America Divided

The Civil War of the 1960s

 

Maurice Isserman

and

Michael Kazin

 

Oxford University Press.

Available 11/99 

 

Read the Introduction

Like a Civil War
As the 1950s drew to a close, the organizers of the official centennial observances for the Civil War scheduled to begin in the spring of 1961 and to run through the spring of 1965, were determined not to allow their project to become bogged down in any outmoded animosities. Among other considerations, much was at stake in a successful centennial for the tourism, publishing, and souvenir industries; as Karl S. Betts of the federal Civil War Centennial Commission, predicted expansively on the eve of the celebration, "It will be a shot in the arm for the whole American economy." Naturally, the shot-in-the-arm would work better if other kinds of shots, those dispensed from musketry and artillery that caused the death and dismemberment of hundreds of thousands of Americans between 1861 and 1865, were not excessively dwelt upon. The Centennial Commission preferred to present the Civil War as, in essence, a kind of colorful and good-natured regional athletic rivalry between two groups of freedom-loving white Americans. Thus, the Commission's brochure "Facts About the Civil War" described the respective military forces of the Union and the Confederacy in 1861 as "The Starting Line-ups."

The Authors

Maurice Isserman, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History, at Hamilton College, and Michael Kazin, Professor of History at Georgetown University.

The Reviews

"American Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s is a riveting read, brimming with lively anecdotes, original insights, sharp analysis, and scrupulous scholarship. It is, far and away, the most compelling single volume history of the 1960s currently available. A superb book."

-Douglas Brinkley, The Eisenhower Center for American Studies, University of New Orleans

Wednesday, September 15, 1999, Kirkus Review: "Isserman, a specialist in leftist politics, and Kazin, a student of modern conservatism, make a solid tag team. Their thorough-going research and vivid writing make this a book of interest to students and general readers alike."

"An impressive achievement. The most comprehensive, comprehensible history of the American 1960s that I know."

-Todd Gitlin, New York University

"This is the finest and most comprehensive history of 'The Sixties' ever written. Professor Isserman and Kazin skillfully combine insightful analysis and captivating narrative to demonstrate how and why that political and cultural civil war haunts us yet. Theri book is therefore more than another history: it is an act of engaged citizenship."

-Nelson Lichtenstein, University of Virginia

"When two accomplished historians of the caliber of Isserrman and Kazin turn their talents to a survey of the Sixties, the result is an engrossing narrative and a highly intelligent analysis of the era's cultural, political, and social events. I found myself eagerly turning pages to see how they would handle the decade's key actors, moments, and trends, and was always rewarded with judicious and insightful treatments."

-Lizabeth Cohen, Harvard University

"From 60s radical to 60s historian is a long passage and few have navigated it more intelligently than Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin. American Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s reconstructs the decade in all its almost unbelievable complexity, presenting its ever-unfolding movements and events in clear, simple, and straight-forward fashion, explaining ideological issues without ever being ideological itself. Its discussion of the disappearance of the liberal consensus under simultaneous assults from the left and the right provide a necessary foundation for understanding American politics today. According to an already -old joke, "If you remember the 60s you weren't really there," but the joke is wrong. Reading Isserman and Kazin, it becomes possible not only to remember the decade but to at last begin to understand it."

-Elinor Langer, Fellow of the Open Society Institute and author ofJospehine Herbst

Sunday, September 5, 1999, The Washington Post, "The Fall Preview" by Marie Arana: Will books, like wonders, never cease? That certainly seems to be the case, as American publishers teeter on the cusp of the millennium... There is no end to history, it seems. Not in the book industry, anyway, where historical tomes -- about everything from century-old natural disasters to the evolution of kitchenware -- continue to fuel the market...American social history is represented by: The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, edited by Michael Glazier (Notre Dame); Something in the Soil: Field-Testing the New Western History, by Patricia Nelson Limerick (Norton, Feb.); America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, by Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin (Oxford, Nov.); Lay This Body Down: The 1921 Murders of Eleven Plantation Slaves, by Gregory A. Freeman (Lawrence Hill Books); and T.H. Watkins's comprehensive account of the Great Depression, The Hungry Years (Holt, Oct.).

     

In November, 1999 you may order American Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s
from Oxford University Press

or to order this and other books by Maurice Isserman from: 

 

Any questions about the book?

Email misserma@hamilton.edu

Return to: History Department * Maurice Isserman * www.hamilton.edu