The 60s: The Story of a Decade

The Story of a Decade #3

by The New Yorker

The third installment of a fascinating decade-by-decade series, this anthology collects historic New Yorker pieces from the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century--including work by James Baldwin, Pauline Kael, Sylvia Plath, Roger Angell, Muriel Spark, and John Updike--alongside new assessments of the 1960s by some of today's finest writers.

Here are real-time accounts of these years of turmoil: Calvin Trillin reports on the integration of Southern universities, E. B. White and John Updike wrestle with the enormity of the Kennedy assassination, and Jonathan Schell travels with American troops into the jungles of Vietnam. The murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., the fallout of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Six-Day War: All are brought to immediate and profound life in these pages.

The New Yorker of the 1960s was also the wellspring of some of the truly timeless works of American journalism. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time all first appeared in The New Yorker and are featured here. The magazine also published such indelible short story masterpieces as John Cheever's "The Swimmer" and John Updike's "A & P," alongside poems by Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.

The arts underwent an extraordinary transformation during the decade, one mirrored by the emergence in The New Yorker of critical voices as arresting as Pauline Kael and Kenneth Tynan. Among the crucial cultural figures profiled here are Simon & Garfunkel, Tom Stoppard, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Muhammad Ali (when he was still Cassius Clay).

The assembled pieces are given fascinating contemporary context by current New Yorker writers, including Jill Lepore, Malcolm Gladwell, and David Remnick. The result is an incomparable collective portrait of a truly galvanizing era.

Praise for The 60s: The Story of a Decade

"The third installment in the esteemed magazine's superb decades series . . . The contributor list is an embarrassment of riches. . . . The hits continue. Bring on the '70s."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[The 60s] deserves a lasting place on one's shelves. Like its predecessors in the series, this collection is a time capsule and a keeper."--Booklist

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories, Journalism, Anthologies, Society

705 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2016

About the author

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published forty-seven times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans.

Reviews

[Bethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the third instalment of a decade-by-decade series. It is a collection of pieces from the New Yorker from the most joyous years of the twentieth century. Some of the most important events in history happened in the 1960’s, including Kennedy’s assassination, the murder of Martin Luther King and Jonathan Schell travels with American troops to Vietnam. Most importantly for me, in the March of 1965, my Father was born. This is why I have taken such an interest in finding out what life was truly like during this time.

It was an excellent anthology to read and thoroughly enjoyable. For me, it was like putting on a pair of glasses and getting to view what it was really like in America in the 1960’s. I liked how the articles were obviously chosen for their relevance to today’s readers, with topics such as reviews of books and films etc.

I can’t wait to hopefully read both the 1940’s and 1950’s now. I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Carol Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading the New Yorker to find out what happened in the Sixties is like interviewing Marie Antoinette to learn about the French Revolution. There are some worthwhile pieces here (Pauline Kael's brilliant takedown of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") but the premise is false. The New Yorker has never been and never will be a magazine that promotes genuine social change. It's a magazine for rich white people on the Upper West Side who like to think that they're hipper and more humane than the ignorant proles out there in the outer boroughs.

Moreover, most of the New Yorker's marquee names, their brightest lights (like John Updyke) were genuinely shocked and sickened by the Sixties in every sense of the term. Even the hip people at the New Yorker were square. Check out "rock critic" Ellen Willis suggesting that the Beatles were more important than Elvis because "their music wasn't as black." WTF?!?!?!? Still don't think race is a problem at the New Yorker? Read George Steiner's fawning review of William Styron's racist classic THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER. ("Really Nat's cultivated prose is superbly compelling. He sounds like Milton. He sounds like the Bible! And isn't that more edifying than real Negro speech? Who wants to hear what real Negroes have to say anyway?")

Oh there are some real stinkers in this book. But fear not! The editors have carefully handpicked two or three positive pieces, and falsified the historical record with a Stalinist flair, so that we can all pretend the Bourbons were *really* on the side of the Revolution all along.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm amazed an editorial staff consisting of different people can navigate different times with a collective voice that is never either trendy or condescending. This is especially true given how shocking the 60s must have been for some of the magazines more hidebound readership.

If you read the New Yorker now for a reflective take on our times and have any interest in the 60s, I would recommend it. Sometimes the magazine manages to see change coming in thought-provoking ways. Other times, it seems to pause in the midst of seismic change to reflect on potential consequences.

The volumes on the 40s and the 50s were also very much worth reading.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not know it was an anthology. I'm not a fan of essays and short stories usually. There were some good ideas contained in this collection, but I was looking forward to a review of the decade.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

The editors of The New Yorker gleaned their magazine's pages from the decade of the 1960s to find some of the decade's best writing, everything from journalism and fiction to poetry. I skipped the latter two and focused on the typically brilliant New Yorker non-fiction articles by everyone from E.B. White and Truman Capote to Hannah Arendt. Covered topics included Nigeria's independence celebration in 1960, the Cuba Missile Crisis, the murders of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr., an excerpt from "In Cold Blood" from 1965, and an interesting article about the New York legislature debating the liberalization of its abortion laws in 1969; State senators called fifteen witnesses to testify: 14 men and a nun. The hearing was stormed by feminists who were later physically removed. If one is interested in the '60s, I would visit your public library to probe back issues of such magazines as New Yorker. This book is a good start.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful anthology of stories, reviews, poetry, fiction, and all the other things the New Yorker reviewed in the 60's. I love reading these collections to hear and try to feel what was being said during the time things were happening. All the pieces were great, and it was a joy to read each night. Great collection in general for the three decades they covered. Really bummed they stopped with the 60's and didn't go on to the 70's, 80's, 90's and beyond.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

These collections are always first rate. Just a wonderful collection for each decade.

In this collection the first section is titled " Reckonings " and includes excerpts of some of the most famous, groundbreaking work ever produced in the magazine in any decade, not just the sixties.

Beginning with Silent Spring, an essay which many attribute as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. I, myself, have just recently read the entire three part essay. It is breathtakingly prescient. It still, over fifty years later, provides a shock to the system. The opening paragraphs describing a coming springtime after the full effects of the catastrophe to come is still some of the most enduring writing you will find.

James Baldwin's " The Fire Next Time " is prescient of an ( at that time ) continuing and still current disaster. That is, the relationship between black and white in this country. Baldwin speaks of growing up in Harlem and his slow gaining understanding that for our country to be saved that it is the white man and his ideas which will have to change. The biblical promise of no more floods, the fire next time, is, if anything, more relevant today than it was at the time of Baldwin's original essay.

"Eichmann in Jerusalem" is a greatly anthologized reporting from the trial of the great Nazi after he was captured in the early sixties. Controversial at the time Arendt found much to dislike in the behavior of the Jewish system of government but if anything presents strongest in this writing it is the commonness of evil. The fact that the perpetrator in this case was not a special man with special talents, he was just a man in the right position to cause and bring about a great amount of evil. The fact that just any man, not an especially charismatic or talented one, could bring about this level of evil should be the scariest thing of all.

Also included is a brief excerpt from Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. In our time we now have current questions about the author's methodology, how much he injected himself into the story. Still, the writing is exquisite and should lead anyone to read the full book length version. Just as Arendt portrayed Eichmann as the banality of evil, these two men, in that small town jail in Kansas, showed no great ability or potential, either before or after, their horrific crimes, to do such things.

Writing on Vietnam in 1967 " The Village of Ben Suc" serves if anything as a canary in the coal mine of what is happening in the fighting. Portraying an American unit as young, blasé, inexperienced, and naive while also having the mannerisms of veteran fighters is not an easy thing. The problems of fighting an enemy in which you cannot tell who you are fighting from who you are helping is brought out dramatically. Also evident is the stories a soldier has to tell himself to be able to accept the actions he takes as typically American heroics. There would be worse events and tougher writing to come but this still must have been a bit of a shock when originally written.

The last reporting in this section also centers on Vietnam. From the venerable Richard Rovere " Reflections : Half Out of Our Tree " reads at times as if it should have been prescient in some of its opinions. In fact at times when reading this the surprise is not what is written but that today, fifty years later, the same things could be and, in some cases, are being written. Rovere initially speaks about what of the big differences in the Vietnam war in 1967. The concern by Americans , both for the war and after, for civilian casualties. He posits that in World War Two, certainly in Korea, a great deal,of destruction and loss of life was visited on civilian populations. The anger, if any presented itself, was reserved for the enemy for " making " us do such things. In the author's opinion in 1967 it seems that Americans are not just against the Vietnam War and President Johnson 's heavy bombing, but , any war and any bombing. He then talks about if, the anti war movement continues to grow apace, the United States might end up a pacifist nation. He deems it unlikely if only because pacifist nations do not survive, they are usually picked apart by non pacifist neighbors. But, he also wonders if a tipping point is being approached. When he speaks of future wars not being large scale and defined easily between good and evil he is more correct than he knows. He wonders out loud how any American leader could ever involve the country in another war of liberation such as Vietnam without resorting to a level of repression against public dissent which had never yet occurred. It is interesting, as a reader in 2017, knowing our recent history in Iraq and other places, and knowing that some things never change.

Interestingly he also speaks of the other path for the leader of 1967 and beyond. That is, repression of dissent. He questions what would happen if a Supreme Court made a decision that the executive branch disagreed with. What would force them to uphold it. Isn't all Democratic government only allowed with the will of the armed forces. When one remembers the crisis with Nixon and the Court, the crisis averted in Bush v Gore, and the very real potential of a massive constitutional crisis to be forthcoming involving Donald Trump, these thoughts have an even greater impact.

An interesting point is made up of the dangers of foreign aid as explained by the Arkansas Senator William Fulbright. No backward Conservative himself he felt that when we gave aid to a specific country it made them a target for either their jealous neighbors or the corrupt in their own society to want some of the spoils. I do not know if that is valid but he also points out that with our great expense in Vietnam our spending on foreign aid around the world as well as our assistance to the poor in our country is diminishing. As he puts it " the wretched of the Earth seem to be paying the bill to assist Vietnam."

In what might be most interesting he talks about how the war is driving A Erica and Americans country. He declares with an incredulous tone that some are vouching for the idea of running Ronald Reagan for President. He states that the country is being taken over by cranks and zanies. Finally he proclaims that he worries about the consequences of staying in or pulling out. He doubts that Johnson, or to be fair, any President, would have the courage to take America out of the war and proclaim it to have been a mistake but feels an obfuscation of some type might work.

In the end though he admits he has no idea how to get out, how to end it but proclaims that all a man can do is say what he thinks and feels.

Clearly I wrote a great deal on this essay but I found it to be just exceptionally relevant on so many levels.

The next section of this book is titled " Confrontation " and visits more of the issues of the day in the sixties.

In an article by Katherine Kinkead called " It Doesn't Seem Quick to Me " the reporter follows some young members of the African American community in their efforts to desegregate Durham, North Carolina. Having succeeded with the local lunch counters she writes of their disciplined efforts at continuing with movie theaters. What strikes most is the words of one of the young activists when he states " we are not asking for integrated table service at a restaurant " as if, even for a black person, that was a bridge too far.

" An Education in Georgia " is an essay by Calvin Trillin about the desegregation of the University of Georgia. Focusing on the first two students, a young black woman named Charlene Hunter and a man named Hamilton Holmes, Trillin makes us aware of the struggles and indignities these people had to face. Reading these articles fifty years later it boggles that the writers can write such an emotion free rendering of such a terrible circumstance.

Trillin also writes " The March on Washington " a short piece that, again, makes one sense the intense levels of dignity with which these activists carried themselves.

And then in another article by the author Trillin writes " A Letter From Berkeley " in which he examines the free speech movement that exploded on the campus in 1965. It is interesting to note that similarities are easily drawn between the FSM activists and the right wing protests of today. It was somewhat nonsensical that a campus as liberally inclined as Berkeley would be the location of an attack, liberals with their respect for institutions and debate, became the perfect foil for the anarchist methodology. An interesting point is made about the nature of firebrands. Noting that they are necessary to any movement but that they should never be allowed to be out in positions of ultimate power and negotiation. For them the battle is more important than the cause, negotiation is failure, compromise is weakness or worse, a sell out. If this does not describe our political stalemate today I don't know what does.

EJ Kahn wrote a memorable article entitled " Harvard Yard " which described the occupations in Harvard. Nothing in this article makes the faculty look smart in the way they handled themselves. In the end by the overuse of force and violence on otherwise peaceful protesters they ended up creating a more wide ranging level of animosity against them on campus. Students and Faculty who otherwise would have disdained the tactics, became sympathetic, if not for the cause, to them. How many times do those in authority have to see that heavy handed tactics inevitably breed more martyrs, more insurgents, more destabilization. It is always the case, on college campuses, and occupied countries.

The third section of the book is titled American Scenes. In the introduction Jill Lepore (who I must add that, as a current writer for The New Yorker, is an incredibly talented writer of all things historical ) states that the sound YOU here when reading these selections is a shattering. If you know just the top line history of the sixties this section will address those events that shattered and threatened to rip the very fabric of country apart.

A section tilted " Pressure and Possibility " begins with a Letter from Washington from Richard Rovere. Told as a recap of the events of The Cuban Missile Crisis this short piece does something I have not seen, especially at a time adjacent to the events, in that it notices that though the events were precipitated by a horrible miscalculation by the Russians it also was stopped because of the greater latitude of political calculation allowed to the Russian leader. The American political system makes its leaders, correctly so, more accountable to individual voters. Because of this there is not an event that can be not used for political gain. Kennedy dealt with the horrible events of course but he also knew that he was walking a tightrope that would ruin him if the Republicans could argue that he capitulated. While any Russian leader has to worry about the Politburo of course, he does not really have to worry about the general political opinion of the average citizen and thus is less susceptible to demagoguery from the opposition. It was an interesting take.

Ellen Willis writes " Hearing " in 1969 about the New York State legislatures hearing on the liberalization of abortion laws. Not much has changed since 1969, the author notes that all the witnesses are women while all the people on the dias who will make the decisions are all men. It's like Groundhog Day.

Richard Rovere writes another Letter from Washington about LBJ's Great Society plans and how closed off and secretive everyone is in the early stages of planning. Daniel Lang writes about visiting a missile silo while Charlayne Hunter ( who we met as an early black student in Georgia ) writes about her walk though Harlem. Jonathan Schell attends a rally in support of Biafra while James Stevenson writes about the " as told to him " Woodstock experiences of his friend Ed. Ed, a middle aged suburban Dad, had been convinced on a lark to take his young son to the event. His perspective on the events captures a different take and is, because of that, worthwhile.

And then, because we have to, and we know they are coming, we enter a section called " Shots Were Fired ."

This begins with Notes and Comment from the November 30, 1963 issue. Donald Malcolm gives us a short paragraph about the death of a President and how instantly world altering it is. Lillian Ross writes a beautiful piece about Kennedy's pre Dallas visit to Miami. She attends an airport rally and especially witnesses a group of young black schoolchildren there to see the President as witnesses for their whole class. The section ends with the words of EB White who makes note of the President's not wearing a hat, being unconcerned with the buffeting winds, never being willing to trim his sails and concludes the President would have been pleased to have died as he did, of exposure, not giving into the weather.

A month later in the magazine Jonathan Miller writes " Views of a Death " which contemplates the battle of public and private in the television viewing of the Presidents funeral. I cannot help being reminded of the later burial at sea of his son, with paparazzi chasing the family's moment of private grief into the cold waters of the Atlantic.

Jacob Brackman and Terrence Malick ( really? ) write about the assassination of Martin Luther King. They speak of their last visit with the man, how they heard of his death, and revisit the current split in the black community as to tactics moving forward. Attending a march in his honor in DC, even as the riots in some sections persist, the authors note that his death might be the last unifying event between the various factions trying to bring equality to the African American citizens.

Micheal Arlen also addresses the death of King in his " Life and Death in the Global Village ", while the section ends with Richard Rovere's piece on the death of Robert Kennedy. Rovere speaks to the unacknowledged truth that the Presidents and leaders of modern republics are unacceptably at risk of a person disturbed enough to wish to do them harm. Lamenting the power of the NRA, the unfortunate receding of the public figure from the public which must be a result of the last half decade of violence, and pondering the necessity of a National Police Force, the writer sees no good options to address this spate of violence against our leaders. It is baffling and bewildering to see the subject of the mass availability of guns and the nature of our violent entertainments producing violence of an ever increasing amount in our society, not today, but just one year shy of fifty years ago. How can we still be facing this issue as ineffectively.

The Fourth section of this book is titled Farther Shores and focuses in just that, news and events of the world outside the U.S.

Beginning the section we have, from 1960, " Though Tribe and Tongue May Differ " which is a story about the first days of independence of Nigeria. Most telling is the calm that descends on the Nigerian people both in the days leading up to the event and directly after. While the British feel a sense of what's lost the Nigerians treat their gain like, in a modern euphemism " a football player who has been in the end zone before. "

This section also features a, surprisingly uneventful, story of the writer Hans Konisberger's visit to Castro's Cuba in a 1961 " Letter From Havana."

A late 1965 story entitled " Letter From the Vatican " does a much better job detailing the important Vatican conference established by Pope Paul as he tried to modernize the church. Certainly no reformer in the mood of our current Pope Francis, we see that Paul was faced with many challenges to any modest reforms he proposed. It is always interesting to me as a non - Catholic how in doctrine the Pope is to be the emissary of Christ on Earth and yet, even the clergy of his church, fight him at every turn.

A fantastic piece of writing " On the Seventh Day They Stopped " is Flora Lewis' piece on 1967's Six Day War. Memorable for the land gains Israel made that are still controversial today, this description mostly centers on the capture of East Jerusalem.

The next piece is from Joseph Wechsberg titled Letter From Prague. Written in April 1968 as the city was bursting with optimism and new found freedom it is an almost painful read as we, the reader, know what was soon to come. To read that a great proportion of those pushing for and enjoying these freedoms still considers themselves as Communists and envisioned a two party Communism makes one wonder if Russia might have succeeded with a different approach.

Mavis Gallant, well known as The New Yorker's resident Parisian ( by way of Canada ) wrote a piece in September, 1968 about the Paris events of May. Prague, Paris, America, the world was truly burning in 1968. In her notebook set up calendar style we see the students on the barricades, the police brought in from the rural areas. One particularly strong section describes the well to do Parisian housewives saying that the police had to be as brutal and uncompromising as they were because the students were infiltrated by the North Africans. It seems it does not matter when and where you are, if you can find a way to blame the " other " it excuses whatever acts you do. In the South it was white northerners stirring up the good Negroes with civil rights, in 2016 it was Black Lives Matters and other outside agitators, in 2017 George Soros is paying protesters. The established order always follows the same fact. One last point, when Gallant describes the students on one side, crossing the zone and talking to the police. Discussing the events, the politics it makes one think of the Sunday of Kent State. Darkness fell that night too and it is likely the gun with the flowers in it from Sunday spit them out with bullets on Monday. Reading this piece from Paris, 1968 can give you a feeling of desperation about the likelihood of things ever changing

The next section is titled " New Arrivals." Featuring some Talk of the Town pieces there are some interesting bits. In the section we see a 1960 office computer for sale that with punch card data can do an amazing mount of computations and tasks. At only 24,500 dollars it is a steal.

The Telestar satellite, touch tone phones, the Big Bang theory ( of special note as written by John Updike,) are written about in small pieces. A magnificent piece by the great Lillian Ross discussing Sgt. Pepper with musician aficionados that attempt to convince her that they have transcended pop music to become an art form. The last article in this section is a different look at Apollo two. The writer watches the landing of Armstrong and Aldrin and we experience his impatience with all the theatrics urging them to " just get the samples."

The next section is also from small pieces, it is titled Brief Encounters. We see a 1960 story about Ornette Coleman who is setting the world of jazz alight with his impresario techniques, and the great AJ Liebling writing about the upcoming first professional fight of note for the 1960 gold medal winner Cassius Clay. The NAACP's Roy Wilkins speaks with joy and hope about President Johnson's " We Shall Overcome " speech, pianist Glen Gould is visited and we are introduced to Brian Epstein, Beatles manager, as he visits New York to negotiate an upcoming first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. What was to come, in that case, could not have been predicted.

Later in this same section we also meet the famed Marshall McLuhan who wrote three very important books in the sixties and was a noted futurist. In this 1965 article he has " predicted a happy day when everyone will have his own portable computer to cope with the dreary business of digesting information.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another eclectic and intriguing collection from the New Yorker – this time it’s the 60s in focus, so that means so many iconic names are represented here, from Rachel Carson with Silent Spring to Hannah Arendt with Eichmann in Jerusalem. Brief Encounters feature Twiggy to Tom Stoppard, there’s poetry from Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, a review of Portnoy’s Complaint and fiction from John Cheever – amongst many many others. Helpful and illuminating comment from contemporary New Yorker writers give context to the chosen pieces. These volumes are such a good idea and I look forward to further ones.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your response to this will depend on two things: 1) your feelings about the New Yorker and its house style--the use of the editorial "we", the ideological commitment to mainstream liberalism; the cool, sometimes sarcastic sense of humor; and 2) what you're reading the book for. If you're looking for a history of the Sixties, this isn't it, but that's embedded in the fact that it's an anthology of journalism written at the time. That creates some fascinating reading experiences since the writers didn't know what was going to happen next. No one knew that Cassius Clay would become Muhammad Ali, that Bob Dylan would last, etc.

All of the writing is polished; that's what the New Yorker does. The sections of fiction and (to a slightly lesser degree) poetry reflect the magazine's distance from anything happening outside New York.

There's a well known New Yorker cover presenting the map of the US as seen from Manhattan, and this anthology expresses that world view perfectly. If your sense of the US extends beyond NY, LA and Chicago, this is a problem. If it doesn't, add another star.

[Chris DiLeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with The 50's collection of The New Yorker pieces, this collection offers an authentic (though, of course slanted) take on the Sixties from the actual time period.

The best pieces are "In Cold Blood: The Corner" by Truman Capote; "The Price of Peace is Confusion" by Renata Adler; "Lull" by Charlayne Hunter; "Views of a Death" by Jonathan Miller; "Notes and Comments (The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) by Jacob Brackman and Terrence Malick; and "A&P" by John Updike.

Some of it is very heavy reading, but it is an informative and enthralling time-travel trip.

Dig it, man.

P.S. I only wish there was something included about the Manson murders—I'm fascinated to know what The New Yorker felt about it . . .

[Dachokie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hodge-Podge View of the 1960s …

This book was reviewed as part of Amazon's Vine program which included a free copy of the book.

Having been born in 1966, I honestly can’t say I “experienced” the 60s and maybe that was the reason I had difficulty identifying with “The New Yorker’s” take on the decade. While THE 60’S: THE STORY OF A DECADE offers some tasty tidbits of journalism authored by a host of American icons, I felt the overall selection of stories chosen could have better represented the turbulent decade. But, with that being said, the sheer number of stories/articles means there is a little something for everyone.

“The New Yorker” is approaching a 100 year history of publishing informative, entertaining and provocative essays, stories and reviews that cover virtually every facet of Americana, even though it is predominantly “New York-centric”. THE 60S provides a sampling of the magazine’s coverage of a decade that transformed the United States on almost every front. The articles that comprise the book reflect that transformation (politically, socially/culturally and artistically) … the 1960s proved to be a prolific resource for the magazine’s contributors.

The nearly 700 page book is organized into nine chapters (parts) that cover a wide range of topics (from poetry, fiction and sports to social upheaval and encounters with newsworthy individuals of the day). Each part/chapter is prefaced with an introduction from contemporary contributors for contextual purposes. The articles within the chapters are varied and include some of America’s more celebrated writers (Cheever, Capote and Updike, for example). As I stated earlier, there is a little something for everyone. Personally, I could not establish a connecting rhythm with much of the book’s content and found some of the articles/entries rather bland and tedious to read. Then again, there were a few nuggets that caught my attention (I generally do not enjoy fiction, but was enthralled by John Updike’s uneventful short story, “A&P”). While the book covers the pulse of the decade’s most iconic moments/issues (civil rights, feminism, moon landing, Woodstock, etc.), I was somewhat surprised that topics like the 68 Olympics, Charles Manson and the Altamont festival were not covered. Additionally, it would have really been nice if the book included a chapter with some of the magazine’s 1960s cartoons (it would seem logical to include them in the mix).

I certainly like the idea of sampling the magazine’s articles over decades; the writing quality is noteworthy. While I could not connect with THE 60S, I do feel that those who experienced the decade first-hand certainly would. Looking forward, I do hope the magazine’s next offering is dedicated to the 70s … now that’s a decade I can sink my teeth into.

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The New Yorker's third entry in this decade-by-decade review of the magazine's best writing, The 60s takes a somewhat serious tone. My own recollection of the 60s is as a child, so the political upheaval, student unrest, and racial tension was a slightly unsettling hum in the background of my watching Captain Kangaroo and playing with Spirograph. My memory of the JFK assassination was that all the grownups were so upset and then so sad. So reading this anthology fills in some blanks from the era.

One thing that stands out in the collection is how many of the pieces are still well-known, such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. James Baldwin and Hannah Arendt are also represented here, and if you've read Calvin Trillin's latest book, Jackson 1964, you'll recognize a few of his articles here. JFK's death would be only the first of the assassinations of the 60s, and before that there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Overseas there were the war in Vietnam and the student protests in Paris and convulsions in the Middle East. Dispatches from E.B. White and John Updike and Emily Hahn help to make sense of the inexplicable.

My favorite feature of The New Yorker, the profiles of famous or yet to be famous people, include a thoughtful look at The Who by a young Hendrik Hertzberg, and looks at newcomers Cassius Clay, Brian Epstein, and Marshall McLuhan. In the arts coverage, Nat Hentoff considers a difficult interviewee in Bob Dylan, and Pauline Kael pans Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Kenneth Tynan raves about Bye Bye Birdie (really?), Ellen Willis writes about rock (although I found her reporting from the NY legislature on abortion law her most powerful piece in this collection).

There's also fiction (Updike, Cheever, Barthelme, and more) and poetry, but no cartoons. Although I enjoy the cartoons every week, it seems to me that humor often doesn't age well, so it's probably just as well to skip them.

An altogether enjoyable and varied collection of writing from the 60s. Bring on the 70s!

(Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a digital review copy.)

[Chris]

I didn't read every essay in this collection, but finally, I read "Silent Spring", the essay that began the environmental movement, by Rachel Carson. I read "Eichmann in Jerusalem", at last, and can now delve further into Hannah Arendt's explorations of that compelling need of humanity for totalitarianism. After exploring cultural events like Woodstock, The March on Washington, Bob Dylan, The 1969 Mets, or The Beatles, in many other ways over the years, The New Yorker articles here were fresh perspectives.
James Baldwin's 1962 piece about The Negro in America could have been written yesterday. It is profound.
There are many observations of our culture that still reflect as brightly today. In a story about rock group, The Who, the reporter asks what is the biggest difference between the US and the UK. Singer Roger Daltrey answers, "The generation gap!" He explains, British citizens had (just 25 years before, at the time) spent years underground while their homes were destroyed in World War Two. "They built up a sense of humor. We respect them, and they respect us."
This brief comment at the end of a short piece discussing Rock operas, performing, and groupies, brought to light another anomaly of life in the US: We have known no protracted warfare on our own soil. That particular hardship, sacrifice, daily insecurity, and perseverance has never been visited upon us. I do not wish it on us, or anyone. I wonder though, has our good fortune made us intolerant?

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

The editors of The New Yorker have done a tremendous job of creating a series of books encapsulating each decade, based on the contents of the weekly magazine during each. While I haven't read "The 40s", or "The 50s", this book on the 1960s is truly fabulous, filled with the giants of the age, giving us a beautiful, harrowing time capsule (or time machine) to these tumultuous times. At almost 700 pages thick, this is a veritable trove. Endemic racism, police brutality, immoral wars, the galvanization of the Women's Liberation movement and the fight for women's rights, the birth of Environmentalism, famine in Africa, Russia-US tensions, the whispering fears of nuclear annihilation, a generation of youth trapped in escapism . . . makes one wonder what a book on the 2010s will look like fifty years from now . . .

[Dan Pasquini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some incredible, iconic stories (of course) which help fill out the picture of the '60s, so much of which has been lost to time and stereotype.

Many of the pieces are abridged -- some were nearly book-length themselves; without making edits this collection would easily be 1,000 pages. Most of the edits are done well but a few stories are shorn of context. On others, like "The Put-On," so much gold is left behind. And one could have done with more from Pauline Kael and Ellen Willis. But that's what the archives are for.

Finally -- and this is shocking, given The New Yorker's legendary reputation in this department -- there were a few copy editing errors which, though minor, kept this from feeling like the perfect New Yorker package we've come to expect.

[Susan Csoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 1960's was the most tumultuous decade of the twentieth century. Included are historic writings from The New Yorker. Real time accounts of the integration of Southern universities, the Kennedy assassination, American troops in Vietnam, the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., the soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and much more. A fabulous informative, coffee table book!!!!!

[Debi Hagberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in the 60's so was excited to win this book in Goodreads giveaway. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was broken down into chapters labeled with the occurrence so it could be a book read from jumping around and not having to read front to back. Nicely written, it brought back many memories, some good, some really bad!

[Kathy]

Thank you Goodreads for selecting me as a lucky winner of this anthology in the First Reads program!

I look forward to reading it!

[Donia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick and enjoyable read and I have passed it on to my 14 year old son in the hopes that this history will be remembered correctly.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like going back to my childhood and then young adult I especially liked the music books

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book; read it selectively and it brought back memories of my 1960s.

[Linda Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have already started reading this book, and am looking for to reading again at a deeper level since I was born in 1961.
I also think I might want to get the other 2 books in this series

[Kelly Camui · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skipped critics and fiction, but otherwise good

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow my review on this book ran out of room, it does not look like 20 thousand words to me. But, I didn't count. So..here the paperback version sits to hold the rest of my review.

Continuing under Part Five New Arrivals in the " Brief Encounters section from the previous review we begin a brief report on Joan Baez and a non violent movement station she is hosting. A bit longer piece on Twiggy gives a glimpse of the importance in the moment of the skinny model who really changed the way we look at beauty in women. After that a report on, then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, as he made his way east to give a speech at the Economic Club in New York.

Also featured are pieces on the Maharishi Yogi, as well as very interesting pieces on Simon & Garfunkel ( as they prepare for a concert that evening in New Haven, Connecticut ) as well the British rockers The Who.

Part Six is Titled Artists and Athletes and is one of the stronger sections of the book. These few articles are all excellent. A lengthy profile of the writing team of Mike Nicholls and Elaine May was, for someone just a little too young to know them in their heyday, evidence of both their genius and their influence on those that came after them. I even went and looked up many of their bits on YouTube.

The famous article on Bob Dylan titled " The Crackin, Shakin, Brakin, Sounds written by the " serious " music critic Nat Hentoff has become one of the most well known pieces in all of rock criticism and it holds up well. Dylan is shown much more easily, more comfortable in his skin in this early juncture of 1964.

If there is a better non fiction writer ( no matter the subject matter ) than John McPhee I have not encountered him yet. In this collection we get his equally famous " Levels of the Game " dual profile of the young Arthur Ashe and now little remembered Clark Graebner. The two men clearly respect each other, their contrasting opinions, however, on almost everything is quite evident. On tennis, relationships, politics, race, and much more there is little to agree on as the interviews between the writer and the men are interspersed with the play by play of a tennis match between them.

Roger Angell still writes occasionally, even today at 96, for the magazine. It is something to be celebrated, this gift he has. His baseball writing is legendary, his pieces in 1969 about the Amazing Mets were among his best. This entry " Days and Nights of the Unbored " wrapping up the 69 World Series by the Amazings is a great example.

Surprisingly, to me, at least, the best piece was one called " Paterfamilias." A profile of Alan Ginsburg by Jane Kramer ( also still writing for the magazine ) goes beyond the obligatory " Pied Piper of Drugs " references and distills a much deeper portrait of a man who seems to be very genuine, thoughtful, and despite reports, not looking " to blow up the world " to reach his aims.

Criticism and Reviews have always been a big part of The New Yorker. The Sixties gave us some of the most famous pieces ever published in the magazine.

In Cinema no less than Roger Angell raves about the French movie Breathless. 2001 : A Space Odyssey gets its due in another story but the most famous review is the withering one the legendary Pauline Kael gave Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Titled " The Bottom of the Pit " the writer criticizes not only the movie but seems to think it is the harbinger of the death of quality movies in the future. One does not know if she ever changed her opinion but it is still a wonderful piece of writing, brutal in its efforts.

Only two television reviews grace this edition and, interestingly, they both review coverage of The Vietnam War. Both written by the heretofore unknown to me Michael Arlen they are magnificent pieces. Especially damning is a piece called " The Bombs Below Go Pop-Pop-Pop." This piece was advertised by CBS as an objective review of how,the war was going. With 55 minutes given to the military as " pure propaganda " Arlen was apoplectic about the few minutes tacked onto the end for one brief contrary opinion. Interestingly about the time I was reading this The New York Times was being heavily criticized for its rambling filibuster interview granted them over the Winter break by Trump. One would think that the press would learn how not to be manipulated so easily but it still happens altogether too easily. This writing by Arlen is as biting, with legitimate reason, as you will get.

There are several book reviews in this collection but for me only two stood out. A head and shoulders above the crowd piece written by Dwight MacDonald titled " Our Invisible Poor " is, like much great writing, as relevant today as it was half a century ago. Reviewing the author Michael Harrington's The Other America the reader is given by both reviewer and the author of said book proof after proof destroying the popular premise that poverty had been all but wiped out. Keep in mind this was before Johnson's Great Society programs. A full level indictment of both methodology and the results of those stories that blamed " the few pockets of the poor mostly on the poor themselves " it could easily be updated today. And still, sadly, work.

George Steiner wrote " The Fire Last Time " a review of William Styron's Nat Turner historical fiction. I had just finished that book, simply a coincidence, in the month prior to reading this review. It was written in that time before the total rebuke of it from the black community had happened but Steiner, despite, endorsing the book and Styron's writing, presciently sees some of the difficulty ahead for Styron. A fantastic quote by the reviewer rings so very true as well. Considering that a review by James Baldwin ( who was very positive about the book ) might give stronger cover to Styron, Steiner doubts it by saying " a great gift is like leprosy : it isolates a man or makes him a member of a special community. "

The other book reviews moved me little, the music reviews were bland and wordy ( though if one is a fan of Ellen Willis probably worth reading ) and my ability to competently speak about the theatre or architecture is non existent.

Part Eight deals with poetry and while I have improved in my appreciation of this art it is still very weak. I know what appeals to me but I can't speak to the worth of that which does not.

The final section features some of the noted fiction that appeared in the decade. How one picks out a representative sample I have no idea. The New Yorker is probably ( after the cartoons ) known more for fiction entries than any other thing, picking out " the best " must be impossible.

The two most famous pieces included have both been heavily anthologized. This is with good reason however. John Updike's " A & P " shows in a few short pages the undercurrent of rebellion that exists in even the most mild mannered young men. In this story it only takes three young women in swimsuits to bring it out in him. John Cheever's " The Swimmer " is a deeper, more complex, story. I must confess that in reading it this time I discovered and understood much more the subtext of the mans mental break or purposeful amnesia. And,the idea of both swimming across and living in an area where one could swim across, eight miles on the way home is amusing indeed. I believe this was even made into a movie with Burt Lancaster. I think I remember seeing him on a late night movie attempting to swim across an incredibly crowded municipal pool.

The other stories cannot live up. I enjoy Mavis Gallant's writing a great deal and her piece " The Hunter's Waking Thoughts " is like all her work. It is perfectly worded, pretty almost, but the story feels like it needs more definition.

Muriel Spark's " The Ormulo Clock " did nothing special for me and Donald Barthelme 's " The Indian Uprising " was little behind gibberish to me. As to the latter I know The New Yorker supported his writing for years but if this is representative of his style I would have to add him to my list of celebrated writers I just don't appreciate.

The last story is a strong one. By Isaac Bashevis Singer we meet an old Jewish woman, long widowed, living as a hermit in her New York City apartment. She is in fear all of her existence. She fears the neighbors, the people she meets in the street when she walks to the store. Her landlord is out to abuse or take advantage of her, her bank would steal from her safe deposit box. An older woman not adjusting, living in fear of the rapidly changing world of the sixties. This, too, could be adapted to today, and used as a political hammer in the age of Trump. In this story our heroine locks herself out of her apartment and has no one she dares ask for help. A night spent outside in a doorway gives her a totally different outlook as do the reactions of her neighbors and landlord when they discover what she has been through. The ending is open to interpretation but in either case we are glad to see her achieve a new understanding prior to the end of the story.

That wraps it up. An amazing anthology. Bring on the Seventies.

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any songwriter would be proud to pen what could be considered a classic song—one that was guaranteed to survive the test of time. Bob Dylan has accomplished this multiple times. Recently, he was able to add “Nobel Laureate” to his resume. But Dylan has never taken himself as seriously as has the press writing about him. At least I hope not. If he does, then he is ridiculous.

This brings up one of the problems of the 1960s: It is often hard to know who is putting on whom. [Artist Andy Warhol and composer John Cage made entire careers exploring the fine lines between high, low, and non-art.] You can see the New Yorker struggling with the problem in this collection. Suddenly journalists were taking pop culture seriously, and the practitioners of that culture were well aware of the fact. The key essay in The 60s: The Story of a Decade may be Jacob Brackman’s “The Put-On.”

There was a lot going on in the 60s, and we will never be allowed to forget that because the decade has been so well documented by its defining demographic population: the Baby Boomers. There will always be period movies like Easy Rider and nostalgic movies like The Big Chill to remind us how terribly important the 60s were. Even though that importance is possibly not exaggerated, the constant barrage of hype about the decade can be insufferable.

Perhaps that is why I did not like this volume as much as previous volumes, The 40s and The 50s. Nevertheless, The 60s is still an excellent collection of journalism, reviews, commentary, and poetry. Of course the New Yorker has always been famous for its fiction, and the selection in this volume is no exception. I especially liked John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer.”

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 60s is the third installment of decade overview collections from The New Yorker. This installment contains a wide range of nonfiction articles, reviews, fiction and poetry from the 1960s. Topics vary and include the civil right movement, the counterculture, music festivals, Vietnam, computers and much more.

Overall, this is a great collection that explores all of the topics that made the 1960s still a huge talking point today. Getting more specific, some of the articles are a bit long-winded. It's also a little difficult to keep an interest in reviews on things that cannot be explored on your own, such as reviews of theater performances. Other than that, it is something that anyone looking for a snapshot of the decade should check out.

*Book provided by NetGalley

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series (The 40s, The 50s, The 60s) has been amazing. The opportunity to get perspective on an entire decade of emerging art and culture through the New Yorker's published articles, fiction and poetry, is wonderful. Following my reading of the earlier books in the series, I like to pick out one or two examples from the fiction or poetry to use as inspiration for a story or poem of my own. It has helped me discover important and engaging writers from the past, and to understand how American literature developed across those three decades. Highly recommended!

[Onur Sazak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who is interested in learning about a decade that ushered in the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy today and that broadened our horizon in arts, science, technology, philosophy, and humanities will never find a more comprehensive work than this vast compilation of New Yorker articles on the breakthroughs of the 60s

[Grindy Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of these New Yorker anthologies, but this one really knocks it out of the park. The 1960s were eventful, of course, and it seems that for every big movement or event of the decade the New Yorker was there. Civil rights, Vietnam, Bob Dylan, the Amazin' Mets, Allen Ginsberg, Marshall McLuhan - wonderful essays on all. Highly recommended.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review coming.