Graduate Program
History
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2004
Thesis Director
Edmund F. Wehrle
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Abstract
America in the 1960s ran the gamut of social, economic, and political changes, from the assassination of political leaders to the apocalyptic potential of the Cuban Missile Crisis; from President Lyndon B. Johnson's promises of a Great Society, to the paralyzing effects of the Vietnam War. At the center of these domestic and international battles lay the "baby boomers," the largest-ever generation of Americans, and, not coincidentally, the largest generation of college students to enter the "ivory towers" of higher education. Raised in an era defined by cries for civil rights and "participatory democracy," these youths entered higher education determined to change the world. The difference between this generation and their predecessors, however, was that this group's unprecedented size offered the potential to affect real change. Using the university as their battleground, these idealistic young men and women declared war on the patriarchal political and social structures imposed by collegiate administrations.
Recommended Citation
Bell, David, "The Battle for the University: The Vietnam-Era Student Movement at Universities in Central Illinois" (2004). Masters Theses. 1319.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1319
