Jerry Waxler arrived at college in 1965 eager to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. But rage against the (Vietnam) war distracted him from his goal. Through the haze of marijuana, rock and roll, and social philosophy, he searched for Truth, until violence and love shattered his intellectual detachment, moving him from anger to defeat. Decades later, in reconstructing his journey from idealism in Philadelphia to chaos in Madison (WI) to despair in Berkeley, he discovered echoes of the suffering his grandparents endured as they fled religious persecution in Russia. His memoir shows the measures a young man will take to free himself from history's shackles and find the answers he seeks. (from book jacket)