In 1969, the campus tumult that defined the Sixties reached a flash point at the University of Illinois. Out-of-town radicals preached armed revolution. Students took to the streets and fought police and National Guardsmen. Firebombs were planted in lecture halls while explosions rocked a federal building on one side of town and a recruiting office on the other. Across the state, the powers-that-be expressed shock that such events could take place at Illinois's esteemed, conservative, flagship university—how could it happen here, of all places?

Positioning the events in the context of their time, Michael V. Metz delves into the lives and actions of activists at the center of the drama. A participant himself, Metz draws on interviews, archives, and newspaper records to show a movement born in demands for free speech, inspired by a movement for civil rights, and driven to the edge by a seemingly never-ending war. If the sudden burst of irrational violence baffled parents, administrators, and legislators, it seemed inevitable to students after years of official intransigence and disregard. Metz portrays campus protesters not as angry, militant extremists but as youthful citizens deeply engaged with grave moral issues, embodying the idealism, naiveté, and courage of a minority of a generation.

| Cover Title Copyright Contents 1960s Timeline: The University of Illinois and the World 1968 Campus Map Preface Introduction: Fighting Illini Part I. The Prelude 1. The New Yorker: George D. Stoddard 2. The New Guy: David Dodds Henry 3. The Communist TA: Edward Yellin 4. The Sexual Rebel: Leo Koch Part II. The Free Speech Era, 1965–67 5. The Civil Rights Movement and the University 6. Civil Rights, Free Speech, and War 7. A Spark: W. E. B. DuBois Club 8. The University Reacts 9. The University Delays 10. Passing the Buck 11. The Board Surprises 12. The Legislature Speaks 13. A Movement Is Born 14. Henry Responds 15. The Board Reverses 16. Students for Free Speech 17. Henry Reverses 18. Spring/Summer '67: Women Rising Photos Part III. The Antiwar Movement, 1967–69 19. Fall '67: A Hectic Beginning 20. A New Focus: The War 21. Draft Resisters Act 22. Then There Was Dow 23. The Aftermath 24. 1968: The Wildest Year 25. Race Returns to Center Stage 26. Spring Sputters to an End 27. Summer '68: The Turning Begins 28. Fall '68: Project 500 Part IV. The Violent Time, 1969–70 29. Spring '69: Heating Up, but Not Boiling Over 30. Black and White Together 31. A Sign of the End: Weathermen Come to Town 32. Spring '70: The Final Semester 33. March: Patience Spent, the Storms Begin 34. April: Quiet between the Storms 35. May: The Final Month 36. Strike: The Final Days 37. Extra at the End Conclusion: On Agency Contributors: In Their Own Words Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index |"Metz's volume is a deeply researched account that compels us to appreciate how free speech, racial issues, draft resistance, and antiwar activism were fought over on the U of I's flagship campus in Central Illinois." —H-Net Reviews
"Metz has crafted a compelling and intriguing story and has succeeded in writing the activism of students at Urbana-Champaign into the history of the 1960s. " —Social History
"Thoughtful, provocative, and powerful, filled with both painful memories and humorous anecdotes, Metz's book about the upheaval of one college campus during the radical sixties is a real work of history."—Roger Simon
|Michael V. Metz took part in the student movement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1965 to 1970. He is retired from a career in high-tech marketing and resides in Saratoga, California, with his wife,...