Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties [Paperback]

Peter Collier (Author), David Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 2005

As leading New Leftists in the Sixties, Peter Collier and David Horowitz were intimately involved in the radicalism of the day. Later on, they became the first of their generation to publicly reject the objectives of that revolutionary era and point out the cultural chaos it had left behind. Part memoir, part political analysis, part social history, DESTRUCTIVE GENERATION is the compelling story of their intellectual journey into and out of the radical trenches. Telling stories of the New Left's most famous (and infamous) personalities and events, Collier and Horowitz reveal the destructive legacy of the Sixties and the way in which that decade continues to cast a long shadow over politics and culture today. When it was first published more than a decade ago, DESTRUCTIVE GENERATION was a controversial bestseller that some critics compared to Whittaker Chambers' powerful political testament, WITNESS. This new edition contains new material which makes this classic work more relevant than ever in our own divided time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A rare and vivid glimpse into the bowels. -- Wall Street Journal

Collier and Howowitz knew the scene from the inside, and write about it with intelligence, gossipy intimacy, and savage introspection. -- National Review

If words can turn the tides of history, Collier and Horowitz...have achieved what bombs and bullets failed to do. -- Washington Post

About the Author

David Horowitz is the author of Radical Son, The Politics of Bad Faith, Left Illusions, and other books. He is the President of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594030820
• ISBN-13: 978-1594030826
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ghost of Betty Van Patter, July 22, 2009

By 

MJS "Constant Reader" (New York, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties (Paperback)

Looking back on one's past generally evokes one of two responses. Either a) "Wow, wasn't that a great time!" or b) "Dear God, what was I thinking?" Occasionally one can summon up a bit of both but at the very least we look back with a degree of bemusement. When self-professed "New Left radicals" Peter Collier and David Horowitz look back at the 1960s their reaction is decidedly "what was I thinking" sort. The result is that this book has essentially two speeds: bitchy and cranky.

The bitchy parts comprise some of the most enjoyable reading of the year for me.

Since this is a tale of apostasy the cranky parts are to be expected. The authors went from the New Left to embracing anti-communism in a big way, they're looking back in bitterness. Because they were insiders the perspective Collier and Horowitz aren't giving us the Woodstock and tie-dyed Sixties, they're telling stories that range from ironic ("Post-Vietnam Syndrome") to heartbreaking (Fay Stender) to verging on self-parody (The Weather Underground) to just flat out hilarious (the Berkeley City Council). The little known story of Fay Stender alone makes this book worth reading. How can the story of a nice Jewish girl who embraced every cause of the 1960s, became a major force in a prison rights, joined the feminist movement, found true love only to become the target of an assassination attempt by the very prisoners for whom she once so tireless fought have not been made into a movie yet.

The Weather Underground chapter, on the other hand, could make a fine absurdist comedy. What's more hilarious than upper middle-class white boys declaring themselves "crazy motherf*ers" devoted to "scaring the s* out of honky America"? I'll tell you what, it's an ENFORCED orgy that generates this morning after comment "I'm sure they have to do it this way in Vietnam." No dummy, they didn't. Say what you will about Ho Chi Minh, no one has accused him of directing the sex lives of the Vietnamese people like Benardine Dohrn and company. You'll hear less exhortations to arm yourself at an NRA convention than you will from a few pages of the WU. I guess polishing one's, ahem, gun helped pass the time between those required orgies. We find that, just like the Baader-Meinhof gang, the WU leadership had more in common with the Three Stooges than Marx or Lenin.

Nothing, however, prepares one for the laughs that are generated by the proceedings of the Berkeley city council. No since Eric Hobsbawm called Marie Antoinette "chicken-brained" have I laughed so hard at a serious history. The highlight is undoubtedly when the council, irked at having to tear themselves away from formulating their policy on Nicaragua, must deal with the growing issue of the homeless in the city. Those pesky homeless people just don't get the dialectic. Their rowdiness at a council meeting inspires the "radical" mayor to tell them "if we can't have order here, we'll just end the meeting and go home."

Guess what the homeless people said in response to that.

This isn't a single narrative but a collection of previously published magazine pieces (broadsides?) and essays on the author's journeys (literal and metaphorical), and as this was originally published in the 1980s quite a bit of time is spent on Nicaragua. When Collier and Horowitz are taking the humorless, gullible and inept to task, they're at their best. When they're on one of their anti-communist rants, well, it just feels dated.

What hangs most over this book is not regret, but the ghost of Betty Van Patter. An accountant that Collier and Horowitz persuaded to work with the Black Panthers as a bookkeeper in one of their community projects, Van Patter was apparently murdered by members of the group after she uncovered evidence of embezzlement. Their crushing disillusionment with their own actions and their own illusions stems from this tragedy yet the authors don't oversell this story, they don't excuse or pity themselves. These are two very talent writers who can create a compelling narrative like few others.

Yes, they have their opinions and they couldn't be more up front about them. I enjoy diverse opinions but given a choice I'd rather read a balanced history book than one slanted to any political persuasions. There are exceptions, of course. Paul M. Johnson is an enjoyable writer who isn't afraid of a bit of research and he is a man of fixed opinions but he's quite upfront about his point of view. He doesn't pretend to be unbiased or dispassionate so even though I frequently disagree with his views, I enjoy reading his work. He makes his case and dares you to disagree. He's also frequently laugh out loud funny. The same goes for Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Hitchens and Susan Jacoby. The tell it as they see it never forgetting to inform and engage along the way.

On occasion I found myself disagreeing with the authors' too sweeping dismissiveness of the possibility that anything positive came from the Sixties. The New Left represented only a portion of the events of that decade and while Collier and Horowitz effectively dismantle any illusions that might remain about that on occasion they write as if the New Left was the only story from that time. I kept coming back to the comments one interviewee made of Fay Stender "It should count for something that she wanted to be a force for good in this world." He could be speaking of a generation.

If you like smart writing with an eye for the absurd and are willing to read and decide for yourself whether or not you agree with the author, this book is highly recommended.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read, April 1, 2006

By 

Josiah RW Strandberg (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties (Paperback)

This is a superbly written history of American's 60's ordeal. It is a discussion from the inside of the movement and helps explain why we can't get over that decade. I'd rank it with Chamber's Witness as a must read for those who want to know the truth about what happened.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They never thought of the kids they affected, January 26, 2010

By 

jenna randolph (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties (Paperback)

This and others are must-reads for people who had the misfortune to be children during the 60s--- and really, the 70s/80s/90s--- because these people haven't really gone away. The reviews here tell you what you need to know---even to this day, this was all about THEM. They never (even now) consider the confusion of later 70s kids, who just had a sense they were born into a civil war. Flag burnings, scary sex practices, enforced "sex education," films of bulldozed naked bodies to understand the holocaust, and much more. The children born in 1965 are now just over forty. We are just now beginning to see the effects of what these people did to the kids. For anybody just reaching 30-40, take a look at them. At least David Horowitz tried later to go talk to school kids. So many have as first political memories home bombing and people bragging about it and burning flags and teachers pushing dope. Even now, adults will not talk about the REIGN OF TERROR---from their point of view. People still have these people for teachers in school. Now, they talk about it behind closed doors more.