Abstract
In The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, Dan Berger compiles a collection of 14 essays concerning the various radical social movements of the 1970s. These essays are written by independent scholars of the 1970s who, while they may have not lived through this time period, have studied it extensively. Berger seeks to emphasize distinct phenomena of the period that may have not previously been analyzed elsewhere.
The book is divided into three sections: Insurgency, Solidarity, and Community, which Berger explains are the three beacons followed by the 1970s Left. Part One, Insurgency, begins with an essay written by Liz Samuels examining the roots of prison abolition. Samuels uses the seizure of the Attica Correctional Facility in 1971, the efforts of Black Muslims, and organizations such as the United Prisoners’ Union to trace the ideological beginnings and organization of prison abolition groups and comments on the reform efforts that were both successfully and unsuccessfully undertaken. The next essay, by Victoria Law, focuses on the feminist movement and feminist responses to sexual assault. Using the cases of Yvonne Wanrow, Inez Garcia, Joan Little, and Dessie Woods, four women who received national attention for issues regarding sexual assault, Law shows how the politicization of their cases led a movement that fought against institutional sexism by defending women who defended themselves or their families from sexual assault, eventually leading to the establishment of the battered women’s movement. The final two essays of the first section, written by Dan Berger with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Scott Rutherford, deal with the racial tensions present in the 1970s, with Berger and Dunbar-Ortiz discussing the American Indian Movement and the Republic of New Afrika’s struggles for land, and Rutherford examining the Ojibway Warriors Society’s occupation of the Anicinabe Park in Canada.
Part Two is comprised of essays by Fanon Che Wilkins, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Meg Starr, and Michael Staudenmaier, which tie together the theme of solidarity, using the Sixth Pan-African Congress, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, and the Sojourner Truth Organization as prime examples. Part Three, Community, examines those who tried to develop new political forms in the ripe era of the 1970s, and utilizes essays by Benjamin Shepard regarding Gay Liberation and DIY community building, Brian Behnken regarding the Chicano Movement, James Tracy regarding the New Left, Matt Mayer and Paul Magno regarding the Pacifist Underground, Elizabeth Castle regarding Madonna Thunder Hawk, and Andrew Cornell examining the factors that go into community building.
With these essays, Berger constructs an image of the 1970s as a time filled with radical movements coming from all angles of society and seeking a wide variety of goals. By tying these varied movements together with the three beacons of Insurgency, Solidarity, and Community, the overall struggle for change in the 1970s can be examined as a whole.