Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties

by Morris Dickstein

During the sixties, says Morris Dickstein, America seemed to be at the gates of Eden--verging on a new way of experiencing life, art, and culture. In this provocative book, he discusses how we reached the gates and why, in the end, they remained closed. Beginning with Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets of the late fifties, Dickstein traces the rise of a new sensibility in American thought, writing, and music through lively and incisive analyses of such sixties icons as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Bob Dylan, Norman Mailer, Ralph Ellison, Joseph Heller, Paul Goodman, Norman O. Brown, and the Rolling Stones. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of the book's original publication, Dickstein has written a new introduction, reassessing the period's achievements and failures, and providing a fresh perspective on the ways that the sixties continue to influence our politics and culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Literature, American History, Literary Criticism, 20th Century

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Morris Dickstein is Distinguished Professor of English and Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Gates of Eden and Leopards in the Temple, among other works. He lives in New York City. "

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I’d like to say that I was a child of the sixties, the fact is I was a child in the sixties. I lived through the decade, but its culture surrounded me as a insulated, perplexed young man in a small town that seemed very far removed from culture. We had television, but radio not so much. The music, it seems, missed me. I only discovered it in the following decade. Morris Dickstein lived through the sixties as well, but as a college student and professor. His view in Gates of Eden is largely literary. He analyzes the “great books” of the era, many of them by Jewish authors. It would be helpful to be well read in the various authors, but there’s quite a bit of information packed in here.

Dickstein does discuss music to a certain extent, but as a professor of literature, it’s clear where his interest lies. Reading about these writers is inspirational, but I wondered more about the music. For me, it was about the music. And the protests. And love. I was a child at the time, but the values of the sixties stayed with me enough that when Dickstein grows a bit critical I get a touch defensive. It’s the nature of the time.

The sixties were my first decade. I started to become culturally aware—as much as one can in a small town—in the seventies. Even then something seemed to be lacking. Culture has become more technical, but also more blasé, it seems to me. The sixties represent something, and although they weren’t all positive, there’s a lesson here—it seems like we can never go back to an era as free and expressive as that ever again. And even more frightening, given that the book was written in the seventies, is the fact that the present day culture is a reset of the fifties. If it is, perhaps we have great things to which to look forward, post Trump. The spirit of the sixties survives even now.

For those interested, I said some different things about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this thinking it a history of the sixties in the USA. It wasn't. Rather, it is a history of American literature in the sixties. By "literature" one must think broadly as the author, a junior faculty member at Columbia in 1968, does. He includes lyrical music, folk and rock, as a category in his survey. This is primarily represented by the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan. Other categories include the works of black authors, journalists and those of writers of black, without a racial association, humor. In each category, as in the case of music, he only treats extensively of a few examples, be they particular authors or particular works.

I normally don't much go for literary criticism and that is basically what this book is. It is, however, an exception to the rule in that I thoroughly enjoyed the reading of it and very much appreciated both the perceptiveness and the style of its author. This is a recognizable portrait of the period by someone who was very self-consciously present.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I teach an elective on the decade, I read lots of books about it. Most aren't very good. This one is, if your interested in literature and intellectual history.

[Ed Heinzelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmmm...having lived through the Sixties and having participated in the American Culture I was really looking forward to this. But this gets way out in the weeds and apparently intent on proving I am not a deep thinker. jeez louise...keep talking about authors often my last name only...sometimes introducing them by first/last but often just jumping in. So why are we talking about writing in the Thirties and Forties? Why the heavy emphasis on literature written by writers of a certain age and not my peers? On and On and On...and one short simple chapter about music...and basically just Dylan, Beatles, and Stones. There were dozens of others who influenced the period who were just as important. And no cinema? No theater? No visual art? And if I hear one more word about Norman Mailer, Donald Barthelme, Ginsberg, or Lionel Trilling, I'll spit blood. Cripes, this book coulda been how to fit Trilling into the Sixties without anyone noticing. And they just ambled and rambled in an out of the narrative, such as it was. Well somehow I managed to finish it...partly waiting for the music portion and the drive by mention of John Barth (he missed Giles Goat Boy apparently..LOL!). Oh well...if there were 2.5 stars, that's the rating, rounded up to 3.

[Laszlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but for me the sixties was more than Bob Dylan. ...

[Harley Lond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed. Thought -- based on reviews -- that this would be a thorough look at the culture of the 1960s but, in fact, it is a study -- basically -- of American Literature in the 1950s and 1960s. There is some connections to radical politics and music but the use of the word "Culture" in the title is a misnomer. It is pretentious and boring -- but does serve as a launch pad to better reads.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

An erudite read. It would have made much more of an impact on me if I had actually already read the literary works Dickstein discusses. My problem, not his.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book: a multifaceted magical mystery tour that works irrespective of your political leanings or ethnic background. Dense, intellectual, and (oddly?) relevant.

[David Garrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literary '60s only, thought the content would be of broader scope. Returned book to Audible.

[Sharon Bodnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

So glad I'm done with this book. Lots of pretentious writing about literature in the 60's with a tiny bit of political change thrown in. He wrote this in the 70's, but coming of age in the '50's kept him from experiencing the spirit of the 60's . The world was our oyster and, having graduated high school in '66 and college in '70 it did not end in '68. I think of myself as part of the most fortunate generation America has seen. I wish Dickstein's book was a little more political as I expected when I selected it from the history section of the book store.