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1969: The Year Everything Changed

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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.

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.

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.

Everyone knows the 60's were a revolutionary time in America. It was the decade when JFK ushered in a new generation of political promise, the U.S. put a man on the moon and the Beatles and Height Ashbury begat hippies, psychedelics and power to the people.

But it was the year 1969 that capped off the decade and brought many of its ideas to a crashing end. Author Rob Kirkpatrick chose to zone in on the events of that year which, just two years after the "summer of love," conspired to end the hippie-dippy era (peace, love, dove) through the politics of the Vietnam War, the Tate/LaBianca murders, the lunar landing, the first Boeing 747, the breakup of the Beatles and the death by Hell's Angels at the Rolling Stone's Altamont festival.

Like a news journalist, Kirkpatrick weaves the story, based on myriad factual references, of a year when the lights went out on the 60's dream. Through recounts of politics, film, music and sports, "1969: The Year Everything Changed" offers a vivid portrayal of a more colorful time; an experimental time where almost anything was considered off-limits. A time, when - as Kirkpatrick references Theodore Roszak's book, "The

Making of a Counter Culture - and a commentary of the Broadway musical Hair became a metaphor for youth-society as a whole; a "group-tribal activity searching for a new and meaningful way of life."

Kirkpatrick covers a lot of ground in his recantation of these twelve months of American history. Highlights range from the political (Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)) to Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia ("Operation Breakfast"), to sports (Joe Namath and the AFL's emergence in Super Bowl III, the Amazing Mets, etc.), to films (I am Curious Yellow to Easy Rider) to music (Blind Faith, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Woodstock, et al...). The author revisits much of the journalism of the times piecing together the historical and cultural details of these events that might otherwise be lost to time - even at one point correcting the record (for example, when Rolling Stone reported that the Altamont killing happened during "Sympathy for the Devil" instead of several songs later.)

In all, "1969' is a book that should surely have been written before now. The fact that it wasn't, only served for Kirkpatrick to correct the error while getting it right.

This book is highly readable and especially so for a baby boomer. but whoever edited it made some obvious mistakes.It calls Robert Kennedy a federal district attorney !! we all know (or should) he was the attorney general of the united states!! being from Illinois this one is glaring!! it says the south side of chicago was upset about the Cubs demise at the hands of the Amazin Mets!! what the south side (lovees the White Sox hates the Cubs) was happy a I remember it!!! The cubs faitful inhabit the north side!! all and all i really enjoyed the book. It just amazed me that the editor did not catch such obvious mistakes

The events that Kirkpatrick details in his book are pieces of all of our histories, but he manages to bring them all together and create a literary collage of how and why these events shaped our country in fascinating and though-provoking detail. Not only does Kirkpatrick chronicles the importance of political change, but he also talks about the Miracle Mets of that year and Woodstock and Altamont, which are compelling topics as it is but Kirkpatrick tackles them with such detail that you understand their contribution to our culture. I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter of this book!

The book zips along and reads very easily. Events like the moon landing, Chappaquiddick and the Manson killings are imbued with the right amount of detail so that the events come back to life yet the book does not bog down. I found it much faster-moving than "1968" (by a different author). That was one tedious book.

The subtitle "The Year Everything Changed" is an exaggeration. Many of the events in here are continuations of pre-1969 events or continued post-1969.

The book is exclusively America-centered. If it didn't matter to Americans, it isn't in here.

I would have liked a little more in the way of descriptions of what ordinary life was like - what things cost, what people made, what television programs were most watched, etc. I recognize that might be at odds with the goal of a fast paced book.

The author's premise as described in the foreword is that 1967 ("The Summer of Love") and 1968 (King and Kennedy assassinations, DNC Chicago convention, etc) somewhat undeservedly get more attention than 1969 as pivotal years in U.S. history. He then lays out a chronological review of the year, including topics in pop culture, politics, war, sports, etc.

In some cases, the coverage reads like a brief outline of events better-documented elsewhere -- the Apollo 11 moon landing comes to mind here. But in amy other cases, Kirkpatrick does an excellent and obviously well-researched job in documenting some of the lesser-covered events. I found his detail of the Manson and Zodiac murders, and Chappaquidick particularly engrossing. Likewise for the coverage of the campus protests that took place for most of the year.

Overall, a great book. If you are at all interested in late 60's American History, you can't go wrong here.

I graduated from High School in 1969, and early on saw that year as a singularity of time/history. When I first read reviews about "1969", I thought, "thats the book I should have written." It is such a cut and paste job, the subject is still untouched. Look for my take on the same idea as soon as I re-write it, and send it to a cousin who has promised to edit and publish it. Don't waste your money on this take; looking at the photo of the author on the jacket, i see a person that was in grade school, at best, in 1969.

This book is a must read for those who experienced the late 60's and those who want to know about the importance of 1969. The author makes a strong case as to why 1969 is a pivotal year in our history. Politics, music, sports, and so much more!