The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties (The Politically Incorrect Guides) - Softcover

Leaf, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1596985720 ISBN 13: 9781596985728

Publisher: Regnery, 2009

Synopsis

Get ready to break on through to the other side as critically-acclaimed playwright and journalist Jonathan Leaf reveals the politically incorrect truth about one of the most controversial decades in history--the 1960s. Life was more "square" than "groovy" and Dean Martin was topping the Billboard charts--not Jimmy Hendrix. In this blast from the past, Leaf exposes the lies and busts the myths propagated by the liberal establishment. Did you know:
* The civil rights movement did little to improve the lives of average African Americans?
* Most Americans actively supported the Vietnam War and the draft?
* My Fair Lady was one of the most popular albums during the 1960s?

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties proves the anti-Vietnam War sentiment and free love slogans that supposedly "defined" the decade were just a small part of the leftist counter culture. The mainstream culture was more politically incorrect--but you'll never hear that from a liberal pundit or read it in a politically correct textbook.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Leaf is a playwright and cultural critic. The author of The Germans in Paris, The Caterers, and other plays, he has written about the arts and culture for National Review, the Weekly Standard, the New Criterion, and other publications. He now lives in New York City, where he previously worked as a public school teacher.

From the Back Cover

Politically correct textbooks and Hollywood movies portray the 1960s as a momentous era of youthful rebellion and social upheaval. But this is a gross distortion. From popular culture to social views, throughout the 1960s America remained a conservative nation--and in many ways, extremely so. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties, Jonathan Leaf takes you on a raucous tour of America's real social, cultural, and political life during that supposedly transformative decade. This myth-busting book shows how the decade's vaunted radicalism was, in fact, confined to a small group of isolated extremists who have rewritten the decade's history, casting themselves as the heroes. In truth, it was mainstream America--conservative America--that both quietly dominated the 1960s, and that has survived every outrage the radicals have tried to hurl against it. Sixties radicals might not find this book groovy, but for the rest of us, here's the unvarnished, politically incorrect truth about one of the most misrepresented decades in American history.

"Has any decade been more mythologized than the 1960s? I doubt it. Read Jonathan Leaf, who corrects and debunks the conventional wisdom--and who also teaches us interesting and important things about that time, and ours."
--William Kristol, editor, the Weekly Standard

"Controversial, but no doubt about it: Leaf takes the lead in taking a second look at this crucial period."
--Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg News syndicated columnist and author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

"Jonathan Leaf almost makes the 60s worth it in this merciless debunking of the myths of our decade of shame. Fun, informed, and--above all--valuable."
--Rich Lowry, editor, National Review

"`I believe in yesterday,' sang the Beatles. But do you remember it? Jonathan Leaf gives a droll and provocative account of the myths--often self- serving--that have grown up around the sixties like weeds, and clears them away."
--Richard Brookhiser, author of Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement

From the Inside Flap

When you think of the 1960s, what images come to mind? Most people think of rock music and psychedelic drugs, youthful rebellion and draft dodging, long hair and protest marches. But is that really what the sixties were all about?

Absolutely not, says Jonathan Leaf. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties, Leaf busts the biggest myth of all about that decade: that it was defined by radical politics and cultural upheaval. From popular music to college politics to fashion, he demonstrates that throughout the 1960s America remained a deeply conservative country, with disturbances and protests confined to a small minority of agitators who are now wrongly hailed in our politically correct textbooks as the dominant voice of their generation.

Mainstream America resisted the encroachments of the counterculture, Leaf shows. It was the Vietnam veterans, not the antiwar radicals, who expressed the values held throughout most of the country. What's more, contrary to popular belief, the vaunted sexual revolution never occurred in the sixties, and rock 'n' roll was not king. In this rollicking, provocative book, you'll discover that in the 1960s:

* Most college students rejected radical politics
* President Kennedy was not the dashing, progressive hero of liberal lore
* The economic condition of blacks became much worse after the passage of landmark civil rights legislation
* Manned space flights were a politicized boondoggle

If you think Woodstock and the Acid Tests were events that defined a generation, you'll be singing a new tune after reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties--and it won't be The Grateful Dead.

Edition details

• Publisher: Regnery
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596985720
• ISBN 13: 9781596985728
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256