April 20, 2007

The Rise and Fall of the SDS

To the Editor:

Maurice Isserman's "How Old Is the New SDS?" (The Chronicle Review, March 2) brings to mind Karl Marx's famous aphorism that history repeats itself, "first as tragedy, then as farce." Professor Isserman is correct in saying that SDS's demise and transformation into a violent and ultraradical sect, whose members favored terrorist bombing as a tactic, was a tragedy for those who genuinely sought to create a democratic New Left. The current reincarnation of the old group