February 1, 2009
In this compelling and freewheeling account, Kirkpatrick ("The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen") treats the tumultuous events of 1969 with the skills of a journalist, a historian, a sociologist, and a sportswriter and manages to insert moments of lightness and triviality into his grand tour. He writes as easily about jazz-pop as about the rise of the American Indian Movement. He follows a harrowing chapter about the Manson family and the Zodiac Killer with a breathless report on the Amazin' Mets. Later, he describes the surreal convergence of Game 4 of the World Series with the National Moratorium Day against the Vietnam War. In Kirkpatrick's account, Joe Namath receives more attention than Spiro Agnew. This is not a definitive, scholarly study of the year's events, but it serves well as a primer on the condition of American life at the end of the 1960s. In addition to over 500 endnotes, Kirkpatrick provides a handy time line of the year's significant events. Nostalgic for some, revelatory for others, this is a worthy addition to the literature of the 1960s.Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2009
Lamenting all the attention 1968 has gotten with assassinations and riots, Kirkpatrick argues that the following year was more than a littlesignificant, too. Beginning with a selected timeline, Kirkpatrick goes on to chronicle a dizzying array of major events: Richard Nixons election in November 1968as president; the covert bombing of Cambodia; Apollo 11 landing on the moon; student antiwar protests from Harvard to Berkeley; disclosure of the My Lai massacre; the sexual revolution manifested on stage, inliterature andmovies, and at outdoor festivals; startling innovations inthe music world;the days of rage protest kicked off during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; the first message sent via the ARPANET, precursor of the Internet. Kirkpatrick asserts that 1969 was the birth of modern America and sets out to relate how this incredible year reflected deep underlying changes in American culture. The book is divided intofour parts that roughly outline the year, includingsexual revolutions of springtime and the apocalyptic standoffs at years end. A riveting look at a pivotal year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)