Synopses & Reviews
In the early 1960s, a remarkable crop of students graduated from a small New York City school renowned for progressive pedagogy and left-wing politics: Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. These young people entered college at the peak of the transformative era we now call The Sixties, and would go on to impact the course of United States history for the next half century. Among them were Angela Davis, the brilliant, stunning African American Communist and academic who became the face of the Black Power movement; Tom Hurwitz, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) activist and cinematographer who played a key role in the occupation of Columbia University; and Elliott Abrams, who rebelled against the leftist political orthodoxies of the school and of the times, and ultimately played key roles in the Reagan administration, the George W. Bush administrations and the neoconservative movement.
In Little Red, based on extensive original interviews and archival research, Dina Hampton tells the compelling, interwoven life stories of these three schoolmates. Their tumultuous, divergent, public and private paths wind through the seminal events and political conflicts of recent American history, from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War; the Summer of Love to the feminist uprising; Iran-Contra to Occupy Wall Street. As they pursue political ends, each of their lives will be shaped by events, relationships and social changes they never imagined. Their successes and setbacks will resonate with anyone who has struggled to reconcile the utopian goals of The Sixtiesor of youth itselfwith the realities of day-to-day life in the world as it is.
Today, a new generation is taking to the streets, galvanized by controversial wars and social and economic inequities as troubling as those we faced in the 1960s. The stories of Angela, Tom and Elliott serve as both road map and cautionary tale for anyone engaged in that most American of actstrying to perfect the world.
Review
Samuel G. Freedman, author & journalist“Nearly a half-century later, America is still wrestling with the conflicts that emerged in the passionate and turbulent 1960s. Dina Hampton brings both narrative elan and analytical intelligence to bear as she explores the decade's legacy through three dramatic life stories. These people, activists of both the left and the right, are connected by Dina's other subject, the remarkable radical school called ‘Little Red.’”
Review
Samuel G. Freedman, author & journalist“Nearly a half-century later, America is still wrestling with the conflicts that emerged in the passionate and turbulent 1960s. Dina Hampton brings both narrative elan and analytical intelligence to bear as she explores the decade's legacy through three dramatic life stories. These people, activists of both the left and the right, are connected by Dina's other subject, the remarkable radical school called ‘Little Red.’”
Kirkus Reviews“Hampton ably maintains an evenhanded respect for her subjects’ widely varying political positions as she explores their evolution over the years, but it is her narrative skills that truly shine. Her evocation of the heady, impulsive spirit of the university-building–occupation era, awash in drugs, sex and over-the-top Marxist rhetoric, is pitch-perfect. Davis’ arrest and 1972 trial for murder in the death of a California judge are presented as a gripping courtroom thriller, counterbalanced later by the inexorable pursuit of Abrams by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. A capable and compelling memoir of the ’60s and its varied political legacies as reflected in the lives of three survivors.”
Publishers Weekly“This fast-paced, engaging book provides a fascinating look at how these personalities navigated an era of upheaval.”
New York Times“Dina Hampton gracefully connects the private school in Greenwich Village and its Elisabeth Irwin High School to the radical political culture of the 1960s with interwoven profiles of three prominent graduates: Angela Davis (high school class of 1961) and Tom Hurwitz and Elliott Abrams (both 1965).”
Daily Beast“This is not just another tie-dyed cultural history of the ’60s, but rather a thoroughly researched three-part biography that divides the era into a triptych. Hampton shows how America still has a long way to go before we’re out of the shadow of that decade, for better or for worse.”
Boston Globe“As a window into the extremes of the liberal ideals that made the ’60s and the social and political convulsions that have followed, “Little Red” is an instructive read…for students of America’s culture wars, the book leaves room to think for oneself.”
Washington Post“Never boring…these stories have been neglected for years, and Hampton allows a new generation of readers to learn about them…. ‘Little Red’…captures a good deal of political drama from recent decades in our nation’s history.”
Synopsis
The compelling, interwoven life stories of three remarkable schoolmates illuminate the rise, demise, and long-lasting impact of the radical political movements of the 1960s
Synopsis
In the 1960s, a remarkable crop of students graduated from a small, New York City school renowned for progressive pedagogy and left-wing politics: Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School.
Entering college at the peak of the transformative era we now call The Sixties, three of these "Little Redders" would go on to change the course of American history: Angela Davis, African American intellectual activist and Communist Party member; SDS activist and filmmaker Tom Hurwitz; and Elliott Abrams, who would play a key role in the Republican Neoconservative movement.
Based on extensive original interviews and archival research, Little Red follows these characters' divergent, occasionally intersecting, public and private paths through the seminal events and political struggles of the second half of the twentieth century, from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War; the Summer of Love to radical feminism; Iran-Contra to Occupy Wall Street.
About the Author
Dina Hampton attended Little Red Schoolhouse and Elisabeth Irwin High School in the late 1970s and, in the mid-1990s, served as its alumni director, assembling its archives. Hampton received her B.A. in theater and film studies from Hunter College and, after a decade as an actress and theater producer in New York City, obtained her Master's Degree from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1999. As an editor, Hampton has worked for Streetmail.com, the New York Daily News, and InvestmentNews and is currently managing editor for RIABiz, an online publication for investment advisors. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times (including a story on the 35th anniversary of the Little Red Class of '65), the Daily News, Stage Directions and Oxygen.com, among other publications. Hampton lives in New York City.