The Essential Mario Savio: Speeches and Writings that Changed America

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the 1960s and how they changed American society. Insightfully contextualized by Robert Cohen, Mario Savio’s letters and speeches chronicle the history of two key moments of that pivotal decade — the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement — and reveal Savio as an activist and thinker who helped inject new meanings into the idea of American freedom. — Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, author of The Story of American Freedom

The Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, California, was pivotal in shaping 1960s America. Led by Mario Savio and other young veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, student activists organized what was to that point the most tumultuous student rebellion in U.S. history. Mass sit-ins, a nonviolent blockade around a police car, occupations of the campus administration building, and a student strike united thousands of students to champion the right of students to free speech and unrestricted political advocacy on campus.

A compendium of influential speeches and previously unknown writings, The Essential Mario Savio offers insight into and perspective on the disruptive yet nonviolent civil disobedience tactics used by Savio. [Adapted from publishers’ description.]

ISBN: 9780520283381 | University of California Press