America in White, Black, and Gray: A History of the Stormy 1960s

465 Pages·2006·32.541 MB·English

by  Klaus P. Fischer

America in White, Black, and Gray
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America in White,
Black, and Gray
The Stormy 1960s
Klaus P. Fischer
continuum
NEW YORK • LONDON
2006
The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, SE1 7NX
Copyright © 2006 by Klaus P. Fischer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publishers.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Schroder Music Company for permission to quote from
the song "Little Boxes," words and music by Malvina Reynolds, copyright 1962 Schroder
Music Co. (ASCAP). Renewed 1990. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fischer, Klaus P., 1942-
America in White, Black, and gray: the stormy 1960s / Klaus P. Fischer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-1816-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8264-1816-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. United States—History—1961-1969. 2. United States—Social conditions—
1960-1980. 3. Social problems—United States—History—20th century. 4. United
States—Politics and government—1961-1963. 5. United States—Politics and
government—1963-1969. 6. Nineteen sixties. I. Title.
E841.F49 2006
973.923—dc22
2006007584
To Max
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1. A Voice from the Silent Generation 1
2. The Way We Were: Before and After the 1960s 8
3. An Age of Protest 14
2 FAULT LINES IN A LAND OF PERFECTION 20
1. The Myth of a Perfect Beginning 20
2. Immigration: More Pluribus Than Unum? 23
3. The Flaws of Consensus Liberalism 25
4. Beacon or Crusader: Splits in American Foreign Policy 35
5. The Racist Blood-Knot in American History 43
3 THE PIG IN THE PYTHON
A Generation of Vipers? 53
1. Baby Boomers and Their Parents 53
2. The American Horn of Plenty: Paradox and Portent 56
3. The Emergence of a Teenage Subculture 63
4 JOHN F. KENNEDY AND THE CAMELOT IMAGE 73
1 . Kennedy the Man and the Leader: Image and Reality 73
2. The Kennedy Administration: The Best and the Brightest? 78
3. Eyeball to Eyeball: The World at the Nuclear Brink 85
4. The Trauma of November 22, 1963, and Its Aftermath 88
5. JFK: The Legacy 99
5 SEARCHING FOR THE PROMISED LAND
Black Civil Rights 106
1. Sit-down Protests in the South 106
2. Freedom Rides 109
3. Voter Registration 112
4. Black Nationalism 125
5. The End of the Second Reconstruction 133
vii
viii Contents
6 LIBERALISM AT HIGH TIDE UNDER LYNDON JOHNSON 137
1. A Texan in the White House 137
2. The Great Society 145
3. Liberal Justice: The Warren Court 159
4. From Great Society to Sick Society 167
7 VIETNAM AND PROTEST 170
1. Approaching a Quagmire 170
2. Paying Any Price and Bearing Any Burden 177
3. Hot Damn Vietnam: LBJ and the War 181
4. Hell No, We Won't Go 187
5. Nixon's War and Defeat in Vietnam 200
6. The End of Victory Culture? 206
8 THE CRISIS OF 1968
The Fall of Liberalism 212
1. A Speculative Stampede on Gold 212
2. Losing the Streets: The Crisis of Law and Order 215
3. The "Dump Johnson" Movement 222
4. Thunder from the Right 235
5. Miami, Chicago, and the Election of 1968 242
9 A YOUNG GENERATION IN REVOLT 252
1. America Awash in Rebellious Young People 252
2. The New Left and Student Militancy in the 1960s 257
3. The Catalyst: The Free Speech Movement at Berkeley 260
4. From Protest to "Revolutionary Action" 265
5. Students at War with the Establishment 269
6. Radical Terrorism and the Conservative Reaction 275
7. Black Student Militancy 281
8. The Student Right 288
9. Coda 292
10 COUNTERCULTURAL PROTEST MOVEMENTS 295
1. Was There a Counterculture? 295
2. The Myth of the Woodstock Nation 298
3. Back to Nature: The Commune Movement 312
4. It's the Music, Stupid! 317
5. Counterculture into Consumer Culture 331
11 RIDING THE COATTAILS OF REVOLT
Neglected Minorities 336
1. Women's Liberation 336
2. Radical Feminism 338
Contents ix
3. Coming out of the Closet: Gay Men 344
4. Brown Power 346
5. Red Power 354
6. The Minority Rights Problem: More Pluribus Than Unum? 360
12 PEERING INTO THE HISTORICAL LOOKING GLASS 363
1. Fault Lines Revisited 363
2. Consumer Culture is Boomer Culture 366
3. The Great Cultural Implosion 368
4. The End of Shame and Guilt 375
5. The Indigestible Sixties 381
NOTES 388
BIBLIOGRAPHY 420
INDEX 439