Chapters 1-2 Summary and Analysis

The book opens with Colin Diver finishing his last year at Harvard Law School. He is an editor for the Harvard Law Review which would oepn doors to the best jobs and opportunities for him, but he isn't sure that he wants to be a member of the establishment given the war the nation is involved in. He managed to avoid the draft by his status as a student, husband and father and by the time of his 1968 graduation, many law school graduates were avoiding the establishment. He had accepted a position with a major Washington DC law firm and was having second doubts about it.

Diver was also very affected by the assassination of Martin Luther King and the following riots. He and Joan listened to the reports of the riots and violence. Colin attended some of the...