This essay outlines the course and character of the American student leftist movement during the twentieth century. It summarizes the earlier character of student leftism and describes how the "New Left" developed, its constellation of beliefs, and its tactics and objectives. A principal conclusion is that hard-core student activists quite consciously seek confrontations and that university officials frequently play into the hands of the dissidents by calling the police before trying other alternatives for resolving the conflict. Accordingly, this essay suggests the critical importance of developing new strategies of the types that lead to the management of conflict within institutionalized democratic procedures. (Author)