Overview

The first memoir by a gay member of the Weather Underground; criticizes its violence and naivet - but embraces civil rights and anti-war goals Wistfully, almost lyrically written Essential reading for progressives struggling with how to act and survive in the Age of Trump.

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9781944869472

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Praise for Swords in the Hands of Children It is a must read for anyone -- young or old -- inclined to see the Weatherman as right on, or badass, or as pioneers of a form of political struggle useful for the United States's future. Lerner was there. He now sees the weather very differently.--Los Angeles Review of Books Lerner's story of emotional and moral development in this environment is intimate. It is also a broad consideration of how radical ideas can seduce apparently nice, normal, quiet people into ideologically driven terrorism. ....In this memoir, a past member of the Weather Underground examines how a desire to save the world can morph into a drive to burn it down. -- Shelf Awareness Engaging...shocking...airs new dirty laundry....alters our understanding of Weatherman chronology...Readers fascinated by Weatherman gossip will also be intrigued by Lerner's accounts of having sex with one of the group's male leaders... -- The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, 2018 Imagine if your favorite uncle, a brutally honest, worldly, self-reflective gay raconteur, had been, as a twenty year-old, a lieutenant in an underground guerrilla army dedicated to the violent overthrow of the government of the United States. Jonathan Lerner is that favorite uncle you never had, telling unbelievable true stories--no bullshit--from the 'revolution' fifty years ago. This is the closest you'll ever get to being there. --Mark Rudd, national secretary of SDS, founding member of the Weather Underground and author of Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen A powerfully written account of idealism undercut by submission to a rigid ideology... Lerner brings a unique perspective--that of a gay man--which no other book on the Weather Underground has expressed. --Arthur Eckstein, author of Bad Moon Rising: How the Weather Underground Beat the FBI and Lost the Revolution As emotionally bruising as it is beautiful. ...A brilliant and moving analysis of one of the most significant moments in American history. --Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States In this compelling, wise, and passionate memoir, Jonathan Lerner gives us a deeply honest and self-questioning depiction of his youthful radicalism. By telling his particular story of life at the far edge of the 60s and 70s counter culture (with all its intricate complexities), he is able to be precise and unstinting about the wages of resistance and rebellion without sacrificing his continuing and moving idealism. --Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document

Praise for Swords in the Hands of Children <p/> Imagine if your favorite uncle, a brutally honest, worldly, self-reflective gay raconteur, had been, as a twenty year-old, a lieutenant in an underground guerrilla army dedicated to the violent overthrow of the government of the United States. Jonathan Lerner is that favorite uncle you never had, telling unbelievable true stories--no bullshit--from the 'revolution' fifty years ago. This is the closest you'll ever get to being there. --Mark Rudd, national secretary of SDS, founding member of the Weather Underground and author of Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen <p/> A powerfully written account of idealism undercut by submission to a rigid ideology... Lerner brings a unique perspective--that of a gay man--which no other book on the Weather Underground has expressed. --Arthur Eckstein, author of Bad Moon Rising: How the Weather Underground Beat the FBI and Lost the Revolution <p/> As emotionally bruising as it is beautiful. ...A brilliant and moving analysis of one of the most significant moments in American history. --Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States <p/> In this compelling, wise, and passionate memoir, Jonathan Lerner gives us a deeply honest and self-questioning depiction of his youthful radicalism. By telling his particular story of life at the far edge of the 60s and 70s counter culture (with all its intricate complexities), he is able to be precise and unstinting about the wages of resistance and rebellion without sacrificing his continuing and moving idealism. --Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document

Author Information

JONATHAN LERNER dropped out of Antioch College and became a full-time activist on the staff of Students for a Democratic Society, the principle organization of the New Left. He was a founding member of the militant Weatherman faction, which took over SDS in 1969, and editor of its newspaper Fire!. He remained a member of the Weather Underground, while it carried out a campaign of bombings, until its demise in 1976. He is the author of the novels Caught in a Still Place and Alex Underground, and a journalist focusing on architectural, urbanist and environmental issues. He now lives in New York's Hudson Valley.

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