Scope and Content Note
The Harry M. Bracken papers include correspondence, Leftist periodicals (including scarce publications), speeches, research notes on scholarly and protest-related projects, memorabilia, and a collection of miscellaneous artifacts that illustrate the complex networking involved in peaceful protesting.
Series I: Activism contains correspondence, news articles, and other materials documenting Bracken's involvement with various social causes, including the anti-Vietnam war movement; the attempted establishment of SDS at ASU; and the Canadian resettlement of American draft objectors.
Series II: Subjects houses materials documenting Bracken's interest in such topics as three soldiers who refused to deploy to Vietnam in 1966 and became known as the Fort Hood Three;
the homogenization of American universities referred to as Harvardization
; and radical activist and leader Angela Davis.
Series III: Periodicals includes underground and Leftist periodicals and clippings with an emphasis on the anti-war activism of the Sixties and Seventies. Titles include the SDS Bulletin, the NUC Newsletter, and RESIST, as well as several locally-produced materials.
Series IV: Correspondence houses correspondence exchanged between Bracken and his colleagues, peers, and personal friends, including Noam Chomsky, Richard Popkin, and Richard A. Watson. Bracken's correspondence includes materials such as clippings from various periodicals, photographs, publication drafts, and administrative documents; topics include updates on personal life, political commentary, scholarly collaboration (for campus talks, publications, referrals of graduate students, and so on), and event planning.
Series V: Teaching and Research contains Bracken's research and scholarship on philosophy syntax, linguistics and scholars such as Chomsky, Popkins, and Berkeley, as well as classic philosophers like Descartes. It also includes materials related to his book Freedom of Speech: Words are not Deeds, published in 1994 by Praeger. Additionally, there are various notes on his teaching topics, in particular his philosophy courses.
Dates
- Creation: 1957-1992
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1965-1969
Language of Materials
Material in English
Access Restrictions
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Biographical Note
Harry M. Bracken was born in Yonkers, New York on March 12, 1926. Bracken served three years in the US Navy during WWII. After his military service, he earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He received an M.A. in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1954, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Iowa in 1956.
Bracken taught at the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan before accepting an Associate Professor position in the Philosophy Department at Arizona State University in 1963, where he achieved the status of Full Professor in 1966. During his tenure at ASU, Bracken established himself as an activist who supported the Students for a Democratic Society, anti-Vietnam protests, and other New Leftist groups and causes. He participated in a teach-in on October 15, 1965, coinciding with the International Days of Protest; he was also dedicated to public education. In 1966, the same year he was promoted to Full Professor, Bracken urged ASU President George Homer Durham to grant the Students for a Democratic Society a charter at ASU, which Durham rejected. After this exchange, Bracken resigned from his position at ASU and accepted a professorship at McGill University in Montreal, where he taught until 1991. Bracken offered two reasons for his resignation from ASU: an insufficient library at ASU and irreconcilable differences between himself and the administration at ASU, particularly the ways they viewed education and the purpose of the university. He returned to ASU in 1995 as an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy. Bracken died on December 15, 2011.
Full extent
33 Box(es)
Full extent
17.75 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection documents Harry M. Bracken's role as a university faculty member protesting the Vietnam War through participating in teach-ins, organizing student protest groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), writing editorials, and giving speeches. It also contains intra-university documents that highlight Bracken's involvement in actively protesting the War and resulting interactions and communications with the ASU administration. Bracken's teaching notes are also included, from a myriad of philosophy and history courses taught by him over the course of his career, as well as extensive research notes on areas of philosophy, history, syntax, activism events, and court cases associated with civil and human rights violations. The collection also contains Bracken's personal communications via letters and emails to his students, colleagues, and publishers throughout his career. While the bulk of the collection dates from the mid to late 1960s, the documents collected range from the late 1950s to the early 2000s.
Arrangement
This collection consists of thirty-three boxes divided into six series:
- Series I: Activism
- Series II: Subject Files
- Series III: Periodicals
- Series IV: Correspondence
- Series V: Teaching and Research
- Series VI: Oversized Materials
Provenance
Harry M. Bracken donated these papers to Arizona State University's Archives in 2005 (Accession #2005-03834). His widow, Elly van Gelderen, donated a substantial accretion to these materials in 2016 (Accession #2016-04964).
Separated Materials
The following periodicals were removed from the collection during processing:
- American Civil Liberties Union 42nd Annual Report, 1961 July 1-1962 June 30
- American Civil Liberties Union 44th Annual Report, 1963 July 1-1964 June 30
- American Civil Liberties Union 46th Annual Report, 1965 July 1-1967 January 1
- The American Dream, Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 1, 1968); Vol. 1, No. 3
- The Catholic Worker (Vol. 31, No. 12), 1965 July-August
- Civil Liberties (Nos. 229, 231, 236, 238-239, 242-247, 249-250, 255-256, 258-260, 262-263, 266), 1965 September-1970 February
- The Daily Iowan, 1957 April 5, May 8; 1959 January 23 (incomplete), February 18, February 20 (incomplete), May 1, November 24 (incomplete); 1960 January 16, February 4 (incomplete), March 4, March 17 (incomplete), March 23 (incomplete)
- The Des Moines Register, 1959 November 12 (Sports Section); 1959 November 18 (Editorial Page - Letters to the Editor)
- International Socialist Review, 1970 December
- La Raza (Vol. 1, No. 12), 1968 May 11
- Leviathan (Vol. 1, No. 3-8), 1969 June-1970 February
- Liberation (Vol. 10, No. 4 through Vol. 11, No. 2; Vol. 11, No. 4; Vol. 11, No. 9 through Vol. 13, No. 2; Vol. 13, No. 4-6; Vol. 13, No. 8 through Vol. 14, No. 2; Vol. 14, No. 4 through Vol. 16, No. 2; Vol. 16, No. 4; Vol. 16, No. 7- 9; Vol. 17, No. 1-2; and Vol. 17, No. 10 through Vol. 18, No. 2), 1965 June-1973 October
- Logos (Vol. 1, No. 1-4, 6, 9), 1967 October 10-1968 November
- The McGill Daily (Vol. 57, No. 40-41, 52, 68-79 72, 76-79, 87-89; Vol. 58, No. 58), 1967 November 17--1969 January 21
- The McGill Reporter (Vol. 1, No. 41), 1969 August 21
- New Mobilizer (Issues 1 and 7), 1969 September 5, 1970 February
- The Movement (Vol. 1, No. 12; Vol. 3, No. 11), 1965 December, 1967 November
- NACLA Newsletter (Vol. 2, No. 2-10; Vol. 3, No. 1-10; Vol. 4, No. 1-10; Vol. 5, No. 1-6), 1968 April-1971 October
- NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report (Vol. 5, No. 7-8; Vol. 6, No. 1-4; Vol. 7, No. 6), 1971 November-1973 August
- New Left Notes (Vol. 1, No. 1-13, 15-17, 19-20, 24, 26-28, 30-50; Vol. 2, No. 2-24, 26-33, 35-39, 41, 43-46; Vol. 3, No. 1-17, 19-22; 25-28, 30-31; 37-40; Vol. 4, No. 2-8, 10-15, 17, 22-26, 28-29, 31), 1966 January 21-1969 October 2
- The Old Mole (No. 20), August 15-28
- The Progressive, 1966 January, February, May
- Ramparts, 1968 June 29, December 14-28; 1969 June; 1971 February; 1972 May
- The Resistance (No. 3), 1968 April 3-15
- San Francisco Express Times (Vol. 1, No. 6, 42, 44-45, 47; Vol. 2, No. 11), 1968 November-1969 March
- State Press (Vol. 46, No. 54; Vol. 49, No. 109), 1965 May 14, 1968 May 17
- Viet Report, 1966 August-September, 1967 September-October, 1968 April-May, 1968 Summer
Processing Note
These materials were processed by ASU's ENG 691: Archival Research Methods during the Spring semester of 2016 under the supervision of Assistant Archivist Elizabeth Dunham.
A good-sized accretion to the collection was processed in the Spring semester of 2017, by ASU's ENG 792: Archival Research Methods class; this was done again under the supervision of Assistant Archivist Elizabeth Dunham. Both courses were taught by Dr. Shirley Rose. Boxes numbered ten and above comprise the materials processed during Spring 2017.
- Title
- Harry M. Bracken Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by ENG 691 students under the direction of Elizabeth Dunham.
- Date
- 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding guide encoded in English.
Repository details
Part of the University Archives Repository
Contact
Arizona State UniversityP.O. Box 871006
Tempe AZ 85287-1006 United States
(480) 965-4932
archives@asu.edu