Jonathan Lerner functioned as the office manager and spokesperson for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the national anti-Vietnam War group. In his captivating memoir, Swords in the Hands of Children (OR Books), Lerner tells the story about how a demented faction of activists wrecked SDS, and created what is known as the Weather Underground, or Weatherman. Unlike other first-hand chroniclers of this phenomenon, Lerner was a closeted gay man among the macho revolutionists; he didn’t come out until 20 years later, in his early 40s. He also stayed aboveground and served as a sort of minister of propaganda, fronting for a “devious cabal” of militants who have attained “outsized importance” in histories of the period. — Mordecai Specktor
(American Jewish World, 7.28.17)
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