On 4 July 1961, the rising middle-class families of a Chicago neighbourhood gathered before their flag-bedecked houses, a vision of the American Dream. That vision was shattered over the following decade, its inequities at home and arrogance abroad challenged by powerful civil rights and antiwar movements. Assassinations, rioting and the blowback of a "silent majority" mobilised by an emerging right, left a fragmented political landscape.

Kevin Boyle's full-dimensioned history of the decade is authoritative and engrossing. The civil rights movement emerges from the grassroots activism of Montgomery, through the tragic violence of Birmingham, to the frustrations of King's Chicago campaign and a rising Black nationalism. The Vietnam war unfolds as misguided policy, high-stakes politics and searing in-country experience. Women's challenges of gender norms yield landmark decisions on privacy rights, contraception and abortion.

With empathy its keynote, this definitive history of the 1960s recovers the humanity behind the decade's divisions.

About the Author
Kevin Boyle is the author of Arc of Justice, winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University and lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Reviews
"[A] rich, layered account of the 1960s." -- Jennifer Szalai - The New York Times
"[A] luminous guide to a tumultuous decade...Boyle elegantly narrates the '60s through his three lenses - race, militarism, and sexuality - and grounds his narrative with individuals caught in the whirlwind." -- James A. Morone - The New York Times Book Review
"A lively popular history of the 1960s....Boyle enlivens his narrative with emblematic vignettes." -- Glenn C. Altschuler - Minneapolis Star Tribune


Awards
Long-listed for Museum of African American History Stone Book Award 2022.



Book Information
ISBN 9780393355994
Author Kevin Boyle
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 807g
Dimensions(mm) 239mm * 160mm * 41mm