About this title: This memoir is by a '60s political activist who went underground after the famous Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970. Ayers tells of the political and cultural influences that radicalized him, his life in the Weather Underground prior to the explosion, his life on the run, and what happened to him after he turned himself in in 1981.
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Beacon Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780807071243ISBN:0807071242
Description: New in New jacket. Brand New! Excellent copy, tight, bright and clean with NO Markings or underlining to text. All items ship from Gig Harbor, Wa within 24 hrs! read more
Edition: First edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Beacon Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780807071243ISBN:0807071242
Description: Very Good + in very good + jacket. VG+ hardcover w/mild edgewear/scuffing. Previous owner's addy sticker to FFEP, otherwise all pages clean/unmarked. Binding solid. Jacket unclipped/clean. Unmarked/solid. Protected in mylar. SIGNED BY AUTHOR: "With hope-wounded but alive for a world at Peace. Bill Ayers" on title page. No personal inscription. 295 pp. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Beacon Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780807071243ISBN:0807071242
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Beacon Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780807071243ISBN:0807071242
Description: New in new dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 304 p. Audience: General/trade. book is new...never been read...mint copy read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Beacon Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780807071243ISBN:0807071242
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. pages clean and crisp. D/j has minor wear at edges. No markings or creases. FAST shipping. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 304 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"This book is a little clunky, and Bill Ayers is not a fantastic writer. This story, however, is far more important than as a first-person historical relic of the SDS and Weatherman in the days after the house on 11th Street evaporated. It is about bringing the war home, and it is about a war that continues today. I bought it at a reading several years ago and only broke it out last fall when the Ayers connection became an issue in the Obama campaign. Venceremos!"
"Ayers is a good writer. The book recreates the 60's well. Ayers captures his memories of the period. I like the way he interweaves definitions of "memory" throughout the book-the definitions are a subtle reminder that the book is his impressions, his point of view, his memories which are mutable. A central concern is the death of three of his friends--one of whom was his lover--while they were constructing a bomb. He keeps circling around this event. I did not feel he was trying to convince readers to agree with his views. In the end, while I sympathize with his efforts to get the government to pay attention and end the Viet Nam war, I do not agree with the methods Ayers and the Weathermen choose to push their agenda."
"What does one do when one's eyes are opened to injustice? How does one respond to authority when that authority is responsible for repression, oppression and death and does these things in your name?
These are some of the fundamental questions that are as relevant today as they were when Bill Ayers answered them by joining movements for racial justice in the 1960s. He eventually became and anti-war activist and helped carry out five bombings of government buildings during the Viet Nam era at a time when more than 5,000 protest bombings from groups and individuals of all kinds took place in a single year in the U.S. Three of his comrades, including his lover and best friend, died when one of the bombs they were making accidentally exploded.
Bill came to campus a couple of weeks ago. I started to read his memoir before his visit. And before that I watched a two hour interview with him and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, on Democracy Now! His two talks were inspiring. What I remembered most from them and his memoir is his advice to educate yourself about what's going on, to act on that knowledge and then to doubt your actions, act again, doubt, get more information, act, doubt, etc.
I want to be moral in my actions against immorality. It's a difficult position. Though I have never bombed any property, I have broken off the tips of lead pencils in the locks of doors of professors who have harassed women friends and left threatening notes under their doors to cut it out. I have publicly humiliated officials with my words when they have voted differently than I thought they should have. I don't do these things anymore.
I have been arrested twice for planned civil disobedience and have accepted the consequences willingly. I would do this again for it is open, honest and entirely peaceful.
The means are the end. I believe that and try to live that. I don't believe that anything good can come from force, whether that's force against a repressive government or force against a lover with words said during an argument. I think, I act, I doubt. And repeat. Bill did the same in a different context with different means and a different sacrifice. He does a brilliant job in his book of illuminating that context and that era and the work that's left to be done. Do anything, he says, and try to win over others. There are many ways to do that. No one way is the only way."
"Hmm. The beginning starts out concrete and interesting, but the book quickly delves into the abstract. Ayers claims he must be vague for legality's sake, but it makes for a lame book where the narrator's decisions don't make sense..."
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