Prairie Radical A Journey Through the Sixties

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Fabulous book! Prairie Radical is fun to read, accurate and thoughtful. Why do ordinary young people do extraordinary things? Pardun shares his own upbringing in a mixed neighborhood in Pueblo, Colorado. His Dad "described himself as a conservative Republican which meant to him that he strongly believed in the conservation of the rights given to people by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." He acted on those beliefs and raised a son who would as well. Pardun's journey takes him to Texas, where he became involved in Students for a Democratic Society while at the University of Texas, to Chicago, where he was a national officer of SDS, and finally to Arkansas, where he joined a late '60's back-to-the-land commune. His passion encompassed a range of issues during pivotal times. Better than any author I've read, Pardun develops and documents the crackling interaction between SDS's irrepressible enthusiam for justice, police and FBI secret dirty tricks (COINTELPRO), the growing battles over organizational structure and attempts by other groups to take over SDS. The book includes many photos of Texas activists at work and reproductions of SDS leaflets and FBI documents which give added dimension to Pardun's fascinating tale. One of the best books I've read about white radicals in the '60's. A must-read for anyone interested in social change.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: Fabulous book! Prairie Radical is fun to read, accurate and thoughtful. Why do ordinary young people do extraordinary things? Pardun shares his own upbringing in a mixed neighborhood in Pueblo, Colorado. His Dad "described himself as a conservative Republican which meant to him that he strongly believed in the conservation of the rights given to people by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." He acted on those beliefs and raised a son who would as well. Pardun's journey takes him to Texas, where he became involved in Students for a Democratic Society while at the University of Texas, to Chicago, where he was a national officer of SDS, and finally to Arkansas, where he joined a late '60's back-to-the-land commune. His passion encompassed a range of issues during pivotal times. Better than any author I've read, Pardun develops and documents the crackling interaction between SDS's irrepressible enthusiam for justice, police and FBI secret dirty tricks (COINTELPRO), the growing battles over organizational structure and attempts by other groups to take over SDS. The book includes many photos of Texas activists at work and reproductions of SDS leaflets and FBI documents which give added dimension to Pardun's fascinating tale. One of the best books I've read about white radicals in the '60's. A must-read for anyone interested in social change.

Rating:
Summary: Great 1960s Memoir
Review: Robert Pardun's Prairie Radical is the best account
that I have read so far of the SDS experience and the
1960s historical context in which it occurred. I was active
in SDS in the Oklahoma and Wisconsin chapters and
worked in the National Office. From what I remember,
Pardun's memoir is faithful to what happened. More than
that, he has carefully reconstructed the issues that
people felt to be significant and described them in a
way that is both personable and engaging. I strongly
recommend this very well written book for students and
others who want to understand the history of the 1960s
and what it was like to be an activist in those
momentous times.