Family, youth, and public school education in Berkeley; undergraduate years at University of California, social life and radical politics on campus, 1933-1937; graduate study in American history at Harvard University, 1937-1941: friendships, mentors, marriage, attitudes toward communism and the war in Europe; teaching at Lawrence College; World War II service in the Pacific as a Japanese language officer; professor at Scripps College, 1947-1952, Salzburg Seminar; professor of history at Berkeley, 1952-1980: social life of Berkeley faculty and community, faculty hiring and promotions; observations and role during the 1960s student protest at Berkeley: the Free Speech Movement, 1964, anti-war protests of 1960s-1970s, Third World strike, People's Park, impact on university teaching and society; research, writing, and teaching on American intellectual life, study of religion, family history; reflections on the craft of history.