Reflecting on the 1960s at 50: A Concise Account of How the 1960s Changed America, for Better and for Worse

Reflecting on the 1960s at 50: A Concise Account of How the 1960s Changed America, for Better and for Worse is a punchy, conversational look at some of the most interesting pieces of cultural and social conflict from the ‘60s, reflected through the lens of our own vantage point today.

This approachable, informative volume uses transcripts of public interviews to provide the viewpoints of half a dozen nationally known scholars with long records of writing in scholarly and popular realms. They represent a range of disciplinary and political perspectives from the humanities to the social sciences and from the progressive left to the conservative right. These scholars offer their thoughts on:

• the place of youth in American society that emerged from the ‘60s
• the lingering contributions the counterculture made to American institutions and social life
• the legacy in contemporary America of the struggles over racial disparities in the ‘60s
• the ways in which the revolution of sexual mores and relations of that decade have affected marriage and family today
• the war in Vietnam and its effects on contemporary views of America’s military power and responsibility in the world
• the evolution of American state power and administration that was energized by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

This book will be of interest to students of American history and the history and politics of the 1960s as well as sociologists. It searches for meaning in a period that made major contributions to the shape of America as a country.

Alexander Riley is Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University, USA.