Klatch (1999) A Generation Divided

INTRODUCTION
"The thrust of my research aims at analyzing the development and evolution of political ideology and the enduring impact of political commitment" (11).

We associate the 1960s with the civil rights movement, and a shift to the Left. No one ever talks about the New Right, yet the 60s were a time of ferment for the right as well as the left.

Groups of interest:
a. YAF (Young Americans for Freedom)
b. SDS (Student Democrat Society)

Sample:
74 YAF and SDS activists followed from their political awakenings to their involvement in the 1960s political activism, and BEYOND!

Questions the authors seek to answer:
(1) How did these kids get drawn into politics
(2) What happened to them once they became "political"
(3) How did activism shape their adult lives?

Mannheim's "The Problems of Generations"
---
-youth aged 17-25 are in a decisive period--their "natural view of the world" is being formed.
Mannheim recognizes that generations are formed when the same group of individuals experience the same thing--like a depression or a war. Yet, this does not coalesce the individuals into ONE group--different individuals experience the same event differently. "Variations in social background predispose people to interpret events differently" (3). These are described by Mannheim as antagonistic, or separate, generation-units. The author here characterizes it as "intragenerational conflict.

Unique to the 60s:
-extension of high educ. to more of the population
-growth of the nuclear age
-post-materialist values spreading
-spread of youth culture
--vietnam war

Related themes:
(1) Political Identity: what defines a person as a social actor (the author is concerned with individual level ident. not the collective--although obviously the collective identity is important, as the author notes).
(2) Gender--men and women experienced the 60s differently. and women within each group (YAF and SDS) perceived discrimination differently. Some women on the right felt men treated them well/poor, and same with women on the left.
(3) Convergence of Left and Right--those on the left and right are not entirely polar opposites. The emergence of libertarians is crucial. It was a hybrid movement, drawing from the left and right. . "This overlap between the left and the right speaks to the peculiarities of American political ideology. Specifically, an affinity for values such as individual freedom, the impulse against bureaucracy and big government, the questioning of central authority, and the embrace of decentralized and local control are common to both the left and the right" (9).

Methods:
I. Life Histories
-indepth interviews that focus on four sets of issues:
(1) demographics, religiosity family dynamics and socialization (of indivs and their parents)
(2) political involvement
(3) indivs interpretation of key events
(4) live since the 60s
II. Participant Observation
-author attended movement reunions of participants
III. Archival Materials
-YAF and SDS org material analysis
IV. Retrospective Memory
-memories. "memories illuminate how individuals shape and reshape their identities" (13).
*life history problems? the authors have a number of checks in place. see page 14.

CHAPTER 2-backgrounds
Conclusions: childhood matters! the conditions into which we are born, the families in which we are raises, and the values and beliefs that surround us play a role.
Similarities in backgrounds between the YAF and SDS are that their childhoods were atypical--parents were politically aware and engaged. Further, their parents encouraged their children to be the same. "Thus for the majority of these youth, their parents provided them with the framework and motivtion that gave shape to their identity as activists" (58).
Interestingly, there are stark differences is social backgrounds between members of the YAF and SDS; these differences are what caused them to react differently to the 1960s. The differences are that although both had politically active and aware parents, the values, community emphasis and religiosity tendencies the children were subject to, differ.