American Student Activism: The Post-Sixties Transformation Author(s): Philip G. Altbach and Robert Cohen Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1990), pp. 32-49 Published by: Ohio State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1982033 . Accessed: 04/11/2012 18:33 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Ohio State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Higher Education. http://www.jstor.org Philip G. Altbach Robert Cohen American Student Activism The Post-Sixties Transformation The sixties, of course, saw the flowering of Amer- ican student political activism. The American university was in tur- moil, and students, for the first time since the 1930s, played on a na- tional political stage. A sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, decided not to run for reelection in part because of student demonstrations against his Vietnam policies. Students were also at the forefront of a major change in American values and attitudes - particularly in areas such as relations between the sexes, reproductive rights, music, and social norms. For a short period in the late 1960s, public opinion polls indicated that the most important concern of the American population was campus unrest.