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Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
The history of SDS as you've never seen it before. In 1962, at a United Auto Workers' camp in Michigan, Students for a Democratic Society held its historic convention and prepared the famous Port Huron Statement, drafted by Tom Hayden. This statement, criticizing the U.S. government's failure to pursue international peace or address domestic inequality, became the organization's manifesto. Its last convention was held in 1969 in Chicago, where, collapsing under the weight of its notoriety and popularity, it shattered into myriad factions.
Through brilliant art and they-were-there dialogue, famed graphic novelist Harvey Pekar, gifted artist Gary Dumm, and renowned historian Paul Buhle (as well as several former members of SDS) narrate and illustrate the tumultuous decade that first defined and then was defined by the men and women who gathered under the SDS banner.
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History captures the idealism and activism that drove a generation of young Americans to believe that even one person's actions can help transform the world.
Through brilliant art and they-were-there dialogue, famed graphic novelist Harvey Pekar, gifted artist Gary Dumm, and renowned historian Paul Buhle (as well as several former members of SDS) narrate and illustrate the tumultuous decade that first defined and then was defined by the men and women who gathered under the SDS banner.
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History captures the idealism and activism that drove a generation of young Americans to believe that even one person's actions can help transform the world.
222 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
12 people are currently reading
620 people want to read
About the author
Harvey Pekar
118 books257 followersHarvey Pekar was an American writer and comics creator whose groundbreaking autobiographical series American Splendor helped redefine the possibilities of graphic storytelling. Frequently called the poet laureate of Cleveland, he developed a body of work that approached everyday life with candor, humor, frustration, and philosophical reflection. Pekar’s voice became central to the evolution of comics into a medium capable of serious literary expression, and his influence extended to criticism, journalism, and popular culture through his essays, radio work, and memorable television appearances.
Pekar grew up in Cleveland, where his parents operated a small grocery store, and his early experiences shaped much of the sensibility that later defined his writing. His deep love of jazz led him into criticism, and through that world he befriended artist Robert Crumb. Their shared interest in music eventually led him to try writing comics. Pekar wrote his first scripts in the early seventies, sketching out stories with simple figures before passing them to Crumb and other underground artists who encouraged him to continue. With the first issue of American Splendor in 1976, Pekar began chronicling the small battles, anxieties, and fleeting moments that made up his daily life in Cleveland. His day job as a file clerk, his marriages, conversations with coworkers, frustrations with bureaucracy, and the struggle to make ends meet all became material for a series that often blurred the line between observation and confession. Over the years, he worked with a wide range of artists who interpreted his scripts in styles that mirrored the emotional tone of each story.
The success of American Splendor brought Pekar national attention. Collections such as The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar received strong critical praise, and his unpredictable, often confrontational appearances on late-night television became a defining part of his public persona. The 2003 film adaptation of American Splendor, in which Paul Giamatti portrayed him, earned major festival awards and introduced Pekar’s work to a wider audience. He continued to write graphic memoirs, biographies, collaborations, and cultural commentary, expanding his range while maintaining the blunt honesty that characterized his voice. Pekar’s work remains central to the development of literary comics, influencing generations of writers and artists who followed his example.
Pekar grew up in Cleveland, where his parents operated a small grocery store, and his early experiences shaped much of the sensibility that later defined his writing. His deep love of jazz led him into criticism, and through that world he befriended artist Robert Crumb. Their shared interest in music eventually led him to try writing comics. Pekar wrote his first scripts in the early seventies, sketching out stories with simple figures before passing them to Crumb and other underground artists who encouraged him to continue. With the first issue of American Splendor in 1976, Pekar began chronicling the small battles, anxieties, and fleeting moments that made up his daily life in Cleveland. His day job as a file clerk, his marriages, conversations with coworkers, frustrations with bureaucracy, and the struggle to make ends meet all became material for a series that often blurred the line between observation and confession. Over the years, he worked with a wide range of artists who interpreted his scripts in styles that mirrored the emotional tone of each story.
The success of American Splendor brought Pekar national attention. Collections such as The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar received strong critical praise, and his unpredictable, often confrontational appearances on late-night television became a defining part of his public persona. The 2003 film adaptation of American Splendor, in which Paul Giamatti portrayed him, earned major festival awards and introduced Pekar’s work to a wider audience. He continued to write graphic memoirs, biographies, collaborations, and cultural commentary, expanding his range while maintaining the blunt honesty that characterized his voice. Pekar’s work remains central to the development of literary comics, influencing generations of writers and artists who followed his example.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
March 16, 2022
Excellent overview of the SDS. You really feel as if you are there; as if you are witness to the birth of a movement that would forever change the status quo of a national perception of quo status. Harvey Pekar truly deserves a much wider audience - I think this is the book that may get him that audience as more people look back on the '60s to understand mass social movements.
June 4, 2008
The story of the SDS is told (poorly) in a series of comics by various artists. The problems is that most comics are primarily a narration script at the top, limited dialogue, and some not really very interesting pictures. As a result, the history is lost. It would have been better as a straight textual book, or as a more vivid graphic history. Maybe I'm just spoiled by manga, but it shouldn't have been so easy to make an exciting era look so boring.
March 25, 2017
This history of SDS in graphic novel format features excellent drawing mostly by Gary Dumm and writing (mostly) by Harvey Pekar. There's also an informative intro by Gary Buhle and Harvey Pekar, which explains how organizing around the Vietnam war was SDS's central issue.
It turns out SDS "grew out of the LID (League for Industrial Democracy) which was founded in 195 by intellectuals including authors Upton Sinclair and Jack London. It was initially named the Intercollegiate Socialist Society." LID established SLID (The Student League for Industrial Democracy) in the 1930s and in 1960 SLID became SDS with Al Haber it's first Pres - and also became independent of LID.
This history in graphic novel format consists of many vignettes/strips conveying stories of SDS organizing efforts nationwide, told by those who lived the experiences. It's refreshingly frank about the times - and how events like Kent State fed into student anger, and the subsequent mass marches, rallies, and many other actions that finally conveyed the public's anger at the war. I lived through these times but wasn't a college student during SDS heyday - I was a HS student and a rather bookish one at that. I remember at one point - I hate to admit it - "giving up" on politics, I must have been about age 15 or 16, refusing to buy or read the Times, and instead focusing on poetry, or films. I didn't exactly become apolitical - I went to a number of demos - but I simply couldn't deal with reading about the war anymore. I adopted a more literary focus. I remember becoming an avid New Yorker reader about then, and even seeking out TLS and NY Review of Books. This was long before they were available on-line.
By the time I got to college, the political revolution had morphed into a cultural metamorphosis. The act of rebellion was rebelling in real life - at least that was what so many were doing at the time. The 60s and 70s played out for me as a real-life drama - I left the "ivory tower" of scholarship or single-minded focus on books/learning, although I still always interested in poetry, art, films, nonetheless. But that too would end as I went to work full-time while studying at night, and then after graduation, focused on making a living, with cultural pursuits breaking the monotony of working life. At least my education prepared me for later life - such that I could tolerate a life that was occupied by work and taking care of the apartment, a working life and a domestic life that left very little time and/or energy for anything else. I had the "key" in a way to decipher or understand culture - or at least a semblance of understanding. I think if education doesn't give you much else, or much else you can actually apply once you are working, it's the understanding of what poems, or art, or cinema means, or at least an interest in finding out, or at least the knowledge that there is a lot more to know and that you do not know all there is no know.
I think the Vietnam's war hypocrisy is what drove the "cultural revolution" - which was much bigger in a way than the political revolution - during the 60s and the 70s, probably even drove so many into becoming apolitical or focused on anything else other than politics. There was a lot of solidarity among youth in those days even among people who were not political per se. And most people weren't actually "devoted" to politics or members of particular political organizations. Public opinion was against the war, and that meant adopting as a form of rebellion a studiously anti-establishment lifestyle. That, at least, was the 60s & 70s. People were not going to accept a rah-rah mentality that automatically accepted everything Uncle Sam wanted you to accept - such as the phony pretext for escalating US involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. Once it was clear we were involved in a war to prop up a corrupt dictatorship, and that the Vietnamese viewed the war as an extension of the prior anti-colonial wars vs. France and later Japan, it was a certainty the war had little to no support as the song went "What are we fighting for?"
This is a great book for anybody who wants to get an idea of how SDS started, grew, split, and so forth. I myself couldn't take politics in general from about age 15 on - not too long after the 1964 escalation. The war was sickening... and the sickness of the times strangely enough seemed to culminate with Watergate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterga.... Unless someone lived through the era, they will find it hard to comprehend what the war meant and how it was received at home. Watergate lies were almost an extension of the lies that were used to justify the war. The lies were peeled back - Nixon quit - but there was no way to bring back the people who died, so that SE Asia would not "go communist." The cold war - which occasionally broke out into a hot war - was a constant and Vietnam was simply another arena in which to spar with the Soviets. Vietnam was simply a "pawn" for the two great powers to fight over.
So I wasn't part of any group back then because I shut myself off from the sick conflict early on - but I did support the anti-war effort, and finally followed with interest Watergate - which seemed a fitting comeuppance for Nixon, although the massive escalation had occurred under LBJ. Politics in general was infected with the sickness of hypocrisy. There was very little anyone could do to change policies - which is probably why so many became apolitical, having "given up" on politics from way back. This graphic novel/history of SDS is of interest because it shows how those who didn't give up actually worked to organize rallies, and marches, so that people could express their dissatisfaction with the war and other pressing social issues. This was an era when a generation became savvy about what was going on - and acted or reacted accordingly.
The book gives a lot of detail on many different demonstrations and organizing efforts throughout the US. Each action publicizing opposition to the war made a difference - if the war wasn't brought to an end earlier, the effort wasn't in vain despite the thousands of lives lost. Nobody from that generation was the same again - the attitude was skepticism. Any story or narrative that would be told afterwards, used to justify any unjustifiable intervention or war, people by then were knowledgeable enough to see through even if they couldn't do much about it. The Pentagon Papers & Watergate especially educated people to question and not instantly believe all that they hear or are told to believe. Such skepticism about the "official line" or perhaps "lie" is healthy. If people didn't learn anything else having lived through that era, it's that money drives many political decisions, that and the quest for power itself. This way, folks eventually learn how to evaluate events and news perhaps in a more knowledgeable fashion. This doesn't explain how the US in 2016 managed to elect a pro-war, pro-elites, pro-rich Clown as President - other than the US must have been profoundly unwilling to accept another round of having the Clintons in the WH, which meant anyone, even a Clown like DJT with a 3rd grade vocabulary - could have beaten Hillary. The finale of the Trump Presidency may well prove to be dire - or it may play out in an undignified reprise of a Watergate-like process. Time will tell. Meanwhile, Pekar & Dumm's "SDS" is a wonderful look back in time, at the nuts and bolts of what it took to organize students in the pre-internet era, etc.
It turns out SDS "grew out of the LID (League for Industrial Democracy) which was founded in 195 by intellectuals including authors Upton Sinclair and Jack London. It was initially named the Intercollegiate Socialist Society." LID established SLID (The Student League for Industrial Democracy) in the 1930s and in 1960 SLID became SDS with Al Haber it's first Pres - and also became independent of LID.
This history in graphic novel format consists of many vignettes/strips conveying stories of SDS organizing efforts nationwide, told by those who lived the experiences. It's refreshingly frank about the times - and how events like Kent State fed into student anger, and the subsequent mass marches, rallies, and many other actions that finally conveyed the public's anger at the war. I lived through these times but wasn't a college student during SDS heyday - I was a HS student and a rather bookish one at that. I remember at one point - I hate to admit it - "giving up" on politics, I must have been about age 15 or 16, refusing to buy or read the Times, and instead focusing on poetry, or films. I didn't exactly become apolitical - I went to a number of demos - but I simply couldn't deal with reading about the war anymore. I adopted a more literary focus. I remember becoming an avid New Yorker reader about then, and even seeking out TLS and NY Review of Books. This was long before they were available on-line.
By the time I got to college, the political revolution had morphed into a cultural metamorphosis. The act of rebellion was rebelling in real life - at least that was what so many were doing at the time. The 60s and 70s played out for me as a real-life drama - I left the "ivory tower" of scholarship or single-minded focus on books/learning, although I still always interested in poetry, art, films, nonetheless. But that too would end as I went to work full-time while studying at night, and then after graduation, focused on making a living, with cultural pursuits breaking the monotony of working life. At least my education prepared me for later life - such that I could tolerate a life that was occupied by work and taking care of the apartment, a working life and a domestic life that left very little time and/or energy for anything else. I had the "key" in a way to decipher or understand culture - or at least a semblance of understanding. I think if education doesn't give you much else, or much else you can actually apply once you are working, it's the understanding of what poems, or art, or cinema means, or at least an interest in finding out, or at least the knowledge that there is a lot more to know and that you do not know all there is no know.
I think the Vietnam's war hypocrisy is what drove the "cultural revolution" - which was much bigger in a way than the political revolution - during the 60s and the 70s, probably even drove so many into becoming apolitical or focused on anything else other than politics. There was a lot of solidarity among youth in those days even among people who were not political per se. And most people weren't actually "devoted" to politics or members of particular political organizations. Public opinion was against the war, and that meant adopting as a form of rebellion a studiously anti-establishment lifestyle. That, at least, was the 60s & 70s. People were not going to accept a rah-rah mentality that automatically accepted everything Uncle Sam wanted you to accept - such as the phony pretext for escalating US involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. Once it was clear we were involved in a war to prop up a corrupt dictatorship, and that the Vietnamese viewed the war as an extension of the prior anti-colonial wars vs. France and later Japan, it was a certainty the war had little to no support as the song went "What are we fighting for?"
This is a great book for anybody who wants to get an idea of how SDS started, grew, split, and so forth. I myself couldn't take politics in general from about age 15 on - not too long after the 1964 escalation. The war was sickening... and the sickness of the times strangely enough seemed to culminate with Watergate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterga.... Unless someone lived through the era, they will find it hard to comprehend what the war meant and how it was received at home. Watergate lies were almost an extension of the lies that were used to justify the war. The lies were peeled back - Nixon quit - but there was no way to bring back the people who died, so that SE Asia would not "go communist." The cold war - which occasionally broke out into a hot war - was a constant and Vietnam was simply another arena in which to spar with the Soviets. Vietnam was simply a "pawn" for the two great powers to fight over.
So I wasn't part of any group back then because I shut myself off from the sick conflict early on - but I did support the anti-war effort, and finally followed with interest Watergate - which seemed a fitting comeuppance for Nixon, although the massive escalation had occurred under LBJ. Politics in general was infected with the sickness of hypocrisy. There was very little anyone could do to change policies - which is probably why so many became apolitical, having "given up" on politics from way back. This graphic novel/history of SDS is of interest because it shows how those who didn't give up actually worked to organize rallies, and marches, so that people could express their dissatisfaction with the war and other pressing social issues. This was an era when a generation became savvy about what was going on - and acted or reacted accordingly.
The book gives a lot of detail on many different demonstrations and organizing efforts throughout the US. Each action publicizing opposition to the war made a difference - if the war wasn't brought to an end earlier, the effort wasn't in vain despite the thousands of lives lost. Nobody from that generation was the same again - the attitude was skepticism. Any story or narrative that would be told afterwards, used to justify any unjustifiable intervention or war, people by then were knowledgeable enough to see through even if they couldn't do much about it. The Pentagon Papers & Watergate especially educated people to question and not instantly believe all that they hear or are told to believe. Such skepticism about the "official line" or perhaps "lie" is healthy. If people didn't learn anything else having lived through that era, it's that money drives many political decisions, that and the quest for power itself. This way, folks eventually learn how to evaluate events and news perhaps in a more knowledgeable fashion. This doesn't explain how the US in 2016 managed to elect a pro-war, pro-elites, pro-rich Clown as President - other than the US must have been profoundly unwilling to accept another round of having the Clintons in the WH, which meant anyone, even a Clown like DJT with a 3rd grade vocabulary - could have beaten Hillary. The finale of the Trump Presidency may well prove to be dire - or it may play out in an undignified reprise of a Watergate-like process. Time will tell. Meanwhile, Pekar & Dumm's "SDS" is a wonderful look back in time, at the nuts and bolts of what it took to organize students in the pre-internet era, etc.
August 9, 2010
Finally, a comprehensive picture of college student politics through-out the US during this era of dissent. Instead of focusing on the more sensationalized view of SDS as violent, spoiled rich kid bomb makers; this book explores the many different factions and off-shoots of SDS through interviewing it's self-proclaimed members and describing what SDS was like for them at the particular college they attended. The stories portray many colleges and universities throughout the United States; and each interviewees personal reflections on how and why they got involved and what it meant to them, what their part in the movement was like, and how their chapter or splinter group operated within the context of the larger movement. The obvious lack of real organization, clarity or overall mission statement and complete disjointedness between the many factions are clearly portrayed. Some are pro communism, some are anti-communism. Some have strong leaders, some do not. Most are non violent, non threatening and rather naive. That there was no real controlling or dominating umbrella group becomes apparent. The media's exploitation and government's paranoid subversion of SDS becomes obvious in retrospect. The main thread common to the different factions is clearly anti-war sentiment. It's lovely and humanizing to hear the varied personal voices of the different students who were involved and why and how they became activists. They all have a somewhat different story to tell. Also, the book touches upon feminism, education reform, abortion rights and the burgeoning beginnings of other radicalized movements whose seeds were planted within SDS.
August 22, 2013
I read this some time ago. Bought copy of my own at Printer's Row, but I lost it, and read a public library copy. I was a fan of Pekar before reading this.
I enjoyed this trip down memory lane so to speak. Many of the present day follow-ups were specially good to read. The text takes the ideas of the youthful New Left seriously, because most history written nowadays says, "they're all very silly, silly idealists and consequently insignificant.".
I enjoyed this trip down memory lane so to speak. Many of the present day follow-ups were specially good to read. The text takes the ideas of the youthful New Left seriously, because most history written nowadays says, "they're all very silly, silly idealists and consequently insignificant.".
August 11, 2009
A great history of SDS from the idealism of the Port Huron statement to the tragedy of the Weathermen. The graphic novel form is a great way for young readers to learn about activism and the 60's.
October 17, 2025
it was a cool idea to create a graphic novel about one of the most energizing, tumultuous times of american political history in the 20th century, but i'm afraid the genre wasn't quite fit for the content. or maybe, the other way around.
trying to cover the rise and fall of SDS during the height of the student protest movement in a concise yet information laden way was a big task at hand for the authors. i don't think illustrating it was a useful or even enhancing tool to communicate such content. as i said, it was quite information heavy as any detailed history is, and i think it fell short. the format exhausted me, and i feel as though i was still missing important parts or connections as i got through the shortened story and was left a bit confused but continued on. i think that did injustice to the chronicling of SDS and its chapters. it was fun that they got contributions from those in SDS or adjacent to the party or apart of the student movement generally at the time, but a lot of the personal anecdotes felt very tangential, trivial, or even without real point. it would've just been better as a regular book.
trying to cover the rise and fall of SDS during the height of the student protest movement in a concise yet information laden way was a big task at hand for the authors. i don't think illustrating it was a useful or even enhancing tool to communicate such content. as i said, it was quite information heavy as any detailed history is, and i think it fell short. the format exhausted me, and i feel as though i was still missing important parts or connections as i got through the shortened story and was left a bit confused but continued on. i think that did injustice to the chronicling of SDS and its chapters. it was fun that they got contributions from those in SDS or adjacent to the party or apart of the student movement generally at the time, but a lot of the personal anecdotes felt very tangential, trivial, or even without real point. it would've just been better as a regular book.
July 8, 2019
I was in college during the tail end of the SDS in the early 70s and knew a few of the local guys in passing, but I never knew anything more about them than what their critics wrote. So this brief history and testimonials by participants were very interesting to me. The artwork is pedestrian and the stories are mostly well written, but the stories are one-sided and I wonder what’s not being mentioned. All in all, I know more now than when I started reading, and that’s always a good thing, right?
December 19, 2011
The approach of this book was promising. An overview of the national SDS starts the book, followed by vignettes of various chapters throughout the nation written (and sometimes drawn) by the participants. However, the narration for the overview was very unfocused, seemingly jumping forward and backwards without much logic. Also, the entire scene was swimming with acronyms, and after a while everything is lost in a sea of PLPs, SNCCs, LIDs and SDSs.
In a certain way, the confused and turbulent narrative of Harvey Pekar reflects the utter bedlam in the leftist movements of the 1960s. Arguments between Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, anarchists, nationalists and every other subgroup destroyed group cohesion as various influences tried to seize the Students for a Democratic Society and use it as a mouthpiece for a particular ideological line and as a way to recruit young members. There was no cohesive agenda or tactics, with members battling over whether civil rights, foreign wars, or economic issues should be the primary issues, and whether pacifism or violence was the best way to produce change. When the whole thing dissolved it was not surprising that the Weather Underground rose from the ashes.
Seeing what happened to the SDS makes me seem fairly pessimistic about what something like Occupy Wall Street can hope to achieve in terms of policy change, although OWS seems to have least brought up issue awareness. OWS seems to have the same issue with an incoherent and fractured agenda, so it will be interesting to see how it fares.
In a certain way, the confused and turbulent narrative of Harvey Pekar reflects the utter bedlam in the leftist movements of the 1960s. Arguments between Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, anarchists, nationalists and every other subgroup destroyed group cohesion as various influences tried to seize the Students for a Democratic Society and use it as a mouthpiece for a particular ideological line and as a way to recruit young members. There was no cohesive agenda or tactics, with members battling over whether civil rights, foreign wars, or economic issues should be the primary issues, and whether pacifism or violence was the best way to produce change. When the whole thing dissolved it was not surprising that the Weather Underground rose from the ashes.
Seeing what happened to the SDS makes me seem fairly pessimistic about what something like Occupy Wall Street can hope to achieve in terms of policy change, although OWS seems to have least brought up issue awareness. OWS seems to have the same issue with an incoherent and fractured agenda, so it will be interesting to see how it fares.
Read
July 14, 2018And today we are tackling another interesting but slow political read, namely Students For A Democratic Society A Graphic History Written by Harvey Pekar, Art by Gary Dumm and Edited by Paul Buhle. And while Harvey Pecar's name was the primarily reason that I picked this volume up, I feel like the packaging design of this book does a huge disservice to the wide selection of stories it contains written by a variety of people, some of them autobiographical.
While I had never heard of the SDS before reading this, it did tie into a somewhat recent (at that point) episode of Rev Left Radio entitled Heavy Radicals: The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists that covered the ideology of the SDS (which had Maoists members) from a more Maoist perspective, unlike this graphic novel which was generally anti Maoist.
Overall I thought the artwork was really good and the work was likely as accessible as it really could be. I feel like I will return to this book in a few years, like many heavier reads I've tackled in the past, and have no problems thanks to my ever-growing brain knowledge. I do feel like knowing more about activist history is only become more important, so I'm glad this exists, I just (again) wish that other people could have been credited more obviously.
While I had never heard of the SDS before reading this, it did tie into a somewhat recent (at that point) episode of Rev Left Radio entitled Heavy Radicals: The FBI's Secret War on America's Maoists that covered the ideology of the SDS (which had Maoists members) from a more Maoist perspective, unlike this graphic novel which was generally anti Maoist.
Overall I thought the artwork was really good and the work was likely as accessible as it really could be. I feel like I will return to this book in a few years, like many heavier reads I've tackled in the past, and have no problems thanks to my ever-growing brain knowledge. I do feel like knowing more about activist history is only become more important, so I'm glad this exists, I just (again) wish that other people could have been credited more obviously.
January 21, 2016
"Lessons in Participatory Democracy…
•participate but don't try to do everything yourself. Spread the tasks so everyone can participate.
•Be Democratic. Encourage everyone to speak. Listen to each other and cooperate. Seek consensus rather than dominance.
•working together we can make a difference"
"SDS of the 1960s is remembered for it aggressive counterattack against the war machine invading the campus, turning academics back of knowledge into accessories to mass murder. And it is remembered, after the SDS collapse, for the group calling itself weathermen, taken from a Bob Dylan song. But SDS of the 1960s should be remembered for its unique decentralized democracy, students deciding on each campus what they need to do. They called it student syndicalism.
SDS started up again on Martin Luther King, J.R. holiday of 2006. It's two founders were the first president of SDS, Al Haber, and Connecticut high school senior, Pat Korte."
–SDS REVIVED
•participate but don't try to do everything yourself. Spread the tasks so everyone can participate.
•Be Democratic. Encourage everyone to speak. Listen to each other and cooperate. Seek consensus rather than dominance.
•working together we can make a difference"
"SDS of the 1960s is remembered for it aggressive counterattack against the war machine invading the campus, turning academics back of knowledge into accessories to mass murder. And it is remembered, after the SDS collapse, for the group calling itself weathermen, taken from a Bob Dylan song. But SDS of the 1960s should be remembered for its unique decentralized democracy, students deciding on each campus what they need to do. They called it student syndicalism.
SDS started up again on Martin Luther King, J.R. holiday of 2006. It's two founders were the first president of SDS, Al Haber, and Connecticut high school senior, Pat Korte."
–SDS REVIVED
May 23, 2008
A look at SDS through the memories of many of its members and brought to life in a series of graphic short memoirs, this is a multifaceted view of a complex organization in a tumultuous time. SDS created a radically new organizational structure and became the focal point for thousands of young people seeking to transform the most powerful nation in the world. Internal struggle and external opposition led to the break-up of SDS just when it's support was reaching a phenomenal level. These stories that tell first the history of the national organization and then individual recollections of local chapter activities are an excellent way to highlight the unique character of the SDS movement in the turbulent '60s.
June 9, 2010
I should probably start reading some regular books, and not just these graphic novels, but i do think this graphic novel is pretty educational. It's not like a history book or anything, it's just the story of the SDS, really left-wing student movement who were against the war and capitalism.
I read this book because there was some controversy about President Obama being connected to the SDS, and I asked my stepfather if he could explain what the SDS was, but he just handed me this book. I liked this book, a little boring at times, but you know, that's just something you have to expect when you're reading something based on a true story.
I read this book because there was some controversy about President Obama being connected to the SDS, and I asked my stepfather if he could explain what the SDS was, but he just handed me this book. I liked this book, a little boring at times, but you know, that's just something you have to expect when you're reading something based on a true story.
July 28, 2008
hating on teh Weathermen/Weather Underground. Not that they are free of critique, but that they get a slight mention and are viewed only as disruptors, disingenuous and unaware of their politics of identity.
Further, as a comic, too little information in some places adn too much in others. Inconsistent and storytelling that becomes boring and almost irrelevant, which is unfortuante because an analysis and understanding of SDS is very important.
Further, as a comic, too little information in some places adn too much in others. Inconsistent and storytelling that becomes boring and almost irrelevant, which is unfortuante because an analysis and understanding of SDS is very important.
February 13, 2016
It was interesting to be reading this as individuals from this generation remained a hot-button issue issue in 2008 presidential election contest. For Harvey Pekar completists, as well as the history-minded, this is thought-provoking comic art. Kudos to artist Gary Dumm. The latter two-thirds of the book are individual memoirs in comic art; I came back at a second swath and read those. It's a great amalgam.
April 2, 2008
I loved Wobblies and Paul and Harvey did a great job on this tome...I will be speaking in Philly on April 27 (at Robin's Bookstore) to promote this very cool book. Of course I'm not biased at all - irrespective of the fact that Next Left Notes got a plug from Harvey in the section on new SDS. Now I can argue with my pal Dan Gross (mentioned in Wobblies) over who looks better as a cartoon.
August 25, 2011
This was horrible. Way too preachy, especially for something that completely lacked a plot or story. It was depressing, too, b/c while I think Pekar was trying to show the importance of the SDS movement, he unintentionally painted them as a bunch of middle class white kids acting like twats. Maybe you'd like this if you're of that generation and feeling solipsistic.
June 19, 2013
Although I'm not a big fan of Harvey Pekar's art I do like his story telling and this was very thoughtful in its presentation. There's a mix of straight up history and personal narratives that compliment one another. I learned a great deal about the SDS and had a hard time putting it down. Well done!
January 20, 2010
An early player in Vietnam-era radicalism, the SDS burned bright and flamed out just as quickly. Besides a historical account, the story of the SDS should be required reading for all activists for social change--it's an instruction manual for what NOT to do.
July 30, 2008
Interesting story, but with lulls. Also this has the teeny-tiny hand written text that drives my grandma eyes nuts and that always makes me remove one star.
December 19, 2025
While informative, this retrospective is told exclusively and edited by white men , women and black people are footnotes who serve to introduce the true protagonists to the struggle. It’s clear the creators of this text relied on personal connections to source and collect stories and while that has its benefits one problem it poses is a lack of diverse perspectives reflecting a small sample group.
August 23, 2017
the first section was an adequate, if saccharine, overview of sds history. i loved, though, the section section, which comprises the majority of the book. a series of vignettes by members themselves, it gives insight into not only individual chapters, but into the participants, themselves. varying styles of drawing, also a plus.
September 24, 2019
Whoa. This book gets really deep in the weeds really quick. An admirable attempt to make the byzantine problems of a diffuse movement into a coherent history - but I couldn't hang. Gave up about halfway through.
January 14, 2021
Probably better If you have more knowledge about sds and the 60s first...but isn’t that the point of reading it? Also, why do all the comic characters who are supposed to college students look middle aged?
August 24, 2025
Excellent collection of experiences of several people involved with the national offices of SDS and the many campuses that had chapters. SDS's origins, rise to prominence and the factional splits are well covered.
October 20, 2019
Decent. The Beats books was better. Open and honest. Just white people geez.
June 24, 2021
informative and entertaining graphic novel.
October 10, 2021
I didn't finish this book. It's an excellent history of SDS and related movements, but it's too dry. I'll donate it to the library.
December 31, 2016
When people start chattering about SDS I usually have to suppress an eye-roll. It is important to remember though that the hippies were the good guys.
About a month before I was born, the National Guard opened fire unprovoked on peaceful demonstrators at Kent State, killing four and injuring nine. A few years later, I was for a short time a child living on an army base. In the home I grew up in, the line on SDS was that it was set up by the government from the beginning as a surveillance thing to get all the freaks and activists on one list. Later, I learned about the Port Huron statement and the Yippies and the Weathermen and so had this image of well-meaning, privileged white people forming a group to support the civil rights movement and labor but very quickly being infiltrated by the feds and breaking up in to warring factions. That is more or less how this comic tells it, too.
I wanted to read this for Pekar's cranky, working-class take on SDS and I was surprised to find that in the lengthy opening chapter Pekar is very sympathetic to SDS. I think one thing that I often forget about 60s college students is that a lot of them were the first in their families to go to university. Yeah, they are college kids, but they didn't grow up in some bubble.
Two thirds of this book are the more personal stories of individual SDS members. My favorites were the one about the woman from the woman-only college who is doing all the printing and postering on a nearby co-ed campus when a women's liberation lecture makes her realize that she can say "no" to men. I was also impressed with the story about the SDSer who gets drafted and just keeps on SDSing so he gets court-martialed like a million times.
The most interesting from a "hey, that sounds like something we should do nowadays" perspective is the ERAP stuff where SDS help poor and working people get active by facilitating meetings, printing newsletters and flyers, and canvassing neighborhoods. What's that New Left line about an Interracial Movement of the Poor? Seems like that would need a new name but the basic idea is excellent.
I also like how both the Maoist faction and the Weather Underground types come off as jerks. There are a bunch of stories about more common sense activists triumphing over these wannabe leaders.
I would have liked more of Pekar's personality. I guess he didn't want beef with these cats or something because I don't think he really says everything he thinks about this weirdness. That could be because he is collaborating with Buhle?
Another minus I think is Dumm's female characters... they are all drawn the same. Maybe the hair changes but they all have the same body. It is particularly distracting when he draws several women together and they all have the same breasts. It's like clone club or something. I never noticed that in his art in American Splendor, and I think maybe that points to another plus about this book, that there are enough women characters and that they talk to each other so that you might notice that they are all drawn the same. While I'm on the subject, there seem to be more stories by men about falling hard for women who aren't all Victorian about sex than stories about women being like, "Just because I have sex with you once or twice doesn't mean we are engaged."
My last little nit-pick is that I wish there had been more about the early years, when it was a small organization and everyone looked like season one of Mad Men but was talking about communism and democracy and stuff like that. That generation is getting really old and if there is going to be a proper oral history of those cats, the historians better get cracking. Not to be morbid, but... anyway, it is harder to find those people and there are far fewer of them than the thousands of hippies in the "glorious" anti-Vietnam War years... but ... but... I want more stories about people joining the Freedom Riders and stuff like that. So I wish maybe they had tried a little harder to get those guys on board or even some of the bigger names like Hayden. It seems like they got one dude from the founders and ... he is so awesome that instead of waxing nostalgic, he talks about how SDS reformed in 2006 and how there is now this nationwide multigenerational movement. Yeah, man. Right on.
About a month before I was born, the National Guard opened fire unprovoked on peaceful demonstrators at Kent State, killing four and injuring nine. A few years later, I was for a short time a child living on an army base. In the home I grew up in, the line on SDS was that it was set up by the government from the beginning as a surveillance thing to get all the freaks and activists on one list. Later, I learned about the Port Huron statement and the Yippies and the Weathermen and so had this image of well-meaning, privileged white people forming a group to support the civil rights movement and labor but very quickly being infiltrated by the feds and breaking up in to warring factions. That is more or less how this comic tells it, too.
I wanted to read this for Pekar's cranky, working-class take on SDS and I was surprised to find that in the lengthy opening chapter Pekar is very sympathetic to SDS. I think one thing that I often forget about 60s college students is that a lot of them were the first in their families to go to university. Yeah, they are college kids, but they didn't grow up in some bubble.
Two thirds of this book are the more personal stories of individual SDS members. My favorites were the one about the woman from the woman-only college who is doing all the printing and postering on a nearby co-ed campus when a women's liberation lecture makes her realize that she can say "no" to men. I was also impressed with the story about the SDSer who gets drafted and just keeps on SDSing so he gets court-martialed like a million times.
The most interesting from a "hey, that sounds like something we should do nowadays" perspective is the ERAP stuff where SDS help poor and working people get active by facilitating meetings, printing newsletters and flyers, and canvassing neighborhoods. What's that New Left line about an Interracial Movement of the Poor? Seems like that would need a new name but the basic idea is excellent.
I also like how both the Maoist faction and the Weather Underground types come off as jerks. There are a bunch of stories about more common sense activists triumphing over these wannabe leaders.
I would have liked more of Pekar's personality. I guess he didn't want beef with these cats or something because I don't think he really says everything he thinks about this weirdness. That could be because he is collaborating with Buhle?
Another minus I think is Dumm's female characters... they are all drawn the same. Maybe the hair changes but they all have the same body. It is particularly distracting when he draws several women together and they all have the same breasts. It's like clone club or something. I never noticed that in his art in American Splendor, and I think maybe that points to another plus about this book, that there are enough women characters and that they talk to each other so that you might notice that they are all drawn the same. While I'm on the subject, there seem to be more stories by men about falling hard for women who aren't all Victorian about sex than stories about women being like, "Just because I have sex with you once or twice doesn't mean we are engaged."
My last little nit-pick is that I wish there had been more about the early years, when it was a small organization and everyone looked like season one of Mad Men but was talking about communism and democracy and stuff like that. That generation is getting really old and if there is going to be a proper oral history of those cats, the historians better get cracking. Not to be morbid, but... anyway, it is harder to find those people and there are far fewer of them than the thousands of hippies in the "glorious" anti-Vietnam War years... but ... but... I want more stories about people joining the Freedom Riders and stuff like that. So I wish maybe they had tried a little harder to get those guys on board or even some of the bigger names like Hayden. It seems like they got one dude from the founders and ... he is so awesome that instead of waxing nostalgic, he talks about how SDS reformed in 2006 and how there is now this nationwide multigenerational movement. Yeah, man. Right on.
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January 17, 2017378.1981 P379 2009
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