The Times Were a Changin': The Sixties Reader

For students of the counterculture and the sixties in general, and for those interested in learning more about the turbulent times and momentous social, political, and cultural events swirling through the 1960s, this book offers a plethora of articles, speeches, and eye-witness accounts of the myriad of speeches, declarations, and court decisions marking that topsy-turvy decade. Indeed, no decade in the 20th century was so pock-marked with mass protest, social excitement, or utter confusion than was that time, and the authors have gathered together here a commendable collection of works that help to present a number of notable perspectives on all that transpired. The sixties were a time of confusion, liberation, and, more than anything else, a general sense of questioning conventional wisdom and common cultural practices. And the series of works presented here help to explain and describe how all these competing shouts and movements amid the many streams of issues and concerns helped to form the changes that literally changed the social and cultural landscape of contemporary America forever. There are articles here that reveal much about a wide spectrum of contravening forces, from the anti-war movement to the influence of Woodstock on the public imagination, from the civil rights movement to the landing of American astronauts on the moon, and from politicians and spokesmen as varied as Barry Goldwater on the one hand, and Abbie Hoffman on the other. This anthology is a well thought-out effort, and covers a lot of important ground in its selections, and the authors provide the reader with a lot of research and information on issues as varied as the Bay of Pigs invasion to the infamous Tet campaign launched by the Viet Cong in early 1968, fatally changing the course of the Vietnam war. While the book is unlikely to change many minds, it does provide grist for a lot of soul-searching and rethinking of ideas about what happened during the sixties and how it still affects us to this day. It is likely to infuriate denizens of the right while confirming the predispositions of the New Left. In any event, there is no doubt it is a valuable book that accomplishes the difficult task of assembling a meaningful and useful collection of essays, speeches, and other documents concerning the truth about what happened in the 1960s and why. Enjoy!