America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s

America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s

In America Divided , Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin provide the definitive history of the 1960s, in a book that tells a compelling tale filled with fresh and persuasive insights. Ranging from the 1950s right up to the debacle of Watergate, Isserman (a noted historian of the Left) and Kazin (a leading specialist in populist movements) not only recount the public and private actions of the era's many powerful political figures, but also shed light on the social, cultural, and grassroots political movements of the decade. Indeed, readers will find a seamless narrative that integrates such events as the Cuban Missile Crisis and Operation Rolling Thunder with the rise of Motown and Bob Dylan, and that blends the impact of Betty Friedan, Martin Luther King, and George Wallace with the role played by organizations ranging from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to the Campus Crusade for Christ. The authors' broad ranging approach offers us the most sophisticated understanding to date of the interaction between key developments of the decade, such as the Vietnam War, the rise and fall of the Great Society, and the conservative revival. And they break new ground in their careful attention to every aspect of the political and cultural spectrum, depicting the 1960s as a decade of right-wing resurgence as much as radical triumph, of Protestant apocalyptic revivalism as much as Roman Catholic liberalism and rising alternative religions. Never before have all sides of the many political, social, and cultural conflicts been so well defined, discussed, and analyzed--all in a swiftly moving narrative. With America Divided , the struggles of the Sixties--and their legacy--are finally clear. Isserman (If I Had a Hammer) and Kazin (The Populist Persuasion) are two of the keenest practitioners of the history of American people's politics. Both came of age in the 1960s, and each has a genetic link, respectively, to the Old Left and the grand liberal tradition of the 1930s. No better-suited collaborators could join to offer a history of the American Sixties. But while the book they offer is commendably balanced, the authors have not written a definitive text. Oddly, they cover most penetratingly terrain already well trod by more staid scholars: conventional electoral politics, Vietnam, the four presidencies, the assassinations. Their most important contribution comes in demonstrating the rise not only of a New Left but a new and persistent Right. By contrast, their writing on the advent of the counterculture, movement politics, and especially urban black nationalism is familiar and too brief. The authors seem to be aiming this book at the undergraduate survey-course marketAeach reference to Jim Crow is accompanied by a parenthetical definitionAand apparently decided to economize on the very subjects still most unsettled by conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, this is recommended for academic, secondary school, and public libraries.AScott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Your shelves may already have a book or two by Kazin (of Georgetown University) and Isserman (from Hamilton College); both have authored several thoughtful historical studies. Here, they address the "civil war" they participated in: the 1960s. Their volume is a solid survey, with chapters devoted to obvious subjects (the civil rights movement, the Great Society, Vietnam and the antiwar movement, the New Left, youth culture, other liberation movements), but also several chapters on particular years (1963, 1965, 1968) that dramatize the multiple events Americans had to deal with almost simultaneously. One major focus of Isserman and Kazin's book is demonstrating that the era's notable political developments included activism among young people on both the right and the left; another is an exploration of the search many Americans undertook for a more authentic spirituality: a search that led seekers to every form of religion, from fundamental Christianity to liberation theology to Eastern religions and New Age belief. America Divided thus resists easy generalizations, elucidating a confusing time in all its complexity. Mary Carroll 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 Am