She was a privileged baby boomer who grew up on a horse farm in segregated Virginia. By her twenty-first birthday she had worked for peace in Communist Europe, traveled the country in the cause of racial justice, marched for voting rights in Selma, and led anti-Vietnam protests at Bryn Mawr College. Our guest in this episode is distinguished American historian and former Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust. She talks about her memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury.
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Great interview, John. Of particular relevance, I think, is Dr. Gilpin Faust’s openly distancing herself from The Weather Underground and the eventually violent trajectory of the New Left. More than the issue of violent or non-violent crusading for justice, what stands out is her connecting this position with a unitive concept like the Quaker “Beloved Community.” If I understand her, she is placing brother and sisterhood over a conflict-centric narrative. In doing so, she courageously places herself on a side of a fracture that is still evident in the academic left and which I suspect places her at odds with many colleagues, including scholars of intersectionality, critical theory, and identity. I realize I am painting complicated subjects with a broad brush here but am doing so in the interest of brevity.
Yes, Early. I think you read this correctly. She is very cautious with her words, but she clearly believes the Civil Rights movement and other protest movements took a wrong turn in 1968. I tried to tease this out a bit more, but she did not seem willing to develop more. Again, she seemed to walk a fine line.