The Movement and the Sixties

by Terry H. Anderson

It began in '60 with the Greensboro sit-ins. By '73, when a few Native Americans rebelled at Wounded Knee & the Army came home from Vietnam, it was over. In between came Freedom Rides, Port Huron, the Mississippi Summer, Berkeley, Selma, Vietnam, the Summer of Love, Black Power, the Chicago Convention, hippies, Brown Power & Women's Liberation--The Movement--in an era that became known as The Sixties. Why did millions of Americans become activists; why did they take to the streets? These are questions Terry Anderson explores in The Movement & the Sixties, a searching history of the social activism that defined a generation of young Americans & that called into question the very nature of America. Drawing on interviews, underground manuscripts collected at campuses & archives throughout the nation, & many popular accounts, he begins with Greensboro & reveals how one event built upon another & exploded into the kaleidoscope of activism by the early '70s. Civil rights, student power & the crusade against the Vietnam War composed the 1st wave of the movement. During & after the riptides of '68, the movement expanded, flowing into new currents of counterculture, minority empowerment & women's liberation. The parades of protesters, along with schocking events--from the Kennedy assassination to My Lai--encouraged other citizens to question their nation. Was America racist, imperialist, sexist? Unlike other books on this tumultuous decade, The Movement & the Sixties is neither a personal memoir, nor a treatise on New Left ideology, nor a chronicle of the so-called leaders of the movement. Instead, it's a national history, a compelling & fascinating account of a defining era that remains a significant part of our lives today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Activism

544 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 1995

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terry H. Anderson's The Movement and the Sixties offers a serviceable overview of the various protest movements of the '60s and '70s. Anderson starts with a standard description of postwar America as a land of economic plenty, political consensus and submerged tensions along lines of race, class and gender. Anderson's book dutifully, and often colorfully chronicles the main strands of the era's progressive groups: the Civil Rights Movement, evolving from integration struggles to Black Power; the New Left, who articulated a progressive critique of American society and the need for radical reform; and opposition to the Vietnam War, which graphically showcased both the limits and compromised morality of American power. Anderson's book comes alive in its interviews and quotes with activists, which splash colorfully across the page, allowing the likes of Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Cesar Chavez, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and many others to speak for themselves. He shows that these movements often overlapped and intersected with each other, sometimes gaining public support for specific issues, but were just as likely to clash as cooperate; that frustration with the slow pace of change, government resistance and public indifference or hostility led the groups to embrace ever more radical solutions, which in turn alienated much of their broader support. Unfortunately, Anderson jumps haphazardly from one group and perspective to the next, covering a lot of ground without clear organization or flow. While he affords groups like Women's Lib and Chicano Power a fair amount of coverage, others (particularly environmental groups, LGBT activists and the American Indian Movement) receive only superficial treatment. And for every insightful discussion of movement tensions and contradictions, he just as often falls back on bathetic cliches about the power of organization and the unique qualities of Boomer protests. A decent overview that only fitfully does justice to its subject.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sympathetic representation of the progressive political and social movements in the sixties and early seventies in the USA written by a Vietnam War veteran now teaching at Texas A&M. Relations to similar upsurges elsewhere in the world are barely noted.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides an interesting and useful collage of activism in the 1960s. His lively discussion of the 1950s is more about how the members of the movement, growing up in the period, would think of the time in retrospect. His account of the civil rights movement, which provides "a boot camp" for the movement, is cut loose from much good work that has been done (Dittmer's Local People) on the interconnections between the local people who had been fighting Mississippi white supremacy since the 40s. The impressionistic view of 1968 is an enjoyable read, with very readable portraits of the student protest at Columbia, the campaigns of RFK, McCarthy and Nixon. The conventions in Miami and Chicago. And the devastating murders of RFK and MLK. But were did all of this come from? It would seem that Anderson's view of this "reform" movement is like his view of all reform movements in American history, somewhat spontaneous in which the grievances are sufficient cause for the existence of protest. His portrait of women's liberation that follows in the second wave is interesting in that he throws out opposition to the ERA by Phyllis Schlafly without contextualizing this within debates surrounding women's empowerment stretching back to the early 20th C. Both the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s have long histories stretching back into at least the early 20th C. The massive parallelism that Anderson uses tends to obscure these discrete histories. At bottom, the problem with Anderson's account, entertaining though it may be is that this reader, at least, remains unconvinced that history really works that way. How do we explain the persistence of racial tensions today, or the gender contest in the workplace, or the class conflicts which are visible in a society in which a sinking tide is lowering all boats. Perhaps as Sara Evans points out this is best seen as the companion book to the documentary Making Sense of the Sixties?

David Chalmers defines Anderson's contribution this way:

Defining "movement" as "all the activists who demonstrated for social change" between 1960 and the end of the Vietnam War, Anderson finds it too volatile and amorphous to be understood through leadership, organizational history, or ideology. Favoring the term "kaleidoscopic," he rejects tracing themes in favor of a chronological unfolding. His metaphor is properly oceanic, the surge of the earlier sixties yields to the rip tides of 1968, with the second wave flowing along the currents of empowerment and liberation, cresting and then receding after having brought a sea change to the American Cold War Culture. (p. 1289)

And on the impact of the sixties, Chalmers points out that

Anderson credits the sixties with altering the Cold War culture and creating an ethic more flexible and tolerant, more skeptical of experts, leaders and institutions, and more open about feelings, more compassionate, and more liberated sexually. (p. 1289)

Sara Evans credits his book with challenging "the declension narrative about the late 1960s activism offered by a number of other authors (see for example Todd Gitlin The Sixties [1987]." (p. 941) but then she goes on to point out that he has ignored issues of race, class and gender in his narrative and acts as if these streams in the movement come out of nowhere. As she points out "each of the issues and constituencies mobilized during the 1960s had its own history and dynamic. Anderson tends to skim over these, describing in each case the wrongs they set out to right as sufficient cause." (p. 942)

[AskHistorians]

Epic overview of the "movement(s)" of the sixties - the new left, civil rights, black power, and women's movement are all viewed together. This is one of the best general overviews of "the sixties" out there.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anderson succeeds wonderfully in capturing the ethos of "the Movement" in all its permutations from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. This is not an "objective" history, but a sympathetically critical account. He is far more sympathetic with the counterculture than many other accounts of the era, and sees the changes ushered in by the hippies as one of the lasting contributions of the Movement. He is clear that his focus is not on organizations, leaders, or ideology, so readers wanting details of the various anti-war coalitions should consult books like DeBenedetti's An American Ordeal. I had two minor concerns. First, editing or proofreading should have been better (Stewart Brand becomes "Burns"). Second, while I loved all the references to the music that often inspired and always accompanied the Movement, I knew all those songs just by their titles. I wondered how younger readers will react who did not live with that music.

[Rufus Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic overview of the social revolution of the 60s. I give it a 4.5 as occasionally it was quite dense.

Excellent book though, shocking and humorous too.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a quick enough read considering it's 400 pages long and attempts to cover the entire social upheaval of the years 1960-1972. The knocks against it are the twee writing style ("People wanted to know 'who are you, who, who?'", etc.) and the lack of a real thesis. Anderson introduces the book--which seems like it was probably his graduate thesis--by claiming that "The Movement" was a leaderless social tide, and he proves that, I guess. But he never gets to the "so what?" part.

I will also point out the supreme irony in the fact that he refers to Women's Liberation as the "single most successful" movement of the era at least twice in the six whole pages he devotes to covering it. Meanwhile, hippies and the counterculture, which he repeatedly describes as a tiny, fragmented fraction of the overall population, get an entire 50 page long chapter.

Basically, if you're looking for a straight-up historical overview of the era, this is as good a place as any to start. If you're looking for analysis or specifics on any of the smaller movements that made up "The Movement," go elsewhere.

[Jeremiah Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that quickly moves you through the events of the sixties. I had the pleasure of being taught history By Professor Anderson while I attended Texas A&M. We got to ask a lot more questions in class, but the book alone is highly informative for anyone interested in learning the history of the Movement and the Sixties.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anderson's "The Movement" is really the first work of scholarship tying all the various strands of 60s activism together in one complete volume. Written in a style suitable for general readers, but detailed enough for specialists.

[Greg Akins · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a revelation! The sixties were different, more significant and had a greater legacy that I knew. I understand those who denigrate the time; but it's that need to put the decade under a microscope that indicates just how lasting an impact it had.