Study Questions
1. What evidence do you see in this essay that McCarthyism was still a force in California during the years leading up to the FSM?
2. In what ways was Clark Kerr an advocate for academic freedom during his tenure as president of the University of California?
3. During the early 1960s, Edmund Brown, Clark Kerr, and the board of regents embraced freedom of speech, but they had a different idea than campus activists of how political discourse should take place. What was their view? How did the reality of student activism on campus vary from their expectations?
4. Schooled in the tactics of the civil rights movement, the leaders of the FSM realized that every time the University of California adopted restrictive measures, the FSM would gain new supporters. What were the “oppressive” acts that built support for the movement during 1964?
5. In addition to the speech issue, what were the other political and cultural ingredients in the campus turmoil of the 1960s? What was the counterculture? How did its values contribute to the turmoil at Berkeley?
6. How and why did the Vietnam War contribute to student unrest during the 1960s?
7. How were Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan able to win support from some California voters for their positions on the situation at Berkeley?
8. How did the sixties change Berkeley and other college campuses?
1. What evidence do you see in this essay that McCarthyism was still a force in California during the years leading up to the FSM?
2. In what ways was Clark Kerr an advocate for academic freedom during his tenure as president of the University of California?
3. During the early 1960s, Edmund Brown, Clark Kerr, and the board of regents embraced freedom of speech, but they had a different idea than campus activists of how political discourse should take place. What was their view? How did the reality of student activism on campus vary from their expectations?
4. Schooled in the tactics of the civil rights movement, the leaders of the FSM realized that every time the University of California adopted restrictive measures, the FSM would gain new supporters. What were the “oppressive” acts that built support for the movement during 1964?
5. In addition to the speech issue, what were the other political and cultural ingredients in the campus turmoil of the 1960s? What was the counterculture? How did its values contribute to the turmoil at Berkeley?
6. How and why did the Vietnam War contribute to student unrest during the 1960s?
7. How were Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan able to win support from some California voters for their positions on the situation at Berkeley?
8. How did the sixties change Berkeley and other college campuses?