America in the Sixties

by John Greene

Overview

In America in the Sixties, Greene goes beyond the clichés and synthesizes thirty years of research, writing, and teaching on one of the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century. Greene sketches the well-known players of the period-John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Betty Friedan-bringing each to life with subtle detail. He introduces the reader to lesser-known incidents of the decade and offers fresh and persuasive insights on many of its watershed events. Combining an engrossing narrative with intelligent analysis, America in the Sixties enriches our understanding of that pivotal era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815632214
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	10/22/2010
Series:	America in the Twentieth Century
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John Robert Greene is the Paul J. Schupf Professor of History and Humanities at Cazenovia College. He has written or edited seventeen books including The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations and The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. He is a regular commentator in the national media, having appeared on such forums as MSNBC, National Public Radio, C-SPAN, and the History Channel.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert

1 Comfort and Crisis The 1950's John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 1

2 "The Torch Has Been Passed to a New Generation" The Myths of John F. Kennedy John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 20

3 "We Shall Overcome" Civil Rights in the South, 1960-1965 John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 40

4 "We'll Have the Opportunity to Move Upward" The Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 63

5 "As American as Cherry Pie" Civil Rights, 1965-1969 John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 81

6 "Bodies upon the Gears" The New Left and the New Feminism John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 97

7 "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" Vietnam, 1960-1967 John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 118

8 "What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear" Sixties Culture, Straight and Counter John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 137

9 The Limits of Power To Reform the Sixties John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 160

Index John Robert Greene Greene, John Robert 183

Editorial Reviews

Perceptive, judicious, and written with an engaging flair, master historian John Robert Greene's America in the Sixties vividly brings to life arguably the most important and complex decade of the twentieth century.

author of The Presidency of Richard Nixon Melvin Small

John Robert Greene and the 1960s are a perfect match. The incisive analysis of the politics, culture, and historical impact of that fascinating decade will delight Greene's many readers. The irreverent chapter on John F. Kennedy is certain to spark fruitful controversy. Today's students will find America in the Sixties an excellent and accessible introduction to ten years that still resonate in contemporary society.

author of 1968: The Election That Changed Amer Lewis L. Gould

John Robert Greene and the 1960s are a perfect match. The incisive analysis of the politics, culture, and historical impact of that fascinating decade will delight Greene's many readers. The irreverent chapter on John F. Kennedy is certain to spark fruitful controversy. Today's students will find America in the Sixties an excellent and accessible introduction to ten years that still resonate in contemporary society.-- "Lewis L. Gould, author of 1968: The Election That Changed America"

John Robert Greene is the best kind of historian--a gifted storyteller who peels back the layers of well-known events to reveal the web of social movements, politics and people that changed the world forever and still shapes us today.-- "Mary Beth Tinker, activist and educator; plaintiff in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)"

Perceptive, judicious, and written with an engaging flair, master historian John Robert Greene's America in the Sixties vividly brings to life arguably the most important and complex decade of the twentieth century.-- "Melvin Small, author of The Presidency of Richard Nixon"

From the Publisher

John Robert Greene is the best kind of historian-a gifted storyteller who peels back the layers of well-known events to reveal the web of social movements, politics and people that changed the world forever and still shapes us today.

activist and educator; plaintiff in Tinker v. Des Mary Beth Tinker

With a vexingly complicated start steeped in presidential history that lauds Eisenhower and dispels the "Kennedy Myth," Greene steamrollers into a fastidiously detailed but brisk names-and-places timeline of the Civil Rights movement, with the occasional fly-on-the-wall observation helping to break the monotony. Some of his historical discussions read like thinly-veiled commentary on current problem-solving, however, and he takes too long to break free of standard textbook content. Knowing his target audience, Greene finally takes a hard left to deliver on the his promise (a "readable, concise, and scholarly" approach "that attempts to meet the needs of both student and instructor alike"), providing a page-turning narrative of student unrest, feminism, constitutional rights, and the Vietnam War, interwoven with analyses of class stratification, emerging social ideology, and the shifting media culture. Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" nearly whispers into the readers' ears. But after exposing Nixon's dirty underbelly and paying a clichéd homage to pop culture, Greene abruptly wraps things up. And several topics that are now critical (the environment, education, immigration) are here only modestly grazed.
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