In 1968, Mark Rudd was a leader in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Columbia University, where he was an undergraduate. That year, a massive uprising took place on campus, when student radicals and members of the surrounding Harlem community engaged in protest of Columbia’s role in the Vietnam War and displacement of Harlem residents. Soon after, he became a founding member of the Weather Underground, the ultraleft group that set off bombs and engaged in street battles as part of an ill-defined and poorly conceived strategy of fighting racism and war.

Rudd recounts these experiences in Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen, his memoir of the long 1960s. It’s a riveting read that tells a history that is vital in its own right, but in particular for those who are trying to build a twenty-first-century left, especially through the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Many of these leftists are curious about what they should take from the 1960s (and what they shouldn’t) for their own organizing work today; Rudd’s book will give them plenty of direction.

Earlier this year, Jacobin deputy editor Micah Uetricht spoke with Rudd for our YouTube show Jacobin Talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly of those years, and what the lessons are for radicals of the twenty-first century. You can watch the full interview here. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.