1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation
by Charles Kaiser
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Book Summary Information
Author: Charles KaiserEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1997-09-24
ISBN: 0802135307
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation
Book Review: A misleading title, but a good book for political buffs
Summary: 4 Stars
Charles Kaiser's "1968 In America" is going to be a big disappointment to those who bought it thinking that they would learn a great deal about the culture and music of the sixties. Only one chapter of the book looks at the music and counterculture of the sixties in any detail, and the other chapters only briefly mention them. Anyone who wants to learn more about sixties music and the counterculture should look elsewhere. But if you're a political buff like me then this book should be a delight. The great majority of this book is taken up with describing the bitter fight for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1968. It was a fight that came down to four men: President Lyndon Johnson, whose policies in Vietnam had turned many Americans against him(especially the young), but who still had the support of the old-fashioned big-city mayors who used to run the Democratic Party, but whose influence even in 1968 was declining. Waiting in the wings if Johnson withdrew was his talkative Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey. But the real focus of the book is on Eugene McCarthy, the eloquent, intellectual, but also enigmatic and curiously passive Senator from Minnesota. Many people disliked McCarthy and considered him to be a snob and too "lazy" to be President, but as Kaiser demonstrates it was McCarthy who had the guts to join the antiwar movement and oppose Johnson when most of the "experts" thought it was political suicide. McCarthy's gamble paid off when he nearly defeated Johnson in New Hampshire, giving the President a death blow which led to his sudden withdrawal from the campaign a couple of months later. However, McCarthy's surprise showing led Bobby Kennedy, the "Prince-in-Waiting" to enter the race. This triggered a bitter, no-holds-barred war of words and emotions between McCarthy and Kennedy and their supporters. In the end this fight became so nasty that it would probably have prevented either man from beating Vice-President Humphrey at the Democratic Convention. But then Kennedy's murder in Los Angeles in June 1968 following his narrow victory over McCarthy in the California primary changed the race all over again, and gave, Kaiser argues, McCarthy one last chance to win the nomination. Typically, McCarthy procrastinated and quoted poetry while Humphrey wooed the delegates he needed to win. The book loses much of its passion after that, and Kaiser's description of the fall campaign between Humphrey and his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, isn't nearly as interesting as his descriptions of the McCarthy-Kennedy feud. In short, if you like politics you'll love this book, and if you don't - well, then don't buy it.
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Summary of 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation
Charles Kaiser's 1968 in America is widely recognized as one of the best historical accounts of the 1960s. This book devotes equal attention to the personal and the political - and speaks with authority about such diverse figures as Bob Dylan, Eugene McCarthy, Janis Joplin, and Lyndon Johnson.
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