From Camelot to Kent State : The Sixties Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It

Rating:
Summary: Interesting & informative, not academically serious
Review: I received this book as a gift and found it an enjoyable, quick and easy read. I'm a twentysomething who often felt I grew up in the shadow of the 60s, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the interviews but have long been intrigued by the period.

I learned a fair amount about what happened in the 60s, and the format helps put you in the minds of the selected participants. I think any historical study should include direct testimonials, and in that sense I found the book helpful but by no means comprehensive, and not that well balanced.

The testimonials shed light on a few critical areas: the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and its detractors, sexual liberation, the women's movement and student protest. The accounts included in the book are pretty weighted toward the left, which as a liberal was somewhat comfortable, but it would have been better to hear from authority and establishment figures as well: police officers, academic administrators, parents, elected officials. The book offers no analysis of the success or failures of its participants' actions, or their lasting effects. It also would help if the interviews were more current as they seem about 10 years behind. However, it was interesting to see where these people are now, and it was encouraging that most of them stand by their actions and continue living lives that manifest similar beliefs. And it was good to hear from some who became cynical and/or conservative. Some subjects interviewed were more articulate than others, but a handful I found very lucid and insightful. I gleaned several ideas for avenues I might pursue in studying the 1960s.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you are trying to make some sense of the 1960s in America. It's worth the short time it takes to read. But I would definitely include it among many books rather than relying on it too heavily; it's not an especially profound or analytical examination of the topic.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting & informative, not academically serious
Review: I received this book as a gift and found it an enjoyable, quick and easy read. I'm a twentysomething who often felt I grew up in the shadow of the 60s, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the interviews but have long been intrigued by the period.

I learned a fair amount about what happened in the 60s, and the format helps put you in the minds of the selected participants. I think any historical study should include direct testimonials, and in that sense I found the book helpful but by no means comprehensive, and not that well balanced.

The testimonials shed light on a few critical areas: the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and its detractors, sexual liberation, the women's movement and student protest. The accounts included in the book are pretty weighted toward the left, which as a liberal was somewhat comfortable, but it would have been better to hear from authority and establishment figures as well: police officers, academic administrators, parents, elected officials. The book offers no analysis of the success or failures of its participants' actions, or their lasting effects. It also would help if the interviews were more current as they seem about 10 years behind. However, it was interesting to see where these people are now, and it was encouraging that most of them stand by their actions and continue living lives that manifest similar beliefs. And it was good to hear from some who became cynical and/or conservative. Some subjects interviewed were more articulate than others, but a handful I found very lucid and insightful. I gleaned several ideas for avenues I might pursue in studying the 1960s.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you are trying to make some sense of the 1960s in America. It's worth the short time it takes to read. But I would definitely include it among many books rather than relying on it too heavily; it's not an especially profound or analytical examination of the topic.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Oral History Of The Sixties
Review: Many people who lived through the tumult of the 1960s will enjoy this oral history that focuses on the recollections of a group of influential Americans who lived with pitch and moment through those turbulent times. Asking such fundamental survey questions of these respondents as "what motivated you to act the way you did during the 1960s", the author fashion together a fascinating and entertaining study that centers on the anecdotal reminiscences of some very newsworthy people, and explore a number of interesting issues and events ranging from the civil rights sit-in of the early years to participation in communes within the burgeoning counterculture. One of the most disarming aspects of the book is its willingness to let the respondents speak for themselves, which has the salutary effect of making the individual recollections come to life.

In this sense the book both celebrates and rues the various events and historical events, most often through the common words and phrases of the people who were, in fact, eyewitnesses to almost everything they describe. Given the lack of such testimony relating to that era, it is indeed terrific to have it so recorded and systematically organized as it is here. Here we have it all, from activists in the anti-war movement to veterans from the same conflict, from denizens of the counterculture to those who remained within the more comfortable orbits of conventional mainstream societies. The reader will find absorbing information regarding everything from the feminist movement to gay pride, from student protest to the free speech movement. One aspect in which the book seems to draw short is in an analysis of the meaning of all this data, which, for understandable reasons, might seem something like trying to herd cats, so varied was the subject matter and tenor of the individual responses. This is an interesting book, and one anyone who lived through the times might well enjoy.