Letters to a Young Activist

by Gitlin, Todd

• ISBN13: 9780465027385
• ISBN10: 0465027385
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-09
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

"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.InLetters 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.

Author Biography

Todd Gitlin is Professor of Journalism and Sociology at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

On Duty, Love and Adventure, or Some Leaps of Faith	p. 1
On the Burden of History, or Several Warped Ways of Looking at the Sixties	p. 19
On Idealism and Right Action, or Nonviolence Unexhausted	p. 45
On Anger, Rage and Guilt, or Temptations of Thinking with Your Blood	p. 63
On Changing the World and Blowing It Up, or Compromising with the Compromised	p. 77
On the Intricate Dance of Outsiders and Insiders, or Shouts Lead to Murmurs	p. 91
On Our Own Character Question, or Uses of Discipline	p. 105
On Rendering unto Identity No More than Identity Is Due, or Limits of Comfort	p. 123
On Anti-Semitism, the Socialism of Fools	p. 133
On Anti-Americanism, or the Temptation of the Automatic No	p. 139
On Patriotism Without Embarrassment, or Saving the World Again	p. 159
Acknowledgments	p. 171
An Activist's Library	p. 173
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