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Rating: 
Summary: Putting the 60s in Focus
Review: Rebecca Klatch brings an important and interesting perspective to the 1960s by comparing and contrasting YAF and SDS members (both rank and file members and leaders) and tracing their personal histories up through the late 1990s. Although she has a small sample size (less than 40 members of each group)and then subdivides them again(into PLP and Weathermen, libertarians and traditionalists) she provides insight into commonalities and differences within the groups on the counterculture, feminism, individualism,and the centrality of political action. This is an informative analysis of the development of young political activists (their background and motivation for activism) and the changes which occur in their lives as they reach late middle age. Like many historians of the 60s, Klatch carries with her personal involvement in student left political activities but says "I have tried to set aside my own assumptions in listening to the stories of the activists on all sides." This she has successfully accomplished, much as she did in her earlier work,"Women of the New Right." For the most part, she lets her subjects speak for themselves while adding valuable perspective and context. The left's history has been written by Hayden, Flacks, Gitlin and other activists from that era. As Klatch observes, however, "the untold story of the 1960s is about the New Right," a story that is now slowly seeping out in the works of John Andrew "The Other Side of the Sixties" and Mary Brennan "Turning Right in the Sixties." Although a true comparison of SDS and YAF activists, Klatch's most valuable contribution is that her work adds depth to an understanding of those individuals who were the "cadres for conservatism" in the sixties. But the limited size of her sample and the resultant scope of her work only provides a clue to the varied backgrounds and future developments of literally thousands of YAF alumni. Unlike most of the SDS members, many of the YAF activists studied went on to assume leadership positions in the GOP's move to the right and to power in the 1980s and 1990s. As Klatch notes, "Having survived their minority status during the 1960s and early 1970s, they have helped bring many of their issues to prominence during the past two decades." Those who were active in YAF will recognize many of the individuals studied by Klatch - even the four who tried to remain anonymous but whose comments and descriptions will give them away. Klatch's book is not a history of SDS or YAF (although it covers the lasting divisions at both organizations 1969 conventions)but, rather, an in-depth profile of individuals who became active in the 1960s, tracing their personal and political paths on to the mid-1990s. The "before" and "after" photos of the activists are intriguing and will bring back memories for many readers of a time which seems so long ago. A valuable contribution to anyone's understanding of American history in the late 20th century.
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