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| America's Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon | 
| Author: Mark Hamilton Lytle
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $37.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 352769
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0195174976
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.923
EAN: 9780195174977
ASIN: 0195174976
Publication Date: February 10, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: LYTLE
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Product Description
In contrast with most histories of this period, America's Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon does not treat the 1960s as a single historical moment or as successive waves of activism. Rather, it employs a chronological narrative to identify three distinct phases during which events of the era unfolded. The first began with the cultural ferment of the 1950s and ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. During the second phase, from 1964-1968, the "uncivil" wars began in earnest: Americans disagreed about new social and cultural mores, protests against the Vietnam War increased in size and vehemence, and American cities erupted in racial violence. From 1967 through 1968, all of these forces combined to divide Americans more deeply than they had been since the Civil War. In the third phase, Richard Nixon promised to bring Americans together. However, a host of new value and identity movements--environmentalists, consumer advocates, feminists, gay, Latino, and Native American activists--frustrated his design. Only after the Watergate scandals forced this polarizing figure from office did a measure of civility return to the nation's public discourse.
America's Uncivil Wars captures the broad sweep of this tumultuous era, analyzing both the cultural and political influences on the movements of the 1960s. Paying particular attention to Latinos, Native Americans, feminism, and gay liberation, it integrates the politics of gender and race into the central political narrative. The book also covers such topics as McCarthyism; the FBI; rock and roll; teen culture in the 1950s; the origins of SDS, SNCC, and YAF; and the environmental and consumer movements. With its engaging narrative style and broad cultural emphasis, America's Uncivil Wars brings a fresh approach to our understanding of not only the 1960s but also U.S. history since 1945.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Why fact-checking matters July 7, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I cannot in good conscience recommend Mr. Lytle's "America's Uncivil Wars" due to several egregious errors which found their way past his fact-checkers (if any) and made it into print. To cite a few:
1. In citing the impact of the Beatles early in the book, he quotes the lyrics of "She Loves You" as "with a love like that, you know it can't be bad." The actual lyric, of course, is "you know you should be glad." This should be common knowledge among Lytle's (and later) generations; the misquote is puzzling at best.
2. He refers to George McGovern as the Senator from North Dakota. McGovern, of course, was from South Dakota.
3. Late in the book, he cites Lyndon Johnson's attempts to stymie Richard Nixon's "re-election" in 1968. Nixon, of course, was running for election, not re-election.
While taken individually, these mis-statements may appear innocuous. However, since Lytle purports to be writing a comprehensive overview of a contentious era in our history, a little more attention to the facts might have been in order.
The balance of the book, while a reasonably pleasant read, covers ground that has been covered in far greater detail and analysis by myriad writers such as Todd Gitlin, Stephen Ambrose, Tom Wicker, Woodward & Bernstein, and others. Readers interested in a more probing analysis of this period of our history are advised to seek out their works.
 Most Balanced Account of the 60s Yet October 20, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the most balanced account of the 60s I've ever read. Too many authors are caught up in their own experience or continue to fight the battles of the era. America's Uncivil Wars recognizes that the 60s were more a generational experience than a discrete period of time. I fully agree with the division into three periods from 56-64, 64-68, and 68 through Watergate. A driving sense of narrative moves the book from event to event and brings to life the wide range of personalities who gave the 60s their flavor. The background material on the 50s and the growing attacks on consensus culture are rich and engagingly told. And no other book I've read gives such prominence to feminists, the Red and Brown Power movements, environmentalism, and Gay Rights. Conservative student and political movements get their due as well. My only regret is that the book, like the 60s, had to end because this is a good read.
 Our Turbulent Years & Their Aftermath. December 29, 2005
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
This was a most interesting book for me, as I must have slept through the Sixties; I remember the Fifties part and the happenings of the Seventies, when former President Richard Nixon was disgraced. He covers the times from 1954 (an important time in my history) to 1973 with the social, cultural and political upheavals. First came rock'n'roll which, he says, instigated teenage rebellion; I detested that 'junk,' as 'pop music' was a part of my young life -- the most important, I guess. Knoxville was not big on rock and roll, as it is primarily steeped in hillbilly and country. We've always been naturally musical here, but in a different way from the rest of the country.
This book gives us a journey back in memory to that unsettled era when parts of America were tearing itself apart. I'm glad I lived in a small town further South during the civil unrest which shook the country, and I honestly don't remember the atomic bomb protests of the late '50s. During the turbulent times of the '60s, Woodstock and the drug culture were not a part of my existence -- a vague memory of reading about it only. At our junior college, there were no protestors of the VietNam War; my neighbors (two old ladies) would tell me about the Vietnamese setting themselves on fire as a protest, which they saw on television. It was a time when "political activists mobilized vast numbers of dissidents against the war," as some are trying to do now with the lingering Iraq War.
At Kent State (only a photo in the news to me), there was campus unrest which resulted in an innocent person being shot and killed by the police. He gave bad descriptions of William Buckley (I admit, he is hard to take at times!) and Joseph McCarthy. McCarthyism was a part of life in 1950 and on past the death of its instigator. Extremist groups were around then, as they are now. The Watergate scandal was President Nixon's undoing, when he went on the defensive. "Only in the aftermath of Watergate, did the uncivil wars ... end." The late Jack White, a 'Time' magazine columnist, won the Pulitzer Prize for his exposure of Richard Nixom's underpayment of his income taxes. His 1973 story prompted the president (who paid more than four hundred thousand dollars in back taxes) to utter his famous remark, "I am not a crook." I remember vividly in 1973 when he was almost impeached, like another U.S. President Bill Clinton, and resigned under pressure.
Mark H. Lytle, history professor at Bard College, has also written AFTER THE FACT: THE ART OF HISTORICAL DETECTION and NATION OF NATIONS: A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
Terrible October 14, 2005
3 out of 51 found this review helpful
Lets say you were reading a book on the mafia, written by John Gotti, or perhaps some lesser-known mobster. And there was nothing but glowing accolades for the mob and it's activities. Furthermore, anyone who opposed the mafia and it's activities was labeled an "extremist" and in the text, their names were never more than about 4 or 5 words away from words like "Ku Klux Klan," "racist," "bigoted," or "paranoid," you'd begin to suspect that the book was a bit biased, wouldn't you?
"Americas Uncivil Wars" is a book written by Mark Lytle, a professor at Bard College. He documents events in American History, in this book, from the 1950's to about 1975. Practically every time a genuine conservative individual, or organization is mentioned in this book, it is associated to a racist organization, whenever Mr. Lytle doesn't add his own commentary. For example, on page 22, he says Joseph McCarthy revealed himself as a "mean-spirited slob." This is a far cry from the McCarthy I know, the McCarthy who wrote the brilliant "Americas Retreat from Victory" for example. And forget about anything good mentioned about the John Birch Society. Page 138: "Most Americans ignored the hooded Klansmen, the John Birchers, and other extremists..." never mind the fact that JBS is not and never was a racist or an extremist organization. But here is their name, sandwiched between the KKK and "extremist."
It is a typical tactic of the left to associate the opposition with the "stench of racism" as Stalin may have put it (I don't remember his exact quote). But you might ask, what about on page 89 where he refers glowingly to William F. Buckley as "the cornerstone of the anti-communist wing of conservatism...?" Keep in mind that this is the same Buckley who years later, in Lingua Franca magazine, confessed that he would be a "Mike Harrington Socialist" or a "Communist" if he were college brat today.
Now on the other hand, try to find anywhere in this book, the words "murderer," or even "extremist" in front of names like Mao Tse Tung, or Che Guevara or Tom Hayden, to name a few. There is a good reason for that, but I will leave it to your imagination, the reason why.
In summary, should you decide to read this book, take it with a grain of salt, or better yet some motion-sickness pills because unless you are prone to the same convictions as our professor Lytle is, you're going to need a barf-bag.
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