The Troubles: A Jaundiced Glance Back at the Movement of the Sixties

by Joseph R. Conlin

It is a sin that this book is out of print, a crime that it's not recognized & universally cited as an authoritative statement on its subject. Conlin lays bare the unspoken truth about "the Movement" of the '60s: that it was a pageant of self-expression performed by pampered children of the privileged classes, full of sound & fury but signifying nothing. To boot, this is a scathingly funny read.
Preface
Flashbacks
Mom Was a Beatnik & Dad Was Colored
We the People of This Generation
Free Speech, Free Campus, Free Kids
Black Mischief, White Skin Privilege
War Is Hell on the Homefront, Too
O Far-out New World
Denouement
La Trahison des Clercs
Whatever Happened To...?
Bibliography
Index

431 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Bruce Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're confused about the idea that killing black children somehow demonstrates care for black lives- this book may help. It looks like a replay of the dumbed-down decade. Programmed idiocy where students

"had not progressed to that stage of development the psychologist Jean Piaget described in which the human creature understands that the feces he evacuates is no longer him. "

Let's tear down statues because of something called 'slavery' without realizing that 'slavery' comes from the word Slav: white people. So yes, if you don't know the difference between white and black- go for it. Lets remake history while remaking the language as well:

“We must invent a past adequate to our ambitions.” Conlin provides a roadmap, showing how we got here.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book is an historian who has specialized in American history, particularly as pertains to The Industrial Workers of the World. Contrasted to the Left of the period leading up to the first world war and its potential to have changed the class structure of the USA, the Movement of the sixties pales in comparison. The author, while delivering a critique worthy of consideration as regards certain elements of the New Left, overstates his case in my opinion. In the sixties, those activists who hoped for a socio-economic revolution were certainly out of touch with objective realities and too volunteeristic in their approach, but as regards more limited aims such as the reigning in of US military adventurism, the loosening of certain social mores and the rights of women and minorities the Movement made substantial contributions. Still, the distance between dream and reality in the minds of many of us is worth noting and Conlin does it with engaging wit.