1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation [Paperback]

Charles Kaiser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 1997

Charles Kaiser’s 1968 in America is widely recognized as one of the best historical accounts of the 1960s. This book devotes equal attention to the personal and the political — and speaks with authority about such diverse figures as Bob Dylan, Eugene McCarthy, Janis Joplin, and Lyndon Johnson.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kaiser has no ideological ax to grind, which is refreshing, but in beckoning us to re-experience the idealism, chaos and exuberance of the 1960sand of 1968 in particularhe keeps tripping over his overheated prose. He was a Columbia freshman in 1968 and has been a reporter for the New York Times , Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal . The political shockwaves of the Vietnamese Tet offensive, the rise of black militancy, the loosening effect of rock 'n' roll and the end of the liberal consensus in America are among the phenomena related with a wealth of simmering incident and detail. Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign (for which the author was a volunteer worker) gets an excessive amount of space. The impact of the Beatles on history, as measured here, seems about as great as that of Martin Luther Kingor Nixon. This impressionistic montage ultimately succumbs to its lack of viewpoint. It's a juicy look back, replete with interviews, but a number of recent books cover the same ground much better. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press Pbk Edition edition (September 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135307
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135308
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A misleading title, but a good book for political buffs, May 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation (Paperback)

Charles Kaiser's "1968 In America" is going to be a big disappointment to those who bought it thinking that they would learn a great deal about the culture and music of the sixties. Only one chapter of the book looks at the music and counterculture of the sixties in any detail, and the other chapters only briefly mention them. Anyone who wants to learn more about sixties music and the counterculture should look elsewhere. But if you're a political buff like me then this book should be a delight. The great majority of this book is taken up with describing the bitter fight for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1968. It was a fight that came down to four men: President Lyndon Johnson, whose policies in Vietnam had turned many Americans against him(especially the young), but who still had the support of the old-fashioned big-city mayors who used to run the Democratic Party, but whose influence even in 1968 was declining. Waiting in the wings if Johnson withdrew was his talkative Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey. But the real focus of the book is on Eugene McCarthy, the eloquent, intellectual, but also enigmatic and curiously passive Senator from Minnesota. Many people disliked McCarthy and considered him to be a snob and too "lazy" to be President, but as Kaiser demonstrates it was McCarthy who had the guts to join the antiwar movement and oppose Johnson when most of the "experts" thought it was political suicide. McCarthy's gamble paid off when he nearly defeated Johnson in New Hampshire, giving the President a death blow which led to his sudden withdrawal from the campaign a couple of months later. However, McCarthy's surprise showing led Bobby Kennedy, the "Prince-in-Waiting" to enter the race. This triggered a bitter, no-holds-barred war of words and emotions between McCarthy and Kennedy and their supporters. In the end this fight became so nasty that it would probably have prevented either man from beating Vice-President Humphrey at the Democratic Convention. But then Kennedy's murder in Los Angeles in June 1968 following his narrow victory over McCarthy in the California primary changed the race all over again, and gave, Kaiser argues, McCarthy one last chance to win the nomination. Typically, McCarthy procrastinated and quoted poetry while Humphrey wooed the delegates he needed to win. The book loses much of its passion after that, and Kaiser's description of the fall campaign between Humphrey and his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, isn't nearly as interesting as his descriptions of the McCarthy-Kennedy feud. In short, if you like politics you'll love this book, and if you don't - well, then don't buy it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative, but biased., November 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation (Paperback)

This book was fun to read, but should not be portrayed as a total representation of 1968 in America. Kaiser was very obviously a liberal, more specifically a McCarthy supporter, and much of his book focuses on this. The reader gains a great insight into what it was like on the McCarthy campaign trail. But there is significantly less focus on the other candidates at this time. 1968 is very focused on politics, but the references to music, culture, and the idea of revolution were great. Kaiser should have spent more focus on these topics. 1968 is a good read, but take it at face value, one man's veiw of the times.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Evocation of an Era and its Critical Year, October 11, 2009

By 

Barry Eisler (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation (Paperback)

Kaiser beautifully evokes the era -- the love, the fear, the confusion, the hope, the madness... he really makes you feel like you're there. And the parallels to what's going on today -- particularly between the way the fear of being labeled "soft on communism" led to disaster in Vietnam then, and the way the fear of being labeled "soft on terrorism" has led to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan today, is stunning. Not an aspect of the book I would have wanted to describe as timely, but unfortunately, it is. Read this book and you'll feel like you are there -- and that there is a lot less far away than you might think.