Necessary Trouble | Drew Gilpin Faust

This is a memoir from an extraordinary woman who has lived through extraordinary experiences. Raised in conservative Virginia, she became a student leader through some of the most tumultuous times in recent history, graduating from Bryn Mawr in 1968 with a degree in history. Her activism started while still in high school. It's amazing to think about the people she's met and the conversations she's had. Many of us grew up watching the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement unfold on the evening news. Gilpin Faust traveled to Eastern Europe when East Germany was building the Berlin Wall, marched in Selma, went to college with people who joined the Weather Underground. Wow.

The book itself has an academic feel to it, especially for a memoir. The emotional impacts of her life are more poignant toward the end of the book. Her accounts of the events that we've read about, heard about, watched on TV, really pack a punch when heard in the first person. Her work with organizations support voting rights, and her life of working alongside Black students when segregation was the norm, especially in the south, were enlightening.

I was particularly interested in the parts of the narrative where she talked about the conflict between her activism and the social norms put on women. That feels like it could be a book of its own and I left wanting more about that. Maybe there isn't a lot more to say. Her memoir predates the women's rights movement. The Pill was just becoming more available, if you had connections, on college campuses.

Gilpin Faust went to a private boarding school and on to an Ivy League college. She acknowledges that she came from a place of privilege that many others didn't, and that the risks she took in her activism were small compared to those of so many others.

Gilpin Faust went on to be the president of Harvard University from 2007-2018. Who says you can't get a good job with a history degree?