Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Ballantine Books (2003), Edition: First Edition, 464 pages
Description
Publisher's description: In this monumental new book, award-winning author Mark Kurlansky has written his most ambitious work to date: a singular and ultimately definitive look at a pivotal moment in history. With 1968, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that world-changing year of social upheaval. People think of it as 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 birth of the women's movement, and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. From New York, Miami, Berkeley, and Chicago to Paris, Prague, Rome, Berlin, Warsaw, Tokyo, and Mexico City, spontaneous uprisings occurred simultaneously around the globe. Everything was disrupted. In the Middle East, Yasir Arafat's guerrilla organization rose to prominence ... both the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Biennale were forced to shut down by protesters ... the Kentucky Derby winner was stripped of the crown for drug use ... the Olympics were a disaster, with the Mexican government having massacred hundreds of students protesting police brutality there ... and the Miss America pageant was stormed by feminists carrying banners that introduced to the television-watching public the phrase "women's liberation." Kurlansky shows how the coming of live television made 1968 the first global year. It was the year that an amazed world watched the first live telecast from outer space, and that TV news expanded to half an hour. For the first time, Americans watched that day's battle--the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive--on the evening news. Television also shocked the world with seventeen minutes of police clubbing demonstrators at the Chicago convention, live film of unarmed students facing Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia, and a war of starvation in Biafra. The impact was huge, not only on the antiwar movement, but also on the medium itself. The fact that one now needed television to make things happen was a cultural revelation with enormous consequences.… (more)
Media reviews
1968 was a long time ago. A woman astonished Italy by refusing to marry her rapist, thus denying him the customary reprieve. Someone shouted "retire!" at De Gaulle as he passed by in a pre-May motorcade and was fined 500 francs for "attacking the honour of the Head of State". Airline stewardesses
Show More
were subject to "touch checks" to ensure they were wearing girdles. The year used to cast a long historical shadow, but since the Fall of the Wall and 9/11, 1968 has become, like 1492, 1776, 1814, 1848, 1914 and 1929, just another big date in history, barely qualifying for that elite list. Show Less
Mark Kurlansky, biographer of cod and historian of salt, is a very superior journalist: diligent in his research, quirkily original in his insights, swift and clear in his storytelling. He goes where others don't think of treading and tries to illumine obscure corners of human experience. But 1968
Show More
- the year of the Paris riots, the Tet offensive, the Prague spring and the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King - is more than a fillet of bacalao . Show Less
Mark Kurlansky is a writer of remarkable talents and interests who has written best-sellers about subjects -- such as cod fishing and the history of salt -- that most people would never think worth writing about. Here, in "1968," a highly readable new work, he undertakes what is essentially the
Show More
biography of a year unlike any that had come before it, a year in which "there occurred a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirits around the world." Show Less
In the year 1968, young people in Czechoslovakia and Poland rioted against communism; in Spain and Portugal against fascism; in the United States against the Vietnam War and the capitalistic power structure overseeing it. College students and others of their age group battled police in Paris,
Show More
Berlin and Mexico City. Show Less
Those were the days, that was the year.
Our 21st-century times may seem tumultuous, with wars and terrorists and epidemics, but they appear placid when compared with the year of 1968 when much of the world teetered on the brink of the apocalypse.
Our 21st-century times may seem tumultuous, with wars and terrorists and epidemics, but they appear placid when compared with the year of 1968 when much of the world teetered on the brink of the apocalypse.
User reviews
LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110
A world history of a year. Kurlansky is able to get at the major themes of this year - including ideological struggles between democratization vs totalitarianism, capitalism vs. communism, race relations, student protests, economic constraints, as well as what was happening in the literary, sports,
This book was a swirling smorgasbord of pop culture, politics, contemporary events, geopolitical angst, and revolution moving as frantically from topic to topic as those caught up in events moved, and generally proceeded in a chronological fashion, though taking the time to explain the broader context that each event was a part of.
Kurlansky was able to detail some of the personalities that shaped the times - Abbey Hoffman, Alexander Dubcek, and many others in such a way that provided a broad context as well as maintaining a semblance of coherence. A very difficult balance!
In some ways, this was a hard book to get through - particularly for someone who growing up more than a decade later - had some vague notion of many of the events, but really no familiarity with WHY these events or names were important. This book was good for the beginner, though it did take me a while to figure out who Dubcek was and why he was relevant to the era.
Not as good as some of his other works, but still worth reading if this is an area of interest. 3.5 stars
Show More
arts and other worlds, and why they were important and relevant for shaping society and the struggles going on. This book was a swirling smorgasbord of pop culture, politics, contemporary events, geopolitical angst, and revolution moving as frantically from topic to topic as those caught up in events moved, and generally proceeded in a chronological fashion, though taking the time to explain the broader context that each event was a part of.
Kurlansky was able to detail some of the personalities that shaped the times - Abbey Hoffman, Alexander Dubcek, and many others in such a way that provided a broad context as well as maintaining a semblance of coherence. A very difficult balance!
In some ways, this was a hard book to get through - particularly for someone who growing up more than a decade later - had some vague notion of many of the events, but really no familiarity with WHY these events or names were important. This book was good for the beginner, though it did take me a while to figure out who Dubcek was and why he was relevant to the era.
Not as good as some of his other works, but still worth reading if this is an area of interest. 3.5 stars
Show Less
LibraryThing member Angelic55blonde
This is a great book. It focuses on all the different issues of the 1960s, especially the ones that occurred or climaxed in 1968 (the Vietnam war, the modern women's movement, Bobby Kennedy's assassination). The author doesn't keep the focus on America alone. He focused on all different countries
I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the 1960s and American/world history. It's a great book and definitely gives you a clear vision of what it must have been like to live in 1968.
Show More
like Czechoslovakia, Germany, Britain, Mexico, and Cuba. I liked how he showed how the anti-Vietnam movement spread through the various countries and such.I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the 1960s and American/world history. It's a great book and definitely gives you a clear vision of what it must have been like to live in 1968.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mana_tominaga
Kurlansky offers a comprehensive, engaging look at the amazing events of 1968. He crystallizes the role of television and its rise as a critical conduit of news, in a truly global analysis that covers not just student movements in Berkeley but also in Paris or Warsaw or Mexico City.
LibraryThing member carterchristian1
Anyone who lived through 1968 will be attracted to this book to confirm or refute one's own impressions. The author does not dissapoint in a well wrought account of a year that covered extreme divisions in the country over an unpopular war, an increasingly unpopular president, rioting students, the
Show More
usual drama of a presidential campaign that saw the return of Nixon, and the peak of a changing culture of antisegregationism, the dramatic killings of two iconic figures, King and Kennedy, and a general sense that "the times they are a changing". The book holds up well 40 years later. Show Less
LibraryThing member cjordan916
Too hard to get into
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Excellent overview of the year that changed everything - with insight and perspective that can only come from someone looking back. Living in Austin, Texas that year and struggling at being a stranger in a new school I missed some of this though I remember the TV news programs and the major events.
Show More
What an exciting time!! Show Less
LibraryThing member marshapetry
Really enjoyed this book. Great audio narrator too. If you're of my era (born in the late 50s early 60s) and remember all those 60s events this book has a lot of perspective to add to them. I was too young to understand what I was seeing and hearing in 1968 and, even though I personally knew some
Show More
of the people involved, this book put a lot of the late 60s "together" for me. Plus a lot of plain ol' nostaligic "oh yah, I remember that" events mentioned. So maybe the "fun" part of the book applies to only a certain group but I think everyone who likes social history will like this book. Highly recommend. Show Less
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
Biographies of years are becoming increasingly common; we've had "!000", "1927" and "1932" recently (although we probably can't count "1984" as a biography) and here's the always top notch Mark Kurlansky with his book on "1968".
If you're going to write a biography of a year you could do a lot worse
There's a lot to like here, especially as I'm one of those people who were born too late to experience 1968 firsthand but "1968" was that rare mix of an entertaining and educational read.
If you're going to write a biography of a year you could do a lot worse
Show More
than pick a year like 1968. It had it all, from Olympic Games related massacres, the Prague Spring, Paris Riots, Chicago riots, Vietnam and loads of hijacked planes headed for Cuba. There's a lot to like here, especially as I'm one of those people who were born too late to experience 1968 firsthand but "1968" was that rare mix of an entertaining and educational read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member addunn3
The author reviews the turmoil of 1968 - protests, murders, revolts, etc.
LibraryThing member Whisper1
Exceedingly researched, this book reads more like a text book that a paperback.
1968 brought the Tet Offensive and the shipping of more and more American boys to die in a jungle, far away for a senseless endeavor.
By 1968, people were tired of the blatant lies told by the United States government.
The phrase of 1968 was "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." It was the year of death of Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, both assassinated. MLK, turned the focus from non violent protest regarding the treatment of African Americans, to speaking at the pulpit protesting the war that disproportionately drafted and killed black young men.
There were riots at the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. Black Power became a buz word as Stokley Carmichael and Malcolm X lifted fists in the air to protest not only the war, but the treatment of the black population in the United States.
TV became popular as increasingly people bought a small black and white box that focused on the face and personality of Walter Cronkite as the honest person to trust.
Packed through with facts, it took a while to read this missive that showed just how dysfunctional America was as it increasingly spun out of control.
1968 brought the Tet Offensive and the shipping of more and more American boys to die in a jungle, far away for a senseless endeavor.
By 1968, people were tired of the blatant lies told by the United States government.
Show More
Lindon Johnson's war was costly, not only in terms of the loss of life, but financially as well. By the time the front page of newspapers should an image of a small boy running while skin is coming off from the burning, even those who supported the war were realizing just how terrible it really was!The phrase of 1968 was "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." It was the year of death of Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, both assassinated. MLK, turned the focus from non violent protest regarding the treatment of African Americans, to speaking at the pulpit protesting the war that disproportionately drafted and killed black young men.
There were riots at the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. Black Power became a buz word as Stokley Carmichael and Malcolm X lifted fists in the air to protest not only the war, but the treatment of the black population in the United States.
TV became popular as increasingly people bought a small black and white box that focused on the face and personality of Walter Cronkite as the honest person to trust.
Packed through with facts, it took a while to read this missive that showed just how dysfunctional America was as it increasingly spun out of control.
Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
1968 was a very important year for me. It was the year that I graduated from high school and started college. There were also a number of important historical events that I have vivid memories of. I remember the two horrific assassinations of Martin Luther King in April and Robert Kennedy in June.
But these US events are not all that are covered by the book. It includes details about events and movements around the world, presented in roughly chronological order. There was the Prague Spring, as several of the Warsaw Bloc countries tried to distance themselves from harsh Soviet oversight, often as the result of somewhat spontaneous student uprisings. There were student protests all over the US, including the takeover of Columbia, the student protests in Paris and all over Europe that paralyzed cities and brought about huge changes. In Africa, civil war raged in Biafra. In Vietnam, the year began with the Tet Offensive, and in the small hamlet named My Lai, a massacre took place. Che Guevarra became a martyr. O.J. Simpson played in the Rose Bowl. Miniskirts caused the British government to lose tax revenues. (Children's clothing was exempt from taxes, and miniskirts, ranging between 13-20 inches in length fell into the definition of children's clothes.) The Beatles were into transcendental meditation. Hijackings to Cuba became common events. The Chinese were in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. Cesar Chavez led the grape boycott. And every night Walter Cronkite told us the news, especially the news from Vietnam. And when Walter Cronkite told us that Vietnam was lost, LBJ despaired. And so much more.
The book ends, "The year 1968 was a terrible year and yet one for which many people feel nostalgia. Despite the thousands dead in Vietnam, the million starved in Biafra, the crushing of idealism in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the massacre in Mexico, the clubbings and brutalization of dissenters all over the world, the murder of two Americans who most offered the world hope. To many it was a year of great possibilities and is missed."
I really enjoyed this revisit of one of the many historical years of the 20th century.
4 stars
Show More
After high school graduation, I left London and stayed on my grandparent's farm prior to starting college in New Orleans, and I remember watching the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the police brutally beat protestors and bystanders alike, as the protestors chanted, "The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching...." And of course, the event pervading everything else was the Vietnam war, and efforts to bring it to an end. This book begins by stating, "There has never been a year like 1968, and it is unlikely that there will ever be one again....There occurred a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirits around the world."But these US events are not all that are covered by the book. It includes details about events and movements around the world, presented in roughly chronological order. There was the Prague Spring, as several of the Warsaw Bloc countries tried to distance themselves from harsh Soviet oversight, often as the result of somewhat spontaneous student uprisings. There were student protests all over the US, including the takeover of Columbia, the student protests in Paris and all over Europe that paralyzed cities and brought about huge changes. In Africa, civil war raged in Biafra. In Vietnam, the year began with the Tet Offensive, and in the small hamlet named My Lai, a massacre took place. Che Guevarra became a martyr. O.J. Simpson played in the Rose Bowl. Miniskirts caused the British government to lose tax revenues. (Children's clothing was exempt from taxes, and miniskirts, ranging between 13-20 inches in length fell into the definition of children's clothes.) The Beatles were into transcendental meditation. Hijackings to Cuba became common events. The Chinese were in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. Cesar Chavez led the grape boycott. And every night Walter Cronkite told us the news, especially the news from Vietnam. And when Walter Cronkite told us that Vietnam was lost, LBJ despaired. And so much more.
The book ends, "The year 1968 was a terrible year and yet one for which many people feel nostalgia. Despite the thousands dead in Vietnam, the million starved in Biafra, the crushing of idealism in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the massacre in Mexico, the clubbings and brutalization of dissenters all over the world, the murder of two Americans who most offered the world hope. To many it was a year of great possibilities and is missed."
I really enjoyed this revisit of one of the many historical years of the 20th century.
4 stars
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003-12-30
ISBN
0345455819 / 9780345455819
Local notes
FB