eShop USA > Books > 1968: The Year That Rocked the World
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
List Price: $15.95Our Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Save $5.00 when you spend $25.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 909.826
EAN: 9780345455826
ISBN: 0345455827
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: January 11, 2005
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: January 11, 2005
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
Given its broad and vibrant subject, it would be quite difficult for a writer of any proficiency to pen a boring book on 1968, and Mark Kurlansky has indeed pulled together an entertaining and enlightening popular history with 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. With the Vietnam War and Soviet repression providing sparkplugs in the East and West, student movements heated up in Berkeley, Prague, Mexico City, Paris, and dozens of other hotspots. With youth in ascendancy, music, film, and athletics became generational battlegrounds between opposition forces that couldn't be more appalled with one another. Not so fortuitously, the Summer Olympics in Mexico City and a presidential election in the United States conspired to elevate the tension higher as months passed. Kurlansky is skilled at concisely capturing the personalities behind the conflicts, whether they be heartbroken Czech leader Alexander Dubcek as Eastern Bloc troops violently suppress his nation's uprising or respected veteran newsman Walter Cronkite reluctantly editorializing against the war in Vietnam. The author is more than willing to choose heroes (the doomed Robert Kennedy) and villains (victorious presidential candidate Richard Nixon), and clearly sides with the rebels in most cases. In general, Kurlansky is more adept at covering the political front than he is the equally revolutionary arts world, and it's apparent that any chapter in this book could be expanded into a book of its own. One's expectation is that captivated readers will view 1968 as a portal into a deeper exploration of a fascinating time. --Steven Stolder
To some, 1968 was 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 upsurge of the women’s movement; and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. In this monumental book, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that pivotal year, when television’s influence on global events first became apparent, and spontaneous uprisings occurred simultaneously around the world. Encompassing the diverse realms of youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media, 1968 shows how twelve volatile months transformed who we were as a people–and led us to where we are today.
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 guerilla 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. In many ways, this momentous year led us to where we are today. Whether through youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media, Mark Kurlansky shows how, in 1968, twelve volatile months transformed who we are as a people. But above all, he gives a new understanding to the underlying causes of the unique historical phenomenon that was the year 1968. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written¿full of telling anecdotes, penetrating analysis, and the author¿s trademark incisive wit¿1968 is the most important book yet of Kurlansky¿s noteworthy career.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - So-So
Receives three stars for covering an interesting set of events that are often neglected. Receives only three stars for overly romanticizing the student-led movements in the West to the point of trivalizing the bravery of those in the Communist bloc and elsewhere. If you're an aging and nostalgic hippy/New Lefter, you'll like it. If you're honest, perhaps not.
Rating:  - Just a timeline of facts with little or no insight...boring
Take your Websters dictionary, re-arrange the pages so there is no comprehensible order, place a new binder on it and retitle it "English, the langauage that rocked the world" and you've pretty much accomplished the same thing that this author has. I borrowed the audio book from the local library (I'm so glad I didn't pay for it)and expected a first hand insightful philosophical treatise on how and why the 1960's culture came into existence and how we are impacted today as a result of it. Instead, ... Read More
Rating:  - STIRRED SOME NOSTALGIA
This was a great read. It will be especially enjoyed by those of us who are old enough to remember some of the events and characters of that momentous year.
Rating: - Awesome
Mark Kurlansky's 1968 is a well-researched and surprisingly balanced account of 1968 and the preceding years. Kurlansky combines stories with accurate generalizations about the motivations of the time. He does not minimize the motivations, however. He recognizes the different movements and the history behind them creating a multi-faceted picture of the 1960s. The main reason I enjoyed this book is its international focus. The Polish student movement is covered as well as Dubcek and the Czechloslovakian ... Read More
Rating: - A fun history but a fun historian
Kurlansky is usually known for writing more off the wall histories so I was fairly surprised to see this one. Despite his eclectic nature this book is very well done and really highlights how 1968 was a defining year for the world. From riots in the United States to the Prague Spring Kurlansky goes through the traumatic events of the year. He ties them together and although he does not offer a definite thesis it still makes for interesting reading.
Related Categories:
| |
 |
