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becquebooks's review
4.0
I wanted to read this because Charles Kaiser participated in a documentary on 1968 that my professor showed in class. He has this line that has always stuck with me, I'm paraphrasing, but it's something like, "the beginning of 1968 especially the political movements contained a promise, and that promise was denied and never realized through the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy." 1968 represents broken hope in a way that's truly heartbreaking for anyone interested in culture, change, civil rights, civic engagement, public policy or American history.
This is a a dense book. But it's a fascinating one with many parallels to current situations (reading about the Columbia University protests as London burned was just one example). Everything that happened in 1968 is sort of insane, within a five day period in April - a sitting President told the nation he would not seek another term in office, largely as a result of student lead peace movement and the candidacy of Eugene McCarthy (try to imagine George Bush doing that in 2003); Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; and riots broke out in urban centers all across the country so massive the President was afraid they would run out of National Guard troops to quell the violence. And that was FIVE days. There were 300 other days full of protests, Vietnam, and music. As Kaiser points out it was the closest thing to a national musical culture we have ever had revolving around The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Also it's an endlessly frustrating tale. If Bobby Kennedy had been more willing to run on the peace ticket initially and they hadn't gone with McCarthy, or alternatively if he had simply waited to run another time, his assassination might not have helped take the wind out of McCarthy's sails during the DNC. As someone in the book put it, "Gene McCarthy was handed a winning lottery ticket, and he just never cashed it." That's the story of 1968.
He ends this book talking about how at least there has not been another Vietnam type war, and that is our legacy. And as money keeps being spent and soldiers continue to die in Afghanistan, that statement is no longer true. I wonder when the history is written of the these years which will stand as a bigger embarrassment of misuse of political power.
If you can get your hands on this History channel documentary of 1968, I highly recommend it: http://www.history.com/images/media/interactives/1968guide.pdf
This is a a dense book. But it's a fascinating one with many parallels to current situations (reading about the Columbia University protests as London burned was just one example). Everything that happened in 1968 is sort of insane, within a five day period in April - a sitting President told the nation he would not seek another term in office, largely as a result of student lead peace movement and the candidacy of Eugene McCarthy (try to imagine George Bush doing that in 2003); Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; and riots broke out in urban centers all across the country so massive the President was afraid they would run out of National Guard troops to quell the violence. And that was FIVE days. There were 300 other days full of protests, Vietnam, and music. As Kaiser points out it was the closest thing to a national musical culture we have ever had revolving around The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Also it's an endlessly frustrating tale. If Bobby Kennedy had been more willing to run on the peace ticket initially and they hadn't gone with McCarthy, or alternatively if he had simply waited to run another time, his assassination might not have helped take the wind out of McCarthy's sails during the DNC. As someone in the book put it, "Gene McCarthy was handed a winning lottery ticket, and he just never cashed it." That's the story of 1968.
He ends this book talking about how at least there has not been another Vietnam type war, and that is our legacy. And as money keeps being spent and soldiers continue to die in Afghanistan, that statement is no longer true. I wonder when the history is written of the these years which will stand as a bigger embarrassment of misuse of political power.
If you can get your hands on this History channel documentary of 1968, I highly recommend it: http://www.history.com/images/media/interactives/1968guide.pdf
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