University in Turmoil

In the spring of 1968, Columbia University erupted. Students occupied buildings, confronted the university’s administration, and demanded institutional change in a watershed moment for American activism. As both witness and participant, renowned sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein captured this pivotal uprising with unparalleled clarity and insight.

This essential reissue of University in Turmoil returns Wallerstein’s penetrating analysis to a new generation grappling with similar questions of power, purpose, and protest within academic institutions. His firsthand account illuminates not just what happened during those tumultuous weeks, but why those events still matter in our ongoing struggle to reimagine the university as a site of social transformation. This new edition features a thought-provoking and comprehensive introduction by political theorist Jodi Dean, who situates this work within Wallerstein’s broader intellectual project, from world-systems analysis to his critiques of global capitalism, to demonstrate how this seemingly localized campus conflict connects to Wallerstein’s groundbreaking theories on structural inequality, institutional power, and social movements. As today’s students confront issues from climate justice to racial equity, from economic precarity to geopolitical conflict, Wallerstein’s insights resonate with renewed urgency, revealing the university not merely as a backdrop for protest but as a contested terrain where broader societal struggles are enacted and reimagined.

Both historical document and theoretical framework, University in Turmoil offers an indispensable perspective for anyone seeking to understand the complex relationship between academic institutions, student activism, and social change—then and now.