One of the most gripping images from the 1960s captures the slight figure of Dr. S. I. Hayakawa scrambling onto a sound truck parked in front of San Francisco State College amid campus unrest. Hayakawa had hoped to use this soapbox to address the assembled demonstrators, but instead he ended up ripping out speaker wires and halting an illegal campus demonstration or denying first-amendment rights to the crowd, depending on your perspective. Indeed, Hayakawa s entire life defies simplistic labels, and his ability to be categorized largely depends on personal perspective.
This intimate and...