Young women and men coming of age in 1960 were not, as a whole, worried about social hypocrisy or desirous of changing the economic, political, and social framework of the United States.  The subsequent decade changed that.  In Student Movements of the 1960s Alexander Cruden has brought together a selection of primary source documents [primarily speeches, manifestos and articles] which reflect a number of challenges that arose to the status quo.

What this set of readings does is reflect the voices of people who helped drive the politics of the era with their righteous indignation with the ways things were.  For context, Cruden includes an interview with Jonathan Leaf who is quick to point out the reality of the sixties, that most young people were not protesters, poor, or feeling oppressed. 

Anti-war protesters, women challenging gender roles, students dissatisfied with college rules and mores, and black power advocates all have a seat at the table in Cruden’s slender volume.   Combined they represent a minority of voices from the era, but those that inspired and helped create an America different from the one they found in 1960.

Included also are representative voices of those who resisted or critiqued the change at the time.  Together these pieces provide a rich tableau of perspectives of those who consciously tried to change this country a half century ago.