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| 1968: The Year That Rocked the World | 
| Author: Mark Kurlansky
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $5.00
You Save: $10.95 (69%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 30401
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345455827
Dewey Decimal Number: 909.826
EAN: 9780345455826
ASIN: 0345455827
Publication Date: January 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Given its broad and vibrant subject, it would be quite difficult for a writer of any proficiency to pen a boring book on 1968, and Mark Kurlansky has indeed pulled together an entertaining and enlightening popular history with 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. With the Vietnam War and Soviet repression providing sparkplugs in the East and West, student movements heated up in Berkeley, Prague, Mexico City, Paris, and dozens of other hotspots. With youth in ascendancy, music, film, and athletics became generational battlegrounds between opposition forces that couldn't be more appalled with one another. Not so fortuitously, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City and a presidential election in the United States conspired to elevate the tension higher as months passed. Kurlansky is skilled at concisely capturing the personalities behind the conflicts, whether they be heartbroken Czech leader Alexander Dubcek as Eastern Bloc troops violently suppress his nation's uprising or respected veteran newsman Walter Cronkite reluctantly editorializing against the war in Vietnam. The author is more than willing to choose heroes (the doomed Robert Kennedy) and villains (victorious presidential candidate Richard Nixon), and clearly sides with the rebels in most cases. In general, Kurlansky is more adept at covering the political front than he is the equally revolutionary arts world, and it's apparent that any chapter in this book could be expanded into a book of its own. One's expectation is that captivated readers will view 1968 as a portal into a deeper exploration of a fascinating time. --Steven Stolder
Product Description
To some, 1968 was the year of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Yet it was also the year of the Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy assassinations; the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Prague Spring; the antiwar movement and the Tet Offensive; Black Power; the generation gap; avant-garde theater; the upsurge of the women’s movement; and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union.
In this monumental book, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that pivotal year, when television’s influence on global events first became apparent, and spontaneous uprisings occurred simultaneously around the world. Encompassing the diverse realms of youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media, 1968 shows how twelve volatile months transformed who we were as a people–and led us to where we are today.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Don't bother; worthless baby-boomer nostalgia September 30, 2008
Pastiche of acts of rebellion, primarily student-led, from 1968, without much of a theory of the causes or conditions which led to their similarities or differences.
I suspect that were the baby-boomers who came of age in the sixties not so enamored by their nostalgic memories of it, this book would never have been written, or if written not published, or if published not read.
Don't bother.
 So-So August 24, 2008
Receives three stars for covering an interesting set of events that are often neglected. Receives only three stars for overly romanticizing the student-led movements in the West to the point of trivalizing the bravery of those in the Communist bloc and elsewhere. If you're an aging and nostalgic hippy/New Lefter, you'll like it. If you're honest, perhaps not.
 Just a timeline of facts with little or no insight...boring February 20, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Take your Websters dictionary, re-arrange the pages so there is no comprehensible order, place a new binder on it and retitle it "English, the langauage that rocked the world" and you've pretty much accomplished the same thing that this author has. I borrowed the audio book from the local library (I'm so glad I didn't pay for it)and expected a first hand insightful philosophical treatise on how and why the 1960's culture came into existence and how we are impacted today as a result of it. Instead, I suffered through 2 hours of cold impersonal disparate fact after fact after fact after fact with absolutely no insight or substance behind them until I could not bear the boredom anymore. There doesn't seem to be any logical order, cohesion or method to this approach...not even in a timeline format. It's like listening to 4 hours of random news stories, or like standing in front of a machine with a button that says "Press to generate random facts about 1968". I didn't think it was possible to make such an exciting year sound so dull and boring.
 STIRRED SOME NOSTALGIA December 13, 2007
This was a great read. It will be especially enjoyed by those of us who are old enough to remember some of the events and characters of that momentous year.
Awesome January 11, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mark Kurlansky's 1968 is a well-researched and surprisingly balanced account of 1968 and the preceding years. Kurlansky combines stories with accurate generalizations about the motivations of the time. He does not minimize the motivations, however. He recognizes the different movements and the history behind them creating a multi-faceted picture of the 1960s. The main reason I enjoyed this book is its international focus. The Polish student movement is covered as well as Dubcek and the Czechloslovakian revolution. This is not another book about hippies, Timothy Leary, and the Civil Rights movement. 1968 is much more significant and its international element is not only unique but shows the zeitgeist of the 60's. A great read for anyone with an interest in history or media.
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