a very detailed and absorbing account
Socialist Review, November 1996
Anderson leaves no lunch counter unturned. It is all there, from Rosa Parks and the Summer of Love to bra burnings and the March on the Pentagon, complete with selected quotations from various songs of the era atop each chapter. -William McGurn, writing in The Wall Street ... Read moreJournal A fascinating, extensively researched account of a time when the younger generation opened pop culture's Pandora's box, and an estranged segment of America took to the streets and said: 'We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.'...Dig it, man. It's a trip. -Fort Worth Star-Telegram This volume is a lively account of the turbulence experienced by American society after two decades of Cold War...While the whole book is compelling, chapter 6, entitled Power and Liberation , is particularly incisive...a welcome addition to the literature of the period. Written with both passion and control.
The Historian
Ably surveys a busy, complex era....This is a resonant book. Most of all, it recalls a not-so-distant past when Americans thought we could and should reform our society. -The Dallas Morning News Perceptive....Anderson takes on all strands of the Movement. -Booklist (starred review) For those already tested in the political fires of the '60s, [Anderson's] book is a reminder to keep alert and stay active. For a younger generation, he provides a concise and closely packed history that precedes the roil and boil of today's political activity. -The Seattle Times Anderson's well-written, accessible history is much more than nostalgic reading for baby boomers, the great majority of whom sat on the sidelines during most of the decade while a minority acted. Neither is it a polemic in unquestioning defense of '60s activists. Instead, it attempts to understand the motives of 'the movement' and place its actions in the context of the times. In doing so, it provides a valuable counterpoint to the reductionist and revisionist views now prevalent. -The Christian Science Monitor A valuable, refreshingly unbiased reassessment of the '60s legacy. -Publishers Weekly Hundreds of voices resound in this thoroughgoing analysis of '60s radicalism....A highly accessible survey that should be the standard for years to come. -Kirkus Reviews A disturbing tale, well told in exhaustive detail....It is the merit of Terry Anderson's book that it captures the tone, as well as the events, of a decade in which America finally emerged from cold-war simplicities and began the painful discovery of itself. -The Economist Anderson has written a very detailed and absorbing account of these events..a detailed description of events, this is a useful book
Socialist Review
A marvelous tour de force....Anderson's book is an indispensable tool for anyone trying to understand the perplexing range of movements during the 1960s. It should be on the bookshelf of every serious student of social activism. -Mary King, author of Freedom Song A splendid study, exhaustively researched and engagingly written, and a useful-indeed essential-corrective to the new conventional wisdom about a tumultuous era. -George C. Herring, Professor of History, University of Kentucky Terry Anderson has written the best book yet on the broad protest movement that dominated American life in the 1960s. Unlike earlier writers, who focus on elites or just one group, he offers a kaleidoscopic view that stresses the grass-roots involvement of American youth as they challenged both the politics and the values of their elders in a frontal assault on the established Cold War culture. It is a tour de force. -Robert A. Divine, George W. Littlefield Professor in American History, University of Texas at Austin Show Less