Student Politics, Harvard Style

Amid the cacophony of both self-congratulation and enraged assault, which marks discussion of student politics, Steven Kelman’s book is notable for reason, coherence, and a degree of detachment. It deals specifically with the Harvard disorders of April 1969, much of it in the form of a diary; it also offers some general opinion about student politics.

Breaking past the fanciful monolith of “the students” constructed both by apologists for and enemies of student politi...