James M. Fendrich

Back to the Future: Adult Political Behavior of Former Student Activists

This research is the second follow-up study of 1960s civil rights activists and two control groups. The data support Mannheims theory of distinctive intragenerational units who are agents of social change. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis verified five separate dimensions of political behavior. Civil rights activists scored the highest on four measures of active conventional and unconventional politics. The noninvolved in college politics are the least active as adults. Although both the protesters and the institutional activists are highly involved in politics, they tend to be on opposite sides in various political arenas.

The Forgotten Movement: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement

Utilizing recent research and monographs from participants and observers, this paper reports on the underanalyzed Vietnam antiwar movement. Key events are placed in a historical context that help to explain the origins of the movement. Particular attention is given to the various responses of the state to the challengers and the complex interrelationships with the media. As the antiwar movement grew and developed, there were multiple factors that contributed to solidarity and factionalism within the movement. Despite state repressive actions and internal factionalism, the movement was successful in helping to end the war. The effects on U.S. policies were more indirect than direct. The antiwar movement mobilized millions of citizens to public protest. The demonstrations helped to shift public opinion away from supporting the war and activated third parties to question and demand an end to war policies. The political system did respond to the antiwar movements demands.

Political Socialization of U.S. and Japanese Adults The Impact of Adult Roles on College Leftism

The study of political socialization has long neglected the influence of adult roles on adult political belief and behavior, in favor of attention to the supposedly formative experiences of childhood and adolescence. Similarly, although we have numerous studies of the background and politicization of the student activists of the 1960s, we have almost no systematic evidence of how the leftism and activism of their college years has weathered the transition to adulthood. This article presents a study of the relative effects of adult role experience—occupation, family, and voluntary associational membership—versus the enduring influence of college political beliefs and participation on samples of student activists and nonactivists of the 1960s in the United States and Japan. Citing the methodological weaknesses of earlier political socialization research, the authors use true longitudinal data and causal modeling and multivariate data analysis techniques. The results indicate that, although college identification and behavior continued to some extent into adulthood, adult role socialization also had strong and independent effects, but effects that varied greatly across the two countries. Differences in adult role cultures in the United States and Japan are used to explain these cross-national variations and their consequences for patterns of political protest in the two countries.

Black and White Activists Ten Years Later: Political Socialization and Adult Left-Wing Politics.

Estimates on the number of young adults radicalized during the 1960s vary between 350,000 (Lipset and Ladd, 1972) and 1,000,000 (Sale, 1974). Tlus research represents a modest effort t o investigate .the adult politics of tlus activist generation. Although there has been voluminous research on thc antecedents of black and white student protest (see Dunlap and Peck, 1974), there arc few follow-up studies of white activists and none of former black activists. The meager information suggests that different proportions of ex-students are moving toward, away from, or against established adult institutions (Brown and Goldin, 1973; Carey, 1968; Demerath et al., 1971 ; Inglehart, 1967; Fendrich and Tarleau, 1973; Flacks, 197 1 ; Gottlieb, 1974; Krauss, 1974; Lewis and Adamek, 1974; Lipset and Ladd, 1972).

Radicals Revisited: Long Range Effects of Student Protest

The contributions of student protesters to winding-down the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the Environmental movement and the reform efforts in the Democratic Party are well known. However, preciously little is known about what happens to activists once they graduate from college. Are they upwardly mobile in some traditional career, living in the suburbs, raising a family and voting as &dquo;liberal&dquo;

Social Stratification: The Forms and Functions of Inequality.

A brief, but comprehensive text, ideal as a core text or supplement in both undergraduate and graduate courses. Foundations of Modern Sociology Series.