The first comprehensive social history about the World War II GI Bill generation of student organizations and leaders, this work combines, in one volume, an anthology of memoirs and a sourcebook of archival documentation and of clippings from student newspapers of the time.

After World War II, thanks to the help of the GI Bill, millions of returning veterans more than doubled enrollment in the nation's 1700 colleges and universities. Thousands of young American students joined international clubs on campus, and many traveled abroad to help in post-war reconstruction, and learn about people in other countries. The student leaders who emerged during this period were intent upon dismantling the old ways of paternalism, elitism, discrimination, and segregation. Believing strongly in the nation's founding principles of "liberty and justice for all," they brought this vision into their religious, social, and political organizations-and into the halls of student government. American Students Organize puts a human face on that pivotal time in American higher education-the time of the Cold War and the "Red Scare," of the desegregation of the campus and of social organizations, and, especially, of creative engagement by students in civic and world affairs. In order to tell this important story, the anthology project recruited the book's authors, who, over a period of nine years, researched over 150 college archives, and corresponded with long-lost colleagues around the country. The resulting book covers the transformation of student life, offering a unique social history in a form not to be found elsewhere.