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1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation By Charles Kaiser ( Grove Press )
Release Date: 1997-09-24
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Product Description
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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 1968: An overabundance of intestinal fortitude ( lcaimath )
From the vantage point of those courageous enough to take on the philosophies and rigidities of established hierarchies, the year 1968 can be considered to be the best year ever in American history. The activists of both the counterculture and the civil rights movement showed an overabundance of guts during this time, and their rebellions and verbal confrontations resulted in enduring changes in American society. This is not to say that all of their motives were pure, and many no doubt joined protest movements out of some strange sense of group belonging. But we have them to thank for many of the changes that were eventually brought about, especially the end of the military draft and the end of the (criminal) Johnson administration.
This book gives a summary of those events from a time frame just two decades after they happened, and the author has given the reader a good narrative of the most important events. Readers who did not live during that time will thus obtain some insight into why people acted as they did in 1968, in spite of it being a boom year economically. The war in Vietnam of course took center stage in 1968, especially the Tet offensive and the resulting discouragement over the possibility of American "success" in Vietnam. The activists of 1968 did not end this war, that took another four years, but they laid the groundwork for future confrontations, the latter of which finally resulted in the American withdrawal from an illegal and immoral conflict.
Since it is a history book of sorts, the author wants to put 1968 in historical context, and so there are many interesting bits of information discovered in this book that were new to this reviewer. These facts need to be checked of course with further research, but some of these include:
1. Dean Acheson directed military aid to the French in Vietnam (tax dollar money that is).
2. Franklin Roosevelt Jr accused Humphrey of being a draft dodger in the 1960 Democratic campaign (under the suggestion of Robert Kennedy).
3. Robert Kennedy rejected De Gaulle's proposal for a reunited Vietnam.
4. Francis Cardinal Spellman called the Vietnam war "Christ's war" (the Catholic church of course had a predominant influence in South Vietnam).
5. The CIA provided financial support to organizations such as the National Students Association, the National Council of Churches, and the YWCA. The discovery of this by the public at the time may explain some of the extreme paranoia and conspiracy notions that are floated about presently. But in this regard the author also asks the reader to consider the following statement that was popular in 1968: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you."
6. Not only the CIA, but also Army Intelligence spied on civil rights activists.
7. Mayor Daley had his own national spying operations that infiltrated antiwar organizations in cities such a San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles (Chicago taxpayers of course footed the bill for Daley's shenanigans).
One interesting bit of commentary in the book regards the author's characterization of the "herd instinct" in Washington. This is the penchant for those who get behind a president to engage in unquestioned, uncritical loyalty to his actions and pronouncements. Once committed to a president they get behind him with full force, and do not tolerate any dissent. The author correctly refers to this as "ignorance masquerading as insight." The "herd instinct" phenomenon can be found today in the excess of veneration paid to the current president, in spite of the many errors and missteps this president has taken since first taking office in 2001.
The economic and political hierarchies at the present time are just as corrupt and dysfunctional as they were in 1968. The occupants of these hierarchies are just as smug now as then (or perhaps even more so), and they fancy themselves as possessing a special sort of insight into world events. Their mental confabulation would be laughable at times, if it were not so pathetic. But the rebels, commentators, and activists of 1968 gave us good hints on how to deal with these hierarchies: with our heads cocked back, we should at first coat them with a thick layer of saliva, reject their reward systems, and expose the intellectually-stymied sycophants that spread their propaganda. And like the hierarchies of 1968, their extreme fragility will cause them to collapse under the strong gravity of counter-criticism and counterculture.
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A misleading title, but a good book for political buffs
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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 A great look @ 1968, the year that shaped the generation
This book gives a great outline of 1968-- specifically the antiwar movement at Columbia University starting on April 23, 1968. This was my primary reason for buying the book, and for this, it was well worth it. A lot of ground is covered in the book, and I found all of it intresting-- the Vietnam war (Tet Offensive), history of music, LBJ... 1968 In America will prove very enjoyable to anyone who finds great intrest in the history of the 60's! Note: the book is told from the perspective of a liberal jew, so if you're looking for pure chronicling of the year, it's not what you're gonna get.
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 Big Subject -- Tiny Book
Does a good job of presenting the outlook of a white, Jewish, liberal college student living in New York in 1968. There is nothing wrong with that in itself but Kaiser's frame of refernce and the material he choses covers are hardly large enough to warrant "The Shaping of a Genertion" claim in the title. "1968 on The Upper West Side: Music, Democratic Politics and the Shaping of Charles Kaiser" would seem a more apt title.Despite this narrow focus, what Kaiser does cover is written about in an adequate, if somewhat bland, journalistic style.
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Misleading title, too peripheral (hope I spelled that right) ( bkmchorse )
I finished this book fairly quickly, and I came away from it feeling like I had a decent overview of the atmosphere in America during 1968, but that I had not learned anything other than the basic facts of what went on. In my opinion, Kaiser fails to go in-depth enough into any one subject (except the McCarthy campaign) to give the reader a true understanding of what it must have felt like to be there. I was born in 1982, so I was not there, and I still feel like I lack an understanding of the attitudes and events of the time. Also, I agree with the other reviewer that the title is misleading. This book is not about music or the counterculture or really even the shaping of a generation. It is about the presedential campiagn of 1968, and specifically the McCarthy campaign. If someone wanted a more of a cultural account that is specific and goes in depth into the feelings and conflicting spirits that characterized that turbulent year, I would recommend they look elsewhere, as I will.
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