Dohrn was the public face of the Weathermen, the radical anti-war group that in the early 1970s carried out bombings at corporate and government buildings – including banks, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called her “the most dangerous woman in America.”

For much of the past 30 years, however, Dohrn worked largely out of the public spotlight – until last fall, when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of “palling” around with “terrorists who would target their own country.” She was referring to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, another former member of the Weathermen and Dohrn’s husband...