Voices of Democracy 10 (2015): 41-54
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MARIO SAVIO, “AN END TO HISTORY” (2 DECEMBER 1964) Dominic Manthey Penn State University Abstract: Mario Savio’s speech in Berkeley’s Sproul Hall came near the end of a semester-long struggle by the Free Speech Movement (FSM), culminating in the movement’s largest sit-in and hundreds of student arrests. More than goal-oriented or instrumental speech, Savio’s “An End to History” is best understood as an exercise in identity-creation, in which Savio gave expression to a unique FSM identity emerging out of New Left ideology. Specifically, Savio’s literary style and commemoration of the civil rights movement were part of a process of rhetorically forging a “post-citizenship” ethos, one which also reinterpreted radical behavior not as a strategy but as an enactment of a new consciousness and personal awareness. Keywords: Mario Savio, University of California, Berkeley, new social movements, social movement rhetoric, New Left rhetoric 1
The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) was no stranger to student activism in the early 1960s. In fact, the number of student organizations on campus was well above the national average.1 Far from emerging out of nothing, the student-led Free Speech Movement (FSM) evolved out of a mixture of repressive administrative measures, passionate student reactions, and months of failed communication. At the heart of this conflict were two major collective actors: the UCB students and a university administration that the activists saw as bureaucratic and unresponsive. Beginning in late September of 1964, the situation at Berkeley escalated, culminating in a flashbulb moment on December 2, 1964. Headlines nationwide carried accounts of a massive student-led sit-in at Berkeley’s Sproul Hall. The Chicago Tribune identified the key figure in the controversy: “Mario Savio, 21, of New York City, student leader of the rebels.”2 On this day, Mario Savio, a philosophy major, secured his status in the history of the New Left by delivering two of his most famous speeches, the second of which was published several weeks later with the title “An End to History.” After a disappointing turnout at a student protest rally just nine days earlier, the Sproul Hall sit-in on December 2nd became a turning point in the movement with “a lot at stake.”3 Thus it comes as no surprise that Savio, who already was recognized as one of the leaders of the student activists, would be called upon to galvanize the student body and remind them of what was at stake.4 Yet, for all the interest and excitement surrounding this speech, both at the time and later among scholars and others remembering the movement, there have been few scholarly attempts to understand how the speech fits into the history of the FSM and how it helped shape the broader ethos emerging out of New Left ideology. Dominic Manthey: djm513@psu.edu Last updated: March 2016 Voices of Democracy, ISSN #1932-9539. Available at http://www.voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/.