1.) Compare Clark Kerrís vision of a university as articulated in The Uses of the University with Fred Termanís vision for Stanford. In what ways were they alike? Where did they differ? Consider also the different relationships between science, industry, technology, the military, and the federal government which developed at Stanford and Berkeley. Why did Silicon Valley spring up around Stanford and not around Berkeley?

2.) What factors caused the beginning of student unrest at Berkeley? In what ways did the student movements there develop a particular character reflective of their particular origins? In what ways were the movements representative of more general American changes? Why were the student movements at Berkeley (at least in the beginning) so much more active than at Stanford?

3.) Consider the issues that polarized students and university officials during the Free Speech Movement (FSM) of 1964-65. What larger fissures in American society were reflected in the stand-off? How was the FSM a reaction against Clark Kerrís notion of the university as a "knowledge factory?" What were the larger implications of the FSM for the place of knowledge and knowledge institutions in American society?

4.) Why was the FSM a transformative experience for those who participated in it? What long term legacies did it leave at Berkeley? In California? In American universities more generally? In American society as a whole?

5.) Early in the film you are introduced to John Gage, an ordinary Berkeley student whose life was transformed by the student movements of the 1960s. Today he is an executive for Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley. Follow his comments throughout the film and ask yourself: does he represent the Silicon Valley perspective on student activism in the 1960s? Why or why not? How do the perspectives of other speakers in the film connect to  the history of Silicon Valley? In what ways is the Berkeley experience central to and tangential to the history of Silicon Valley?

6.) The transformation of the FSM into the Anti-War movement at Berkeley illustrates the complex origins of 60s activism throughout America. In what ways were the FSM and the Anti-War movement distinct phenomena that became entangled after 1965? How did each support the other? In what ways were they at cross purposes? How did issues related to the place of technology in modern society either reinforce solidarity between the two movements or foster divisions between them?

7.) Pay attention to the moment in the film when the Berkeley student activists encounter the hippie counterculture of San Francisco. This illustrates the way that the counterculture and the Anti-War movement were distinct phenomena that became entangled after 1965. How did each support the other? In what ways were they at cross purposes?  How did issues related to the place of technology in modern society either reinforce solidarity between the two movements or foster divisions between them?

8.) The Civil Rights movement was at the center of the student activism at Berkeley from its inception, but like the other movements noted above it was distinct from the FSM and the Anti-War movement.  How did each support the other? In what ways were they at cross purposes?

9.) Consider the various calls for revolution that were common at Berkeley in the 1960s. Did everyone mean the same thing by the term "revolution?" What was the place of technology in each of the programs for revolutionary change offered? Which notion of revolution was most compatible with Silicon Valley? Which was least compatible? Can you account for the differences?

10.) Consider the gender and racial divisions within the student movements of the 1960s. In what ways did the deep seated structures of gender and race in America plague the student movements of the 1960s as well? What does the history of these movements teach us about the power of race and gender in American society?

11.) Were the student movements at Berkeley uniformly anti-capitalist and/or communist? Was wealth incompatible with authenticity within these movements? What was the relationship between the student movements of the 1960s and capitalism?
12.) Ecology was a key value within the student movements of the 1960s. Were ecology and modern technology opposed to one another? Was student unrest in the 1960s necessarily rooted in a rejection of modern technology? What was the place of technology within the "Green" movements of the 1960s?

13.) What did the student movements of the 1960s accomplish? Have the movements died, or do they still live in other movements active today? If so, which movements   continue to extend the legacy of 60s unrest into the present? Is present-day Silicon Valley a child of the 60s protest movements or their enemy?
 

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