The Life-Course Development of Left- and Right-Wing Youth Activist Leaders from the 1960s

Abstract

This study examines the life-course development of selected former political activist leaders from the 1960s. Three theoretical perspectives contribute to our understanding of life-course development: life cycle, socialization, and political generations. While most research of 1960s American student activists focused on left-wing activists, this study investigates the lives of both leftand right-wing political activists. Based on life-history interviews with 13 leaders of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and 11 leaders of the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), three distinct stages in the life-course of these activists are examined and compared: their formative childhood and adolescent years, their 1960s activist-youth stage, and their postactivist adult lives. Results indicate that (1) there was political continuity in the life-course development of SDS and YAF leaders; (2) data support the life-cycle, socialization, and generational explanations for youth movements, and suggest further that these factors interacted at each stage in the life-course development of the former 1960s activist leaders; and (3) while similar in life-cycle and generational dynamics, SDS and YAF leaders differed most in their political socialization experiences.