This Is America?: The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas [Hardcover]

Rusty L. Monhollon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Communities across America were thrown into upheaval during the 1960s, when thousands of young people began to publicly question the status quo. Grassroots social movements sprung up on hundreds of college campuses and often spread to surrounding towns, where participants debated race, the role of government, Vietnam, feminism, the cold war, and other issues of the day. Yet this dynamic did not occur in a vacuum: Americans that supported the status quo came together to oppose the activists, and joined a national debate on the meaning of citizenship and patriotism. Rusty L. Monhollon uncovers the voices of ordinary people on all sides of the political spectrum in the university town of Lawrence, Kansas. He reveals how Americans from a range of ideological and political perspectives responded to and tried to resolve political and social conflict in the 1960s. By focusing on a single community, Monhollon vividly demonstrates that the war at home reached deep into the nation's core, and affected the lives of ordinary citizens on a daily basis.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In his first book, Monhollon (history, Hood Coll.) examines Lawrence, KS, during the 1960s. Being the home of the University of Kansas guaranteed that Lawrence would see the same type of student activism that other universities experienced during the decade. However, the population of Lawrence itself was socially and politically conservative. Townsfolk supported the Vietnam War and were unsympathetic to the Civil Rights, antiwar, and feminist movements. Confrontations between student activists and the local authorities grew during the late 1960s, climaxing in July 1970 when police shot two men. These deaths led to weeks of shootings and arson, which forced the governor to send in the National Guard to patrol the city. Monhollon uses interviews, newspaper articles, and other archival sources to present this story. Richly detailed and well written, his book gives an excellent account of how a Midwestern town was affected by a troubled period of American history. For all libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Lib., Parkersburg
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...illuminate[s] in important ways a major part of recent US history."--K. Blaser, Choice

"Rusty Monhollon provides a useful corrective to the by-now traditional Berkeley/Upper West Side of New York-centric narratives of the 1960s. Dissent and discord shook middle America in those years, just as they did the better known centers of student activism and racial militancy on the two coasts. But it’s not just the regional angle that makes this book so interesting. In this dark-hued account we encounter a wide range of fallible human beings, political actors on the left and the right, whites and blacks, young and old." --Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History, Hamilton College, and co-author of America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312293291
• ISBN-13: 978-0312293291
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,990,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat simplistic, but interesting account of the decade, August 3, 2002

By 

Allan Brain (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Is America?: The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas (Hardcover)

I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas in the '60s, and attended the University of Kansas during the time of the political protests, riots, violence, and police shootings that are among the most important events recounted in this book. So it's possible that I cannot really be fair to this author. His book is a decent history of the '60s in Lawrence, and the author employs an impressive array of primary research such as letters to the newspapers, letters to congressmen, and some interviews with residents.

But something is missing. The author's contentions are that that the community was polarized, that the fundamentally conservative and "cold war" attitudes of the town were opposed to the radical outlook of the university. He is no doubt correct on that, but he offers little in the way of supporting evidence, especially about the university. I was looking for more discussion of some of the radical tendencies of the university faculty and staff--things that I remember from the time.

Lawrence, even for a midwest college town, is one of the most liberal cities in the nation, and has been for some time, arguably since its founding. The author does explore some of that history, but I found his social history lacking in detail, for exammple in delineating the differences between the local businesspeople and the university faculty, who often came from other parts of the country. Perhaps some more research into the background of the KU faculty would have made the argument more convincing.

Even the central events of the book, the police shootings of 1970, are not handled with the kind of detail I would like to have seen. I wanted some detailed analysis of what really happened--was Rick Dowdell, a kid I went to junior high school with, armed when he was shot by police? Did anyone investigate this? How did the "investigation" whatever it was, compare to what we would expect to see now in such an incident?

Another point he makes is that the threat of violence and disruption of community tranquility seems to have been effective, in accomplishing, for example, the successful opening of a municipal pool in 1969, and the creation of womens' studies and womens' services at The University of Kansas in the early '70s. Both these accomplishments followed group action tending to be unlawful or even threatening violence, but that mobilized support and opposition, eventually resulting in compromise.

I would have liked to see some more social history, including for example, the community reaction to the JFK assasination and the RFK and MLK assasinations. In other words, more general observations of the decade.

Also, since I note that there was recently a reunion of '60s radicals in Lawrence, I wonder that the author was apparently not plugged into that so as to get more information.

Incidental thoughts are that the book's index is sketchy. Photos are okay, but the local paper would have had many more that perhaps could have been used. I would liked also to have seen some information on the local draft board, and the local drug scene. One of the points that the author makes is that the "Street People" who were part of the conflicts of the 1970 acute crisis were viewed as "outsiders". I recall that many were not KU students, and were in fact part of a large drug culture, but the author seems to miss this point.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is America? Lawrence, KS in the 60s, April 11, 2009

By 

Mark Ritz "ritzaceking" (Marysville, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Is America?: The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas (Paperback)

Great look at how social change occurred in Mid-America, at a small campus town full of a very rebellious population!