the First Sit-In	p. 75
The Police Car Blockade	p. 98
Consolidating the Movement and Negotiating for Free Speech	p. 121
"We Almost Lost": The FSM in Crisis	p. 149
Speaking Out and Sitting In	p. 178
"Free Speech at Last"	p. 208
After the Revolution: A Voice Lost and Found
Descending from Leadership	p. 231
Battling Back	p. 271
Dying in the Saddle	p. 299
In His Own Words: A Selection of Mario Savio's Speeches and Writing
Valedictory	p. 323
Bodies Upon the Gears	p. 326
An End to History	p. 329
Questioning the Vietnam War	p. 333
Beyond the Cold War	p. 339
Resisting Reaganism and War in Central America	p. 346
The Second Generation	p. 350
Building a Compassionate Community	p. 358
Their Values and Ours	p. 367
A Moment to Move Against Class-Ridden Barbarism	p. 376
California at the Crossroads: Social Strife or Social Unity?	p. 386
In Defense of Affirmative Action: The Case Against Proposition 209	p. 399
Notes	p. 418
Index	p. 489
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