The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade

For those of us who were actively involved in the events of the 1960s, this collection of relevant works is a virtual treasure trove, containing everything one would need in order to gain a better informed and more balanced perspective as to what was said and thought about a range of important social issues so hotly debated in those fabled times of Vietnam, civil unrest, and social experimentation. Since so much of the documentation from that time is now sadly out of print, this collection serves as an active antidote to what has become a predominating character asssassination foisted by the new right to the effect that the sixties was all about sex, drugs and rock and roll, which tends to trivialize what actually was said, done, thought, and debated during those turbulent years. If one approaches those times in the proper historical framework, objectively searching for the evidence as to what it was that happened then and how it changed everything, then a book like this can serve a yeoman's purpose by presenting much of the original material for a person's reading pleasure and ultimate edificiation. To my mind, the sixties represented a time when the younger generation simply refused to accept the world as presented, to uncritically accept the tired old platitudes, hypocrisies, and self-serving myths of the main-stream older generation. Seen in such a light, a lot of the social quesioning, cultural experimentation, and terrifying 'sturm und drang' elements of the times can be better understood. In the trenches of all the major events, from civil unrest to Vietnam to the counterculture, were people who were actively questionaing conventional wisdom and the tried and true ways of the established society. Many of the selections from this book can help a curious reader to better grasp what the issues were and what the debate on the issues centered around. This is a supremely useful tool in helping to whittle away at the myths being perpetrated by the conservative revisionists about the events of the 1960s. Enjoy, amigo, and keep on trucking!

Much of the liturature of this period is difficult from the historian's point of view because there are either nostalgic and apologetic (e.g. Gitlin and Miller) accounts by former particiants or their are bitter diatribes against the 1960s (e.g. Horowitz and Lasch). Of the two groups mentioned, the former is more accurate and critical than the later, but nothing -- nothing at all -- comes close to the primary source documents and selections in "The Sixties Papers". Of the six of seven anthologies out there, this is by far the best.