A thoroughly detailed, well-written history of the tumultuous
recent past. Historians Isserman (Hamilton College; If I Had a
Hammer, 1987) and Kazin (Georgetown Univ.; The Populist Persuasion)
take a past-is-a-foreign-country approach to the events of the
1960s. Survivors of the time might get a chuckle at some of the
data the authors see the need to explain: "The most common drug in
the '60s was marijuana, nearly as ubiquitous in youth communities
as was bottled beer everywhere else in America." "Motown became
renowned for its tight orchestrations and catchy lyrics." "Martin
Luther King Jr. occupied a unique place in American political
life." But veterans of the era are evidently not the principal
audience for this book, which seems intended for graduate students
in American history. They are well served by the authors, who
rigorously defend their view that the '60s were in fact a time of
civil war, and not merely civil disobedience: The body count in
Vietnam and in America's inner cities, they suggest, are argument
enough. This war had its origins in the 1950s, they observe, in a
time when a golden age of post-WWII prosperity ran counter to an
escalating Cold War, which cost a fortune and led to the economic
dislocations and spiraling inflation of the succeeding decade. One
campaign in that war, centering on civil rights for ethnic
minorities, began a decade earlier in such acts as Lt. Jackie
Robinson's refusal in 1944 to sit at the back of a crowded bus.
(Robinson would face a court-martial for his act of civil
disobedience, and would soon thereafter break the color barrier in
major-league baseball.) Yet a third front would open when a
substantial number of young Americans rejected the values of their
elders and the bankrupt promises of Presidents Johnson and Nixon.
All combined, the authors write, to lead America to a period of
unwonted civil violence. Isserman, a specialist in leftist
politics, and Kazin, a student of modern conservativism, make a
solid tag team. Their thoroughgoing research and vivid writing make
this a book of interest to students and general readers alike.
(Kirkus Reviews)
The definitive interpretive survey of the political, social and cultural history of 1960s America, this book is written by two of the top experts on the era -- Isserman, a scholar of the Left, and Kazin, a specialist in Right-wing politics and culture. Arguing that the period marked the end of the country's two-century-long ascent toward widespread affluence, domestic consensus,and international hegemony, the authors explore what did and did not change in the 1960s, and why American culture and politics have never been the same since.
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