August 27, 2012
In a thoughtful look at a tumultuous period, Bancroft Prizeâwinning historian Patterson (Great Expectations) asserts that 1965 was "a pivotal year in American life." He sets the stage with a picture of "buoyant and confident" white America in late 1964, before addressing the "shifts of mood... politics, culture, and foreign policies" that many found unsettling and divisive. While Patterson covers a wide range of influences, including developments in cinema and music, the bulk of his attention is turned toward the civil rights movement and racial tensions, from Selma to Watts, the Great Society programs of President Johnson and the escalation of the Vietnam War. A complex portrayal of Johnson as a flawed yet ambitious leader helps Patterson to show how cultural discord and polarizing politics made 1965 "the inaugural year of the Sixties" after which, "for better and for worse, the United States would never be the same again." Writing in an informative, accessible manner, Paterson creates a strong narrative, his recitation of facts helping to build his case that 1965ârather than 1968 or 1969âmarked a political, cultural, and military turning point for America. 16 pages of photos. Agent: John W. Wright, John W. Wright Literary Agency.
September 15, 2012
A Bancroft Prize-winning historian revisits the year the '60s truly began. Lighting the National Christmas Tree in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared these "the most hopeful times...since Christ was born in Bethlehem." Nobody laughed. Near the end of the ensuing year, the nation's political and social consensus had unraveled to the point that a protest song called "Eve of Destruction" topped the charts. Again, nobody laughed. Patterson (History Emeritus/Brown Univ.; Freedom is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle over Black Family Life from LBJ to Obama, 2010, etc.) traces the cracks in the cultural zeitgeist, when Sinatra gave way to the Rolling Stones, when TV news exploded into color, when The Sound of Music made room for James Bond and Thunderball, when the feel-good Beatles turned pensive, when Dylan went electric. The author's at his best, though, tracking the year's political developments. During a period of unprecedented economic prosperity, Congress enacted transformative legislation covering immigration, employment, voting rights, health care and education. At the same time, Selma, Ala., became infamous, and Watts erupted in riots. A baffled Johnson wondered how this was possible. More than anything, the military escalation in Vietnam accounted for the growing unrest. Loath to jeopardize his Great Society programs with an open debate on the war and unwilling to "lose" Vietnam, the president gradually increased the bombing and the troop commitment. The "Credibility Gap" between the president's words and deeds in Vietnam helped supercharge peace demonstrations that would ultimately overwhelm his presidency. Patterson's sketch of an agonized Johnson perfectly mirrors the nation's descent from smug self-assurance to puzzlement, peevishness and, finally, anger. A useful time capsule that explains the social fragmentation, political polarization and tumultuous mood swing of a pivotal year in American history.
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November 15, 2012
Although the assassinations and other upheavals of 1968 have inspired historians to see it as the pivotal year of the iconic sixties, Patterson argues in favor of 1965. This was the first year of the newly elected Johnson administration and passage of the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicare, and the war on poverty. But it was also the year of military escalation in Vietnam, the Watts riot, and growing cultural upheaval. Patterson begins by detailing the optimism of American culture and politics before the coming tumult, a time when the economy was stable and Americans had not yet begun to struggle with the tensions between a Great Society program and a limited federal budget. Patterson chronicles changes in the political culture as Johnson pushed through a liberal agenda, civil rights blossomed into other rights movements, and music and culture reflected a desire for broad and sweeping change. He ends with an analysis of the following years, when social activists' demands accelerated and conservatives began to push back, setting the agenda for the decades that followed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)