Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Last Innocent Year : America in 1964--The Beginning of the "Sixties" by Jon Margolis ISBN: 0-688-17907-X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 05 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A good addition to the 1960's shelf
Comment: "The Last Innocent Year" is an interesting and fast-moving account of events in the U.S. in 1964, with a heavy emphasis on national politics, and above all the unexpected presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Margolis' portrait of Johnson's strong and often prickly personality, and his detailed recounting of Johnson's behind-the-scenes jawboning in support of the Civil Rights Act and his own presidential candidacy, often make this book more of a biography than a history. Although Margolis does recount some of the important events of 1964 that took place outside Washington, such as the "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi and the murders that accompanied it, the rise of Barry Goldwater, the Beatles' American debut, and the Free Speech Movement of Berkeley, this book is mostly about presidential politics. The narrative doesn't really support the title's description of 1964 as being "innocent," and it's hard to see why we should consider 1964 to have been "the beginning of the 'Sixties'."
"The Last Innocent Year" is quite similar in its coverage and tone to Jules Witcover's book about 1968, "The Year the Dream Died." Each book is probably the best account yet published of the events leading up to the year's presidential election. However, Margolis' book provides better detail on events beyond national politics, while Witcover's book, a first-person account, is richer in portraiture and analysis. If asked to recommend only one of the two books, I'd give a slight edge to Witcover, in part because he simply had more interesting material to work with. (Now that I think of it, maybe the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the candidacies of Eugene McCarthy and George Wallace, riots in the cities, the withdrawal of Lyndon Johnson in despair over the Vietnam War, and chaos at the Democratic convention in Chicago, all of which featured in the 1968 campaign, do make 1964 look innocent!)
"The Last Innocent Year" contains a lot of mistakes, some of which other reviewers have already noted. Someone needs to sit down and correct the text, or future students and enthusiasts of the Sixties risk being misinformed by a book that in other respects is an excellent addition to the ever-expanding shelf of books about that fascinating decade.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating but flawed, much like 1964 itself
Comment: It's rare to use the word "earnest" in describing a work of history, but it perfectly applies here. Margolis writes at a breakneck pace, which is in keeping with the subject matter. After all, the driving forces of the Year 1964...LBJ, RFK, Barry Goldwater, Civil Rights, Viet Nam, the Beatles...were by no means vehicles of caution! It's full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes...even if that means more than a few errors crop up in the course of reporting.
Some are minor typos (referring to Staunton Military Academy as "Stanton"), others are just plain old confusion (citing "A Hard Day's Night" as the first US hit for the Beatles, when even the most casual of fan probably knows it was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"). If you can forgive the sloppy editing, this won't bother you much.
I'd be more than a little surprised to find out that Margolis wasn't deeply influenced by Jeffrey Hart's "From This Moment On: America in 1940," which performs much the same task in an even more seminal year. But whereas Hart wrote in the prose style of the magazine feature writer he was, Margolis hammers out his information in the manner of a news wire reporter. It can be a little disconcerting at times, but it also makes this book nearly impossible to put down.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fascinating, but carelessly edited.
Comment: This is a fine read for those of us of a certain age who remember the events but not the background and secrets behind them. I find the title to be quite appropriate, considering what the following years were about to bring us. Unfortunately, two things mar the book. It is only partially documented, so many statements of fact have to be taken on faith. Why there are footnotes for some facts but not others is a mystery to me. The second weakness is the editing (proofreading). Without trying, I have seen several mistakes: A.M. instead of P.M., Governor "John" Rhodes of Ohio (instead of James), and worst of all, he has Barry Goldwater saying "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no VIRTUE" ! Of course, Ole Barry set off an up-roar by saying VICE. These are errors that any competent editor should have caught.
 |
Title: They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 by David Maraniss ISBN: 0743217802 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
