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In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa. By Gerald W. Haslam with Janice E. Haslam. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011. xiv, 427 pp. Paper, $26.95.)
W. J. Rorabaugh University of Washington Seattle, Washington rorabaug@u.washington.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic
Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 3, December 2012, Pages 984–985, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jas345
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01 December 2012
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W. J. Rorabaugh, In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa, Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 3, December 2012, Pages 984–985, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jas345
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In December 1968 S. I. Hayakawa, the interim president of San Francisco State College, gained fame when he pulled the wires from the loudspeakers on a protester's truck during a student strike. Television cameras caught the moment on tape. The president's action stunned the demonstrators, who expected administrators to be timid. To understand Hayakawa's bold move, it is worth knowing that his hobby was fencing. He never walked away from a fight, and to conservatives, the feisty president became a folk hero.
Hayakawa had an improbable life. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1906, he was the son of Japanese immigrants. His father founded a successful import-export business, and the family eventually settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where young Hayakawa attended college. In 1924 his father returned to Japan. His mother and two young sisters also departed, while Hayakawa and a brother remained in Canada.
After receiving an M.A. in English literature from McGill University, Hayakawa obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. He married Marge Peters, a striking blonde and the daughter of a crusading newspaper editor. Hayakawa taught at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, frequented jazz clubs, and became the first nonblack columnist for the Chicago Defender. He attacked racism and defended assimilation, positions he held throughout his adult life. Hayakawa promoted the cause of general semantics in Language in Action (1941). This best seller, adopted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and widely used to teach composition in colleges, enabled Hayakawa to become a full-time writer and public lecturer. Because he lived in the Midwest, he was not interned during World War II.
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