Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press

by Abe Peck

Traces the history of the underground press during the sixties, explains why the movement started, and shares the experiences of some of its participants

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Cultural

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Morgan]

Former Chicago Seed editor Abe Peck writes prolifically about an American decade of unrest through its primary media network: localized self-published newspapers. The papers Peck brings to light had were printed in the tens of thousands, ranging aesthetically from the Beat-era East Village Other to the Afro-nationalism of The Black Panther to the manarchist-turned-feminist grit of The Rat. Together these papers, and the movements they championed, paint an elaborate picture of countercultural trends from the 1950s to the 1970s, as well as the actions of the people and groups involved: the Black Panthers, the White Panthers, the Young Lords, COINTELPRO, the Yippies, the 1968 DNC protests, the Chicago 8, the MC5, the levitation of the Pentagon, women's liberation, gay liberation—Peck presents them all in the smorgasbord of his narrative, reminding us of the successes and failures of the generations of organizers and activists who came before those who struggle to liberate our society today. We have much to learn from the ephemera of the past.

[Frederic Pierce]

I was a fact checker for Abe Peck, the coolest professor at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. My experience working on this book instilled the radical spirit of the 60s in my heart. Of course, now it beats inside the body of a center-left moderate...

[Ed Marszewski]

ABe Peck was there, making the underground press happen in the 60s. This was one of the first books that made me realise the context of what we were doing with our own little zine, Lumpen.
radical underground media afficionados will dig it..