Drekmeier, Charles
- Title:
- Drekmeier, Charles
- Author:
- Drekmeier, Charles and Steinhart, Peter
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
-
Charles Drekmeier is Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at Stanford
University. He came to Stanford in 1958 and spent almost forty years teaching at the
university during an era of great social and political change. In this interview, Drekmeier
discusses his academic training with Talcott Parsons and others, his interests in political
theory and social thought, the development of the Stanford Program in Social Thought, and
civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activism on the Stanford campus during the 1960s and
1970s. Drekmeier touches briefly on his hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin where his
parents owned a drugstore. He describes his first exposure to college at the University of
Chicago where he was admitted to the innovative two-year bachelors degree program conceived
by Robert Maynard Hutchins. Drekmeier describes meeting communist political activists there,
his struggle to acclimate, and his eventual transfer to the University of Wisconsin. He
discusses his induction into the army towards the end of World War II and relates stories
from basic training and other postings. Upon returning to the University of
Wisconsin after the war, Drekmeier’s interest in political science and sociology
grew. He explains how he took an internship with the State Department to study the European
Recovery Program and details his travels through Europe. He relates his decision to pursue a
master’s degree in history at Columbia University and describes some of the
professors he worked with there, including Henry Steele Commager. Drekmeier
discusses his early academic career, first at the University of Wisconsin where he taught
economics and political geography in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program (ILS), and then
at Boston University where he taught human relations and political economy before receiving
a Fulbright scholarship to study the history of law and politics in India. He relates
stories from his time in India and explains how he came to enroll in a graduate program at
Harvard where he worked as a research assistant to Talcott Parsons. Drekmeier
describes the circumstances that led him to join the Stanford faculty. He couches the
discussion of his teaching experience at Stanford and his reputation as a
“liberal” professor in terms of the social and political movements of the
time. He describes the twenty-four hour teach-in hosted by the campus Peace in Vietnam
committee in 1965 and discusses the ideas and impact of Bruce Franklin, a tenured professor
of English who was fired from Stanford for his role in anti-war campus protests.
Drekmeier discusses the development and evolution of a social science honors seminar called
Social Thought and Institutions. This long-running program studied a single topic, such as
“community,” for an entire academic year. Drekmeier credits his students with
sharing fresh ideas that affected his perspective. Drekmeier explains his first
public appearance as a “political figure” during a campus event about the
civil rights movement. He recalls the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the
emotional address he gave to students that evening, and he describes how he became involved
in the Resurrection City program at the request of students who desired to participate in
the encampment in Washington DC. He concludes the interview with reflections on Stanford as
an institution and the story of the Drekmeier Drugs bowling team.
- Topic:
- Charles Drekmeier, Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, professors, Franklin, H. Bruce, Stanford University--campus culture--Civil Rights Movement, Stanford University--campus culture--John F. Kennedy assassination, Stanford University--campus culture--Vietnam War, Stanford University--courses--Social Thought and Institutions, universities and colleges--activism, and universities and colleges--faculty
- Imprint:
- April 6, 2016 - April 7, 2016
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012