"Takin' It to the Streets": A Sixties Reader

Rating:
Summary: The 60s - In a Delicious Nutshell
Review: A pleasurable educational experience. I was introduced to the book in college but sold it back after the course ended, out of shear stupidity. Apparently, the book has not gone down in price since then, nor can I find a used copy anywhere. I'll have to buy another one, as it is essential. No other book out there is like Takin' It to the Streets, in that it represents all the varied power movements, and is filled to the brim with primary sources that will move you and in some cases even shock you. Read this book and you feel like you lived through 60s - and, if you are like me, you might even want to go back! Amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Primary Sources for the 1960's
Review: This book is an anthology of numerous primary source statements, manifestos, and letters concerning events in America during the 1960's. "Takin it to the Streets" turned out to be very helpful for a class I took on this time period. There is so much here and that it boggles the mind. Almost all viewpoints are represented in some respect or another, although some might be missing or not as well represented, as one of the other reviewers of this book pointed out.

What you will find in this book are excerpts from the Port Huron Statement, conservative viewpoints on the anti-war movement, the platform for the Black Panther party, accounts of sit-ins during the civil rights struggle in the South, feminist statements and a million other things. It must have been difficult at times to put this book together, as deciding what to include (and what not to include) would be extremely difficult. Chances are whatever you're looking for is probably here in some form or another. Very helpful as a guide through this tumultuous time and essential for a student trying to get the feel for the times.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, extensive collection of primary documents
Review: This over 600 page book consists of primary documents from numerous sources, as well as succinct and helpful introductions by the editors that help to identify the selections and put them in context. It should be a valuable resource for scholars and non-scholars alike, though an index would have made it somewhat more user-friendly.

The book mostly consists of selections from the leftist and counter-culture movements of the 60s, though there is a token pro-Establishment section with items from the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Due to my own personal interests, I would have appreciated seeing more selections from the nonviolent elements of the 60s movements-the pacifists, nonviolent anarchists, Gandhians, conscientious objectors, etc. Certainly the book does not neglect these elements entirely, but they are not as well represented as I might have liked.

Many things struck me in reading this book. I found the idealism--and what some would dismiss as naivete--of some of the early civil rights activists and of the Free Speech Movement leaders among others to be quite appealing. On the other hand, many of the selections serve as useful reminders that the factionalism, the bitter strident rhetoric, the simplistic ideologies, the in-fighting, the condemnation of anyone not accepted as a co-victim, etc. that I tend to think of as mostly insignificant excesses that arose late in the game after years of defeat and frustration were actually present all along.

What you won't find much of is the cynicism, apathy, smugness, defeatism, etc. of more recent times. Whatever is objectionable about some of the people you'll encounter in these selections, at least they had a sincerity about them, a desire to make their society and their world a better place, and a willingness to take action in accordance with their ideals. A few of them and their ideological descendants in the politically correct crowd have surely done more harm than good, but on the whole, they were on the right side of the vast majority of the issues they fought on, and even their quite limited successes have left us with slightly more freedom and justice, and slightly less war-tolerance than before they came along.