Absolutely not, says Jonathan Leaf. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties, Leaf busts the biggest myth of all about that decade: that it was defined by radical politics and cultural upheaval. From popular music to college politics to fashion, he demonstrates that throughout the 1960s America remained a deeply conservative country, with disturbances and protests confined to a small minority of agitators who are now wrongly hailed in our politically correct textbooks as the dominant voice of their generation.

Mainstream America resisted the encroachments of the counterculture, Leaf shows. It was the Vietnam veterans, not the antiwar radicals, who expressed the values held throughout most of the country. What's more, contrary to popular belief, the vaunted sexual revolution never occurred in the sixties, and rock 'n' roll was not king. In this rollicking, provocative book, you'll discover that in the 1960s:

* Most college students rejected radical politics
* President Kennedy was not the dashing, progressive hero of liberal lore
* The economic condition of blacks became much worse after the passage of landmark civil rights legislation
* Manned space flights were a politicized boondoggle

If you think Woodstock and the Acid Tests were events that defined a generation, you'll be singing a new tune after reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties--and it won't be The Grateful Dead.

"Has any decade been more mythologized than the 1960s? I doubt it. Read Jonathan Leaf, who corrects and debunks the conventional wisdom--and who also teaches us interesting and important things about that time, and ours."
--William Kristol, editor, the Weekly Standard

"Controversial, but no doubt about it: Leaf takes the lead in taking a second look at this crucial period."
--Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg News syndicated columnist and author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

"Jonathan Leaf almost makes the 60s worth it in this merciless debunking of the myths of our decade of shame. Fun, informed, and--above all--valuable."
--Rich Lowry, editor, National Review

"`I believe in yesterday,' sang the Beatles. But do you remember it? Jonathan Leaf gives a droll and provocative account of the myths--often self- serving--that have grown up around the sixties like weeds, and clears them away."
--Richard Brookhiser, author of Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement