The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (Paperback)

by Todd Gitlin (Author) "Groping for a sense of the zeitgeist has been an intellectual stock-in-trade since the ancient Greek thinkers, who discovered they were living in history..." (more)
Key Phrases: managerial liberalism, townhouse explosion, expressive politics, New York, United States, Port Huron (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The author was elected president of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963, and he brings an insider's perspective to bear on the turbulent whirl of political, social, and sexual rebellion we now call "the sixties." Gitlin does a nice job of integrating his first-person recollections with a broader history that ranges from the roots of 1960s revolt in 1950s affluence and complacency to the movement's apocalyptic collapse in the early 1970s--a victim of its own excesses as well as governmental persecution. His lucid summary of the complex strands that intertwined to form the counterculture is essential basic reading for those who don't know the difference between the Diggers and the Yippies. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly
Nobody is better equipped to write a definitive history of the extraordinary 1960s than Gitlin. An astute observer of the media (The Whole World Is Watching, Inside Prime Time and Watching Television), he was also at one time president of Students for a Democratic Society and remained prominent in their councils until the excesses of the Weathermen and the student risings that followed the 1970 killings at Kent State combined to bring the end of the New Left. In political terms, it was a period that could not be measured or evaluated by any previous American standards; and the great value of The Sixties is that Gitlin, from his thoughtful insider's position, is able to trace the ebb and flow between new radicals and old party-liners, between the hippies and such arcane groups as the Diggers and the Yippies, between those on the fringes of liberal power in Washington and members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee who worked so hard through the early part of the decade to bring civil rights to the South. No one who wants in future to write a coherent political history of that timeand there is no good reason, after The Sixties, for anyone to try for quite a whilewill be able to do without Gitlin's insights. He makes the agonized thrashings of the period understandable in terms of personal liberation, frustration, idealism and guilt about being born lucky in an unlucky world; he also manages to make it a logical sequel to the comfortable, complacent '50s. The detailed and informed political history is the core of the book, but nothing significant is missed: the music, the clothes, the obsession with drugs, the flowering of the underground press and, of course, the key moments: the assassinations, the demonstrations, the People's Park in Berkeley, the "police riot" at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the Weathermen Manhattan townhouse blastit's all here, and vividly recorded. And finally, as Gitlin convincingly and elegiacally shows in his concluding chapter, we are still, in many subtle ways, living the legacy of that time, however unlikely that may seem. The Sixties is a triumph of lucidly written popular history.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Revised edition (July 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553372122
• ISBN-13: 978-0553372120
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #243,573 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Account of 60's Student Movement, October 1, 2001

By	Bruce Ballard - See all my reviews

A rare constellation of virtues made it hard to put down this riveting volume. First of all, Gitlin is a superb writer. His language often reaches a literary quality, he has a novelist's eye for detail, an investigative journalist's command of the relevant information, and a story-teller's ability with narrative. That Gitlin is an academic sociologist shows through in his capable analyses of social forces. His description of the dynamics of escalation in the student movement's activities together with its own self-understanding is especially enlightening. His account is also impressively fair-minded. Because he cared so much about achieving the goals of the student movement, Gitlin describes what was thought and done both sympathetically and critically. These and other reasons make the book well worth reading for anyone interested in U.S. culture. But for those of us who were involved in the campus struggles against the war in Nicaragua or against investment in apartheid South Africa in the '80's or, indeed, in any such campaigns since, this book creates a debt of gratitude.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memoir from a 60's revolutionary , July 27, 2007

By	Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. Todd Gitlin's "The Sixties: Years of Hope and Days of Rage" is Gitlin's first hand account of the revolutionary air surround the 1960's. Gitlin was the president of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) until 1969. Through his book Gitlin is able to describe the feelings of social unrest and dissatisfaction among baby boomers during the 1960's. Gitlin recounts the inner workings of the SDS organization and the political infighting and offshoots which developed as some members became more radical and others became more conservative.

Gitlin's title, "Years of Hope and Days of Rage" exemplify the feelings of America's college students and generation of young adults during the 1960's. Gitlin describes the 1950's as a drab and unremarkable time when Americans were content to be materialistic and conformist. Although there were some poets, musicians, writers, and philosophers who were making headway towards social rebellion, in Gitlin's opinion, the 1950's were characterized by America's "genial deadhead" president Dwight Eisenhower.

Gitlin describes some of the inspirational figures and their contributions which began in the 1950's. He attributes much of the intellectual beginnings of rebellion to the "Beat" culture of the 1950's. Inspirational figures like James Dean and Marlon Brando in teen dramas like "Rebel Without a Cause" exemplified dissatisfied youth in the post World War II era. Jack Kerouac's poetry challenged the politics of the Cold War and made appeals for civil rights for Affican Americans. Rock n' Roll music with its African American beats and became a way for youth to rebel against their parents. An interesting insight which Gitlin contributes is the invention of MAD magazine and its contribution to the counterculture of the late 1960's Gitlin describes how MAD was one of the few publications which lampooned both mainstream culture and counterculture. In a time when people were scared by anything which was deemed to be unproductive to society or subversive, MAD magazine provided a sense of humor to the Gitlin describes his interest in politics had begun with his first year as a Harvard undergraduate, the Cuban Missile Crisis was the spark which began many of the first college campus demonstrations. Gitlin and other "New Left" students were aghast at the idea of nuclear war being waged over Cuba. They believed that the Kennedy administration had pushed the Soviets too far towards nuclear war and that Kennedy should take a softer approach towards U.S.-Soviet relations. Unwilling to engage in nuclear war at any cost, "New Left" activists were determined to change America's political and social landscape.

Students of the New Left believed that America was too materialistic, racist, and militaristic and did not follow the principle of free speech. Gitlin describes that the New Left activists were disenfranchised by the "old liberals" and new dealers who did not have the political will to demand civil rights for African Americans and defend the rights of American communists against anti-communist conservatives. Although the election of John Kennedy had signaled the arrival of a new generation of liberal politicians, New Left activists disagreed with Kennedy's policies towards the Soviet Union and Communist containment overseas.

Gitlin's book describes the feelings which he and others felt during the 1960's. Those who had lived through the Great Depression and the World War II were content with the new wave of goods and security which the 1950's had to offer. Many for the first time had the money and resources to enroll their children in college. Gitlin claims that his generation was not content with the hypocrisy of the U.S. government's policies towards segregation and free speech. Baby boomers had been raised to believe in the ideals of the constitution and the bill of rights however, they felt that these principles were not being practiced.

Gitlin joined the SDS in 1963 and became their president shortly after joining. The SDS became heavily involved in protests for civil rights on college campuses as well as joining African American activist's demonstrations in U.S. Southern states. The SDS engaged in public debates, demonstrations and marches for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. The SDS participated in famous demonstrations at the University of California Berkley and the infamous Democratic National Convention demonstration in Chicago.

During the late 1960's, the SDS began descending into disagreement and criticism from within their own organization. Some SDS members wanted to use violence in their demonstrations; this was criticized by Gitlin and others as being too radical. The lingering question of whether or not to profess support for Soviet and Maoist style communism was raised. Some believed that the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong should be forgiven for their acts of violence against the Vietnamese people because they were committing these acts as a response to American aggression. Gitlin and others believed that it was hypocritical to not hold U.S. leaders and Vietnamese leaders to the same morale standards. Eventually, the SDS disbanded in early 1970 after different leaders of SDS offshoots like the weathermen began participating in bombings and other violent demonstrations against military and other installations.

Gitlin ends his book by describing the events which followed the disintegration of the SDS. Gitlin signals the disbanding of the SDS as the end of the true 1960's revolutionary spirit. SDS members and other revolutionaries became tired of the political infighting and the lack of cooperation from government representatives. According to Gitlin these former revolutionaries embraced new ideals and new forms of spirituality and were diluted in the popularity of the hippie movement during the early 1970's. Gitlin claims that the rising popularity of Buddhism and new religious sects like the Hare Krishnas showed that many were losing faith in the movement and were turning to a higher power or spirituality to cope.

Gitlin criticizes the absurdity of some of the radical movements which came from the late 1960's as being crazy and farcical. Gitlin gives the examples of Patti Hurst's kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army and the activities of Charles Manson's group. The use of drugs became recreational rather than a tool for philosophical and spiritual experimentation. In the end the radical movements which were aimed at changing America as a whole was broken up into single issue interest groups. Feminists, Black Power activists and anti-Vietnam demonstrators focused on their own issues of interest rather than focusing their efforts into a national movement of progress.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but not to be regarded as an introductory text, August 23, 2004

By	JR Blackstone (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In writings about the 1960s in the US, Gitlin offers the reader a rare combination of both the perspective of a major player in the New Left at that time, and as an astude political commentator in his own right. There are, however, deficiencies in regarding the text as a good academic history of the period, as other reviewers have noted.

My particular research, and reason for reading this book, relates to the demise of SDS, and in discussing this, Gitlin frequently talks in greater detail about personalities rather than abstract, but vital, political fact. Indeed, on several occasions the author goes as far as to declare his personal dislike for several of the Weatherman leaders on the grounds of their political differences. Certainly not the stuff of academic surveys.

Perhaps best taken and used as a well-written and historically precarious yet valuable biography, rather than as some kind of definitive text of the 60s. Contains full notes and index, but no bibliographic essay.