Student Book Seeks Answer to Youth Political Apathy

Students are not apathetic—just disenchanted with the workings of the U.S. government—according to a new book written by Harvard students under the auspices of the Institute of Politics (IOP).

Ganesh N. Sitaraman ’03 and Previn Warren ’04 co-authored Invisible Citizens:  Youth Politics After Sept. 11, which also features the writing and research of 11 other Harvard students, as well as contributions from college students around the country.

Sitaraman said that the idea for the book—which argues that his generation is too involved with community service to be politically apathetic—came to him in November 2001 as he read a Newsweek article claiming that Sept. 11 would galvanize the country’s young people.

“Sept. 11 was not the defining moment of our generation,” said Sitaraman, who is also a Crimson editor. “In terms of our generation, we are very active in community service but turned off by the culture of politics.”

According to Sitaraman, this rift in participation is due to the younger generation’s disillusionment with the political process.

“There is a cycle of negligence between us and the politicians. The politicians ignore youth issues because we don’t vote, and we don’t vote because the politicians ignore youth issues,” he said.

The book presents a number of solutions to this problem.

Programs like the Reserve Officer Training Corps, which helps students pay for college in exchange for an army service commitment after graduation, should be implemented in other areas of government, the authors said. Politicians should also actively encourage youth participation in politics, and civic education should be changed to reflect the relevance of government in young lives, he said.

He said that he pitched the book idea to the student committee of the IOP, which helped Warren and Sitaraman to find 11 student editors to help digest the data and find personal stories from students at other colleges.

Sean N. Creehan ’04, one of the student editors, explained that each editor worked on a different topic.

“Part of the book was soliciting questions. Most people ended up looking for different perspectives on their specific topics,” he said. “We also wrote the intro to each chapter, with our spin on the specific topic.”

Sitaraman said that interest in publishing the work was initially difficult to find, because the market was glutted with Sept. 11 retrospectives, but IUniverse Publishing agreed to print the book.

“It’s been a really amazing project,” said Warren.  “We just wanted to give students around the country a chance to have their thoughts about Sept. 11 reflected and their thoughts about the youth disconnect in politics expressed.  I think it achieved those goals and I’m really proud of it.”

Sitaraman and Warren will hold a book signing at the Coop on May 7.