Political Activist Memoirs from the Sixties Generation

I thought you’d enjoy seeing my list of approx. 50 memoirs by political activists from the Sixties Generation. I am writing my own memoir now (my bio’s HERE), and am using these books for inspiration, for enjoyment, and – just as often, alas – for examples of what to avoid.

Although these memoirs may appear to be hopelessly diverse, all meet these stern criteria:

n Author must have been born in the U.S., or be a U.S. citizen;

n Author must have been born between 1936 and 1956, unless their names are Susan Brownmiller (b. 1935) or Carl Oglesby (b. 1935);

n Author must have been a political activist (broadly defined!), and must decline to identify primarily as a politician or politician’s aide or member of the U.S. government (such memoirs are a separate genre);

n Author must reflect on the intimate – the “personal” – as well as on the political, and must discern some connection between the two; and

n Book must have appeared after 1975, i.e. after the author had had time to dwell on his or her formative experiences (yes, some in-the-moment memoirs are wonderful. But I am after mature and considered reflections here).

Please feel free to suggest your own favorite memoirs to me, so I can consider adding them to this list and / or to my reading pile; I can be reached at msatin (at) radicalmiddle.com.

And if you’re tempted to purchase any of these memoirs on Amazon.com, please go there by using the links in blue below. We earn a small commission for every Amazon purchase you make via this website, and that helps us preserve our “radical middle” independence from advertisers and foundations alike.

So, enjoy this list. And USE it to think about your own next steps!!! – M.S.

1. Feminist ACTIVISTs

Jane Alpert, b. 1947, Growing Up Underground (1981)

Bettina Aptheker, b. 1944, Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel (2006)

Susan Brownmiller, b. 1935, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (1999)

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, b. 1939, Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975 (2001)

Andrea Dworkin, b. 1946, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant (2002)

Jo Freeman, b. 1945, At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Evolution of an Activist, 1961-1965 (2004)

Robin Morgan, b. 1941, Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist (1977)

Robin Morgan, b. 1941, Saturday’s Child: A Memoir (2000)

Marge Piercy, b. 1936, Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir (2002)

Susan Sherman, b. 1939, America’s Child: A Woman’s Journey through the Radical Sixties (2007)

2. Conservative ACTIVISTs

Peter Collier & David Horowitz, eds., Second Thoughts: Former Radicals Look Back at the Sixties (1989)

Mary Eberstadt, ed., Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys (2007)

David Horowitz, b. 1939, Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey (1997)

Michael Medved, b. 1948, Right Turns: From Liberal Activist to Conservative Champion in 35 Unconventional Lessons (2004)

Peggy Noonan, b. 1950, What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990)

Ronald Radosh, b. 1937, Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left (2001)

3. SPIRITUAL AND / OR Environmental ACTIVISTS

Margot Adler, b. 1946, Heretic’s Heart: A Journey through Spirit and Revolution (1997)

Peter Camejo, b. 1939, North Star: A Memoir (2010)

Dave Foreman, b. 1947, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior (1991)

Melvin Gurtov, b. 1942, Making Changes: The Politics of Self Liberation (1979)

Julius Lester, b. 1939, All Is Well (1976)

Ray Mungo, b.1946, Beyond the Revolution: My Life and Times Since Famous Long Ago (1990)

Fran Peavey, b. 1945?, Heart Politics (1985), expanded as Heart Politics Revisited (2000)

Mike Roselle, b. 1946?, Tree Spiker: From Earth First! to Lowbagging: My Struggles in Radical Environmental Action (2009)

4. CounterCulture ACTIVISTS

Peter Coyote, b. 1941, Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle (1998)

Tom Fels, b. 1946?, Farm Friends: From the Late Sixties to the West Seventies and Beyond (2008)

Rupert Fike, ed., Voices from The Farm: Adventures in Country Living (1998)

Iris Keltz, b. 1946, Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie: Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution (2000)

Arthur Kopecky, b. 1945?, Leaving New Buffalo Commune (2006)

Roberta Price, b. 1946?, Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture (2006)

Robert Roskind, b. 1946?, Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture (2001)

Jerry Rubin, b. 1939, Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven (1976)

Robert Stone, b. 1937, Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (2007)

5. Civil Rights AND / or Black Power ACTIVISts

Elaine Brown, b. 1943, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (1992)

Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], b. 1941, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (2003)

Dick Cluster, ed., They Should Have Served that Cup of Coffee: Seven Radicals Remember the 1960s (1979)

Morris Dees, b. 1936, Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees (1991), updated as A Lawyer’s Journey: The Morris Dees Story (2001)

David Hilliard, b. 1942, This Side of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther Party (1992)

Mary King, b. 1945?, Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement (1987)

Robert Hillary King, b. 1942, From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King (2008)

John Lewis, b. 1940, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1999)

Assata Shakur [JoAnne Chesimard], b. 1947, Assata: An Autobiography (1987)

6. SDS AND / OR WEATHER UNDERGROUND ACTIVISTS

Bill Ayers, b. 1944, Fugitive Days: A Memoir (2001), re-released as Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist (2009) with a less vulnerable and more PC afterword [compare p. 297 in the 2001 paperback to p. 311 in the 2009 paperback]

Todd Gitlin, b. 1943, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (revised 1993, orig. 1987)

Tom Hayden, b. 1939, Rebel: A Personal History of the 1960s (2003)

Tom Hayden, b. 1939, Reunion: A Memoir (1988)

Carl Oglesby, b. 1935, Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Anti-War Movement (2008)

Robert Pardun, b. 1946?, Prairie Radical: A Journey Through the Sixties (2001)

Mark Rudd, b. 1947, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen (2009)

Susan Stern, b. 1943, With the Weathermen: The Personal Journey of a Revolutionary Woman (1977)

Cathy Wilkerson, b. 1945, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman (2007)

7. OTHER Anti-War AND / or Anti-IMPERIalist ACTIVISts

Michael Albert, b. 1947, Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism (2006)

Bob Avakian, b. 1943, From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (2005)

Diana Block, b. 1950, Arm the Spirit: A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back (2009)

Leslie Brody, b. 1946?, Red Star Sister: Between Madness and Utopia (1998)

James Carroll, b. 1943, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us (1996)

Jerry Elmer, b. 1951, Felon for Peace: Memoir of a Vietnam-Era Draft Resister (2005)

Leslie Evans, b. 1942, Outsider’s Reverie: A Memoir (2010)

Judy Kaplan & Linn Shapiro, eds., Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left (1998)

Donald Simons, b. 1945, I Refuse: Memories of a Vietnam War Objector (1992)

Norman Solomon, b. 1951, Made Love Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State (2007)

Jack Todd, b. 1946, Desertion: In the Time of Vietnam (2001)

CONCLUSION: THREE QUESTIONS

n My cohort doesn’t appear to have written any GREAT political memoirs yet – a Witness (orig. 1952), an Autobiography of Malcolm X (orig. 1965), a Confessions of a Disloyal European (orig. 1968). Why?

n The majority of the memoirists above were born before 1946, i.e. before the Baby Boom began. Why? (Even activists born in 1956, our cutoff date, would be in their mid-50s now – quite old enough to have penned a resonant memoir.)

n The majority of the memoirists above start winding their narratives down by the 1970s. Why? (People born between 1936 and 1956 should have been reaching their primes in the 1970s-90s!)

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