UP AGAINST THE IVY WALL: A History of the Columbia Crisis

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1968

No one is pilloried here (although Grayson Kirk and the police are shown in unfortunate actions and the student radicals habitually swear), but neither is anyone enshrined. What emerges here is a careful anatomy of the Spring, 1968, ""revolution"" at Columbia University prepared by the staff of the student daily newspaper. It appears that the Spectator had a man at every checkpoint, from the occupied halls, to the faculty caucus, to the bushes where frequently plain-clothesmen emerged swinging indiscriminately. These reporters won the confidence of all of the partisans and they have attempted to supply an informed chronological account of the events, issues, and personalities involved. There are fine and brash words by eminent men and by younger ones. One radical admits. ""Yes, we are being coercive. But can we stop horrors by speech alone?"" The book makes clear what the ""horrors"" were-on both sides. There are position papers by student leader Mark Rudd and by the university's vice provost Herbert Deane. Photographs (not seen here), a useful chronology and listing of dramatis personae, and index. Editor-in-Chief Friedman's introduction tends to support the radicals (though it includes some extraordinary quotations of the radicals that will turn off many a moderate). But the reportage is as competent and objective as, say, The New York Times (a man recording the actions of his own generation and the next one).

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION