The Spirit of the Sixties: The Making of Postwar Radicalism (American Radicals)

Rating:
Summary: Interesting analysis of the 1960s
Review: Farrell uses personalism to make sense of the 1960s. He describes the Catholic Workers, Beats, Student Movement, Counterculture, Anti-War movement, among others, as organizations rooted in the belief of personalism. Unfortunately his analysis is lacking in relation to women, since the womens's movement would greatly undermine his argument. Except for a small section in the back women are rarely mentioned. The fact that women organized due to the discrimination and subordination they felt within these movements as well as from society as a whole shows that their belief in the importance of the individual as well as group was selective. This fact puts some major holes in the arguement. Overall the book in enthralling, whether or not you agree with what he's saying it is a completely new way to look at the 1960s.