Cornell '69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University

by Donald A. Downs

Overview

In April 1969, one of America's premier universities was celebrating parents' weekend—and the student union was an armed camp, occupied by over eighty defiant members of the campus's Afro-American Society. Marching out Sunday night, the protesters brandished rifles, their maxim: "If we die, you are going to die." Cornell '69 is an electrifying account of that weekend which probes the origins of the drama and describes how it was played out not only at Cornell but on campuses across the nation during the heyday of American liberalism.

Donald Alexander Downs tells the story of how Cornell University became the battleground for the clashing forces of racial justice, intellectual freedom, and the rule of law. Eyewitness accounts and retrospective interviews depict the explosive events of the day and bring the key participants into sharp focus: the Afro-American Society, outraged at a cross-burning incident on campus and demanding amnesty for its members implicated in other protests; University President James A. Perkins, long committed to addressing the legacies of racism, seeing his policies backfire and his career collapse; the faculty, indignant at the university's surrender, rejecting the administration's concessions, then reversing itself as the crisis wore on.

The weekend's traumatic turn of events is shown by Downs to be a harbinger of the debates raging today over the meaning of the university in American society. He explores the fundamental questions it posed, questions Americans on and off campus are still struggling to answer: What is the relationship between racial justice and intellectual freedom? What are the limits in teaching identity politics? And what is the proper meaning of the university in a democratic polity?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801478383
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/24/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1350L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

DONALD ALEXANDER DOWNS, an undergraduate at Cornell during the uprising, is the Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science, Law, and Journalism and the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His other books include More than Victims and Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2012 Paperback Edition1. Overview of the CrisisPart I. The Road to Straight
2. Student Militancy
3. The Rise of Racial Politics
4. Racial Justice versus Academic Freedom
5. Separation or Integration?
6. Progress or Impasse?
7. Liberal Justice or RacismPart II. The Straight Crisis
8. Day 1: The Takeover and the Arming of the Campus
9. Day 2: The Deal
10. Day 3: A "Revolutionary Situation"
11. Day 4: Student Power
12. Day 5: A New OrderPart III. The Aftermath
13. Reform, Reaction, and Resignation
14. Cornell and the Failure of LiberalismChronology
Participants
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard Polenberg

"This engrossing work is the best book about any of the campus disturbances of the 1960s. Although I was a participant in the events described here, I nevertheless learned an enormous amount about what was going on behind the scenes."

Dale Corson

"Downs does an extraordinary job of documenting the biggest crisis in Cornell history. Every participant in the crisis, no matter what his/her position, will learn things he/she never knew before reading this book. Every student of campus crises of the '60s and '70s will see here, in stark perspective, how the issues played out at Cornell."

Andrew Hacker

Cornell '69 shows, in engrossing detail, how its white professors reacted to demands and protests by black students.
— Author of Two Nations

Alan Wolfe

Donald Alexander Downs's speciality is using micro events to illuminate macro issues of political theory and constitutional law. Cornell '69 is his best work so far. Everything seemed to happen at Cornell and everything seemed to happen at once. Through Downs's gripping narrative, we learn about the origins of political correctness, the conservative revolt against it, and the politics of race on the American campus. This scrupulously honest and painfully fair book is the best thing to come out of the awful events described in the book.

Editorial Reviews

An engaging and evocative read.... I would urge that everyone interested in this period read this book.

Journal of American History

Of all American university disturbances... those of Cornell University were uniquely instructive.... Donald Alexander Downs, the author of this useful book, correctly points out that 'never before had students introduced guns into a campus conflict.'... He tells the story in a straightforward, chronological manner.

Academic Questions

This book is a fine addition to the literature on the history and politics of higher education. It should interest everyone in the academic community.

Perspectives in Political Science

The scenes recalled here of armed black students leaving a Cornell University building in 1969 speak loudly of the rule of law, radicalism, racism, power politics, intellectual honesty, and the relations between academia and society.... Downs clearly details the complex, rapidly unfolding events, which embodied contested notions of progressive education, academic freedom, racial justice, and identity politics and which made the Cornell uprising more significant than most American student revolts of the 1960s. Readable, at times fast-paced, and based solidly on interviews and primary sources, this is highly recommended for academic libraries.

Library Journal

An engaging and evocative read.... I would urge that everyone interested in this period read this book.

-- "Journal of American History"

Of all American university disturbances... those of Cornell University were uniquely instructive.... Donald Alexander Downs, the author of this useful book, correctly points out that 'never before had students introduced guns into a campus conflict.'... He tells the story in a straightforward, chronological manner.

-- "Academic Questions"

The scenes recalled here of armed black students leaving a Cornell University building in 1969 speak loudly of the rule of law, radicalism, racism, power politics, intellectual honesty, and the relations between academia and society.... Downs clearly details the complex, rapidly unfolding events, which embodied contested notions of progressive education, academic freedom, racial justice, and identity politics and which made the Cornell uprising more significant than most American student revolts of the 1960s. Readable, at times fast-paced, and based solidly on interviews and primary sources, this is highly recommended for academic libraries.

-- "Library Journal"

This book is a fine addition to the literature on the history and politics of higher education. It should interest everyone in the academic community.

-- "Perspectives in Political Science"

From the Publisher

"This engrossing work is the best book about any of the campus disturbances of the 1960s. Although I was a participant in the events described here, I nevertheless learned an enormous amount about what was going on behind the scenes."

Richard Polenberg

"Downs does an extraordinary job of documenting the biggest crisis in Cornell history. Every participant in the crisis, no matter what his/her position, will learn things he/she never knew before reading this book. Every student of campus crises of the '60s and '70s will see here, in stark perspective, how the issues played out at Cornell."

Dale Corson

"Donald Alexander Downs's speciality is using micro events to illuminate macro issues of political theory and constitutional law. Cornell '69 is his best work so far. Everything seemed to happen at Cornell and everything seemed to happen at once. Through Downs's gripping narrative, we learn about the origins of political correctness, the conservative revolt against it, and the politics of race on the American campus. This scrupulously honest and painfully fair book is the best thing to come out of the awful events described in the book."

Alan Wolfe

"Cornell '69 shows, in engrossing detail, how Cornell's white professors reacted to demands and protests by black students. Donald Alexander Downs focuses on this faculty perspective, taking seriously their fear that the life of the mind was at stake."

Andrew Hacker

Mr. Downs's ostensible and laudable purpose is to warn liberal institutions not to sacrifice democratic norms and procedures in the face of radical transigence.
— The Wall Street Journal

Daniel J. Silver