Making Peace with the 60s

David Burner

Published by Princeton University Press 1996

Making Peace with the 60s

David Burner

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847754

Overview
Contents

About this book

David Burner's panoramic history of the 1960s conveys the ferocity of debate and the testing of visionary hopes that still require us to make sense of the decade. He begins with the civil rights and black power movements and then turns to nuanced descriptions of Kennedy and the Cold War, the counterculture and its antecedents in the Beat Generation, the student rebellion, the poverty wars, and the liberals' war in Vietnam. As he considers each topic, Burner advances a provocative argument about how liberalism self-destructed in the 1960s. In his view, the civil rights movement took a wrong turn as it gradually came to emphasize the identity politics of race and ethnicity at the expense of the vastly more important politics of class and distribution of wealth. The expansion of the Vietnam War did force radicals to confront the most terrible mistake of American liberalism, but that they also turned against the social goals of the New Deal was destructive to all concerned.

Liberals seemed to rule in politics and in the media, Burner points out, yet they failed to make adequate use of their power to advance the purposes that both liberalism and the left endorsed. And forces for social amelioration splintered into pairs of enemies, such as integrationists and black separatists, the social left and mainline liberalism, and advocates of peace and supporters of a totalitarian Hanoi.

Making Peace with the 60s will fascinate baby boomers and their elders, who either joined, denounced, or tried to ignore the counterculture. It will also inform a broad audience of younger people about the famous political and literary figures of the time, the salient moments, and, above all, the powerful ideas that spawned events from the civil rights era to the Vietnam War. Finally, it will help to explain why Americans failed to make full use of the energies unleashed by one of the most remarkable decades of our history.

Author / Editor information

David Burner is Professor of History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of John F. Kennedy and a New Generation, Herbert Hoover: A Public Life, and The Politics of Provincialism: The Democratic Party in Transition, 1918-1932.

Reviews

"The 1990s continue to be haunted by the 1960s. In this lively, thought-provoking visit to the sixties, David Burner helps us understand why so many of the idealistic aspirations of that decade were disappointed and what we might do to recover them."—William E. Leuchtenburg, William Rand Kenan Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"A wise and compelling account of liberalism's demise.... Great fun to read—witty, perceptive, and well-written."—David Oshinsky, Rutgers University

"Burner has mastered the large volume of recent historical writing on the period, has thought carefully about the major issues, and makes some fascinating connections among the civil rights movement, the Beats, and the student rebellions in the middle of the decade. . . . Burner is balanced and fair-minded, especially on such controversial topics as the origins of black power, the social contributions of the Great Society, and the political mistakes of liberalism during the Kennedy and Johnson years."---Lewis L. Gould, Book World

"A sane, reasoned, civil book on the 1960s by a liberal academic: Who says the age of miracles is over? . . . Making Peace with the 60s is a fine book."---Philip Gold, Washington Times

"Burner offers a keen-sighted, comprehensive analysis of a fascinating era.... Readers searching for an admirable explanation of the cross-connections in this mythic decade can find them here."

"In this lively, thought-provoking revisit to the sixties, David Burner helps us understand why so many of the idealistic aspirations of that decade were disappointed and what we might do to recover them."—William Leuchtenburg

"A thoughtful, almost elegiac, examination of liberalism's moral and ideological collapse over ten famously tumultuous years. . . . The book is lucid, and Burner's tone throughout is as measured and reasonable as the creed whose redemption he seeks. . . . a valuable contribution for those still trying to make sense of the `60s."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I Sudden Freedom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
II Killers of the Dream Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
III Resolve and Restraint: The Cold War under Kennedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
IV The Rucksack Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
V Do Not Spindle: The Student Rebellion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
VI The Poverty Wars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
VII The Liberals'War in Vietnam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289