DIVIDED WE STAND: Reflections on the Crisis at Cornell

by Cushing & David Grossvogel--Eds. Strout ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 1970

Six Cornellians consider the ""wider and deeper meaning of the issues"" behind the 1969 blowup. The book begins with a transcript of an impassioned speech by Professor Kahin (Southeast Asian expert) in the thick of the crisis, and an essay by Professor Strout (of the English Department) at a not very far remove. Historians can use them as interpretive sources (Strout points to students' reactions against liberal color-blindness and desire for manageable surrogate targets) and also as exhibits of prototypical faculty responses: Kahin warning students that they'll unleash repression, Strout quoting them The Federalist and lamenting the loss of ""a university, or the idea of a, university, that we had cherished."" Professor Kenworthy (a political scientist) pushes his colleagues themes further with greater detachment: the differing political experience of students and teachers, the question of academic freedom, the problem of ""alienation."" Howard Feinstein, a psychiatrist and history student, gives a fruitful report based on interviews about subjective states during the crisis. Professor Grossvogel makes a penetrating general critique of American higher education. Cleveland Donald, a black graduate student activist, describes factions within the Cornell Afro-American group and examines conflicts characteristic of black Ivy League men and women (without telling us much about the students' background). The most obvious criticism of the book is that it includes no full statements by white undergraduates. One of its obvious merits is that it doesn't bog down in sensationalistic focus on the black students' armed occupation of Willard Straight hall. As an amalgam of documentary and analytic elements, it has considerable value and appeal. Three chronologies are prefixed.

Pub Date: Sept. 4, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION