American Students Organize Founding the U.S. National Student Association After World War II

An Anthology and Sourcebook

Subjects:

• Education » Higher Education
• Education » Education (General)

Reviews:

• [C]hronicles the founding of this vast and influential movement. Schwartz is a publishing consultant and president of Consortium House. He and more than twenty contributing editors have put together this collection of photographs, newspaper clippings, and articles from ninety former members of the NSA. It presents a powerfully comprehensive history of the organization, from its influences before and during the war to the programs and projects it undertook.
  —ForeWord Magazine September/October 2006
• The anthology describes how members of the so-called GI Bill generation promoted academic freedom, social justice, and student self-governance during a pivotal period in academe's history, when millions of war veterans went to college, doubling national enrollments and jolting the collegiate status quo.
  Told a half-century later, the tale of the nation's oldest and largest student group traces the emergence of a contemporary ideal: the college student as a highly engaged engine of civic action.
  Part time capsule and part narrative, this whopping compilation weighs in at 1,200 pages and contains the personal accounts of 85 former student leaders. The contributors include six former college presidents and chancellors, as well as more than 20 former deans and professors.
  —The Chronicle of Higher Education February 17, 2006

• Endorsement From Thomas Ehrlich
  President Emeritus, Indiana University
  Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: An absolutely indispensable reference work....This is a story book of almost magical dimensions...a lasting contribution to our understanding of the post World War II era, and the history of higher education in that era.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Foreword
• Prologue to NSA: Student Organization Before and During World War II
• The Setting for Student Organization
• Prewar and Wartime Predecessors
• Part 1: The Launching of NSA: Chronology of Events, 1946-1952
• London, 1946-46, and Preparations for Prague, 1946
• The World Student Congress, Prague, 1946
• The Chicago Student Conference, December 1946
• The Constitutional Convention, September 1947
• NSA's First Year, 1947-48
• NSA's Second Year, 1948-49
• NSA's Third Year, 1949-50
• NSA's Fourth Year, 1950-51
• NSA's Fifth Year, 1951-52
• Part 2: Domestic Programs: Toward Equal Rights and Opportunities
• Student Government, Student Life, and Educational Affairs
• NSA's Educational Affairs and Student Life Programs
• Student Rights, Discrimination, and Academic Freedom
• The South, Civil Rights, and Segregation
• The College Press and NSA
• Women and NSA
• Part 3: International Programs: Searching for Paths to Peace
• Developing the International Program
• NSA and the Cold War
• Reaching Out to the World
• Student Aid and Relief Programs
• NSA Student Travel and Exchange Programs
• Other Student Travel and Exchange Programs
• Part 4: Student Voices Influencing NSA
• The Veterans
• The Protestant and Catholic Student Organizations
• The Fraternities and Sororities
• The Political Movements
• Part 5: NSA'S Regions: Creating Intercollegiate Networks
• New England
• Metropolitan New York
• New York State/New Jersey
• Pennsylvania/Mid-Atlantic
• The Midwest
• The South
• The Rocky Mountains and Southwest
• California
• The Northwest
• Part 6: Epilogue: What Happened Later
• Moving East, 1952
• 1953 and Beyond
• Appendix
• Reference
• Index