1969: The Year Everything Changed [Hardcover]

Rob Kirkpatrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2009

An original look at a pivotal year in America—on its fortieth anniversary. For the fortieth anniversary of 1969, Rob Kirkpatrick takes a look back at a year when America witnessed many of the biggest landmark achievements, cataclysmic episodes, and generation-defining events in recent history.

1969 was the year that saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the Cinderella stories of Joe Namath’s Jets and the “Miracle Mets,” the Harvard student strike and armed standoff at Cornell, the People’s Park riots, the first artificial heart transplant and first computer network connection, the Manson family murders and cryptic Zodiac Killer letters, the Woodstock music festival, Easy Rider, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the Battle of Hamburger Hill, the birth of punk music, the invasion of Led Zeppelin, the occupation of Alcatraz, death at Altamont Speedway, and much more. It was a year that pushed boundaries on stage (Oh! Calcutta!), screen (Midnight Cowboy), and the printed page (Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex), witnessed the genesis of the gay rights movement at Stonewall, and started the era of the “no fault” divorce. Richard Nixon became president, the New Left squared off against the Silent Majority, William Ayers co-founded the Weatherman Organization, and the nationwide Moratorium provided a unifying force in the peace movement.

Compelling, timely, and quite simply a blast to read, 1969 chronicles the year through all its ups and downs, in culture and society, sports, music, film, politics, and technology. This is a book for those who survived 1969, or for those who simply want to feel as alive as those who lived through this time of amazing upheaval.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lamenting all the attention 1968 has gotten with assassinations and riots, Kirkpatrick argues that the following year was more than a little significant, too. Beginning with a “selected timeline,” Kirkpatrick goes on to chronicle a dizzying array of major events: Richard Nixon’s election in November 1968 as president; the covert bombing of Cambodia; Apollo 11 landing on the moon; student antiwar protests from Harvard to Berkeley; disclosure of the My Lai massacre; the sexual revolution manifested on stage, in literature and movies, and at outdoor festivals; startling innovations in the music world; the “days of rage” protest kicked off during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; the first message sent via the ARPANET, precursor of the Internet. Kirkpatrick asserts that 1969 was the birth of modern America and sets out to relate how this incredible year reflected deep underlying changes in American culture. The book is divided into four parts that roughly outline the year, including “sexual revolutions of springtime” and “the apocalyptic standoffs at year’s end.” A riveting look at a pivotal year. --Vanessa Bush

Review

In this compelling and freewheeling account, Kirkpatrick treats the tumultuous events of 1969 with the skills of a journalist, a historian, a sociologist, and a sportswriter and manages to insert moments of lightness and triviality into his grand tour. . . . . A worthy addition to the literature of the 1960s. (Library Journal )

Kalb asks the kind of common-sense questions you think of from time to time that never get much of an airing…The thing I like about Elliott is that we disagree more than we agree on the sports scene, but I learn something from him every time we talk. Good reason to check his book out. (Peter King - Sports Illustrated )

A compelling account of the historic year. (History Channel Magazine )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602393664
• ISBN-13: 978-1602393660
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pointillism with Nose to Canvas, August 21, 2009

By 

T. Berner (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1969: The Year Everything Changed (Hardcover)

Mr. Kirkpatrick's book suffers from what ails most "biographies of a year:" with rare exception, they don't give you any sense of what it was like to live in that year; they only hit the headlines. The result is like observing a Seurat or other pointillist painting from an inch away: all you see are the dots of paint and you lose sight of the picture itself.

Still, Mr. Kirkpatrick does a great job of hitting the headlines and if you are interested in Hamburger Hill, Woodstock, the moon landing, Charlie Manson, Chappaquiddick, the Zodiac Killer, Altamont, the Amazin' Mets or any of the other events of 1969, he does a thorough job of covering them, thus sparing the reader hundreds of hours of book reading for those anxious to familiarize themselves with these topics. The author's politics are clear (there are few "conservatives" in the book, only "reactionaries"), but he is careful to present both sides of the political news. He also has a playful sense of history which is very engaging, so, for instance, he covers the inauguration of the Boeing 747 and the victory of the Jets in the Super Bowl in the same chapter called "Super Jets."

1969 was an eventful year and although there are a lot of candidates for the title of "the year that changed everything," Mr. Kirkpatrick manages to make a credible case for 1969.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Storytelling, February 6, 2009

By 

Sean Lahman (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1969: The Year Everything Changed (Hardcover)

Kirkpatrick is a gifted writer who takes all of the events of this remarkable year and shapes them into a single, cohesive story. In a span of just four weeks that summer, Americans witnessed Chappaquiddick, the moon landing, Woodstock, and the Manson murders. Kirkpatrick not only gives you a sense of the magnitude of these events in the moment they occurred, but of the profound and long lasting effects that they continue to have. Each of these moments is fascinating, but taken together, Kirkpatrick weaves an astonishing tale. Whether you lived through that tumultuous time or not, you'll love immersing yourself into this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars really interesting, January 27, 2009

By 

peggy - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1969: The Year Everything Changed (Hardcover)

The book is divided into the four seasons. Like the events of that year--the albums, the movies, the protests--were more to do with forces of nature, powerful and inevitable. I like that. I think that's how they loom in our collective American memory. At the same time, the book firmly roots you in the individual decisions and actions of those who shaped history, from the famous to the unknown. I'd heard about a lot of these events of course, but seeing them all here together, and their relationships to one another, I feel like I'm finally putting them into context.
Also intriguing is how knowing the story of 1969--and it is a story--deepens an understanding of our present triumphs and dilemmas. You can really see how a lot of the seeds were sown back then.