Anybody seen this book yet? Cut and paste from amazon.com, at $60 hardback, I won't be getting a copy, but that is what a college library is good for.
"New Left, New Right and Beyond : Taking the Sixties
Seriously,"
by Geoff Andrews (Editor), Richard Cockett (Editor), Alan Hooper
(Editor), Michael Williams (Editor)
Our Price: $69.95
Hardcover - 260 pages (October 1999)
St Martins Pr (Short); ISBN: 0312220359 ;
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction Alan Hooper
Michael Williams
A Politics Adequate to the Age: the New Left
and the Long Sixties Alan Hooper
Hey Jimmy! The Legacy of Gramsci in British
Cultural Politics Tom Steele
Stars and Moons: Desire and the Limits of
Marketisation Wendy Wheeler
We Didn't Know It Would Be So Hard: the
Short, Sad, Instructive History of the US New
Left
Marvin Gettleman
The Three New Lefts and their Legacies Geoff Andrews
The New Right and the 1960s: the Dialectics
of Liberation
Richard Cockett
The New Right, New Labour and the Problem of
Social Cohesion Peter Saunders
1968's Unfinished Business -- Cultural
Equality and the Renewal of the Left Hilary Wainwright
The Long Sixties in the Short Twentieth
Century
Michael Williams
The Rise and Fall of an Anti-Racism: from Political Blackness
to Ethnic Pluralism
Tariq Modood
From Berkeley to Blair: a Dialogue of the
Deaf? Anne Showstack Sassoon
Crafting a New Social Settlement Paul Hirst
Index
Michael Pugliese P.S. At $22.95 pb. the new book by Rebecca Klatch comparing and contrasting SDS and Young Americans for Freedom, the 60's right-wing student group founded under the aegis of Bill Buckley, Bob Bauman, Marvin Liebman? (the China Lobby guy) (btw the latter two "came out" under different circumstances, Bauman pushed out in a 70's page boy scandal, Liebman in his later years. The San Francisco Public Library a while back( in the old Main Library) had an exhibit on the gay liberation movements roots. In one of the glass cases were letters from W.F. Buckley and Liebman arguing Catholic doctrine over homosexuality. What does the Pope say, "An intrinsic moral disorder?!) Back to the Klatch book, in case you haven't seen the ad yet in the N.Y. Rev. of Books or the JAH or AHR.
(A side point, one of the student rads profiled, and also on the cover, is Jim Schoch, who now teaches PoliSci at Dartmouth. Years ago I remember Jim as one of the more talented political analysts in the New American Movement, the socialist-feminist/community organizing group that was swallowed up by DSOC to form DSA. By coincidence the same day I saw the Klatch book, I saw a quote from Jim Schoch, in a story in the SF Chronicle on the upcoming New Hampshire primary. Hope this doesn't mean Jim is angling to become the new Larry Sabato or William Schneider!)
Entitled, "A Generation Divided : The New Left, the New Right, and
the 1960s,"
by Rebecca E. Klatch
Paperback - 430 pages (November 1999)
Univ California Press; ISBN: 0520217144 ;
>From Kirkus Reviews
paper 0-520-21714-4 A thoughtful study of some forgotten
players in the Time of Torment: the young ideologues of the
dawning radical right. Radical, sociologist Klatch (Univ. of
Calif., San Diego) observes, is the operative word. The young
men (and a few women) who made up the conservative Young
Americans for Freedom (YAF), a group inspired by Barry
Goldwaters 1964 bid for the presidency, were the children of
privilege; in this respect they mirrored their counterparts on
the left, the young members of Students for a Democratic
Society. But rather than preserve the Republican status quo,
they broke from the politics of their elders at many critical
junctures. Notable among them, in the later 1960s, was YAFs
growing criticism of the Vietnam War and especially of
military conscription, which they believed violated the most
fundamental principle of individual liberty. When their older
conservative peers demanded that they endorse the Republican
commitment to military victory in Vietnam, many of the YAFs
members shifted to a libertarian, even anarchist position. In
doing so, they found, they had more in common with the
extreme elements of the left than they did with the likes of
William F. Buckley, Jr. and Richard M. Nixon. Whereas,
when the war finally ended, many leftists entered academic or
professional careers, continuing the fight for social justice by
becoming child psychologists, family-practice physicians, or
teachers, the young radical rightists took their fight straight
into the political realm. Some of them, Klatch writes, scored
great successes by organizing the state-by-state movement that
defeated the Equal Rights Amendment. Others went to
Washington-area think tanks, where they orchestrated the
so-called Republican Revolution of 1994. And a surprising
number of them, Klatch notes, went into journalism, putting
the lie to the charge that the press is a liberal conspiracy. Solid
research and good writing make this a book of interest to
veterans of the 60s, as well as to students of social science and
history. (38 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers
to the hardcover edition of this title
Book Description
The 1960s was not just an era of civil rights, anti-war protest,
women's liberation, hippies, marijuana, and rock festivals. The
untold story of the 1960s is in fact about the New Right. For
young conservatives the decade was about Barry Goldwater,
Ayn Rand, an important war in the fight against communism,
and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). In A Generation
Divided, Rebecca Klatch examines the generation that came
into political consciousness during the 1960s, telling the story
of both the... read more
From the Back Cover
"A must read for anyone interested in the history of the '60s,
the unfolding of its social movements, and the search for and
discovery of identity among the young activists of the period."
(Arlene Kaplan Daniels, Northwestern University) --This text
refers to the hardcover edition of this title read more
The author, Rebecca E. Klatch, Professor of Sociology , October 4,
1999
Clarification of the main argument re. YAF.
I wanted to clarify a couple of points made in the Kirkus
review. There were more than a few women involved in YAF
during the 1960s. In fact, half of the people I interviewed were
female. Also, YAF as an organization did NOT turn against
the Vietnam war. Rather, there was a growing division within
the organization between traditionalists, who remained
committed to fighting in Vietnam, and libertarians, who did
turn against the war during the mid to late 1960s. One of the
main points of the book... read more
About the Author
Rebecca E. Klatch is Associate Professor of Sociology at the
University of California, San Diego, and author of Women of
the New Right (1987).
Putting the 60s in Focus
Reviewer: wayne thorburn from Austin, Texas December 11,
1999
Rebecca Klatch brings an important and interesting
perspective to the 1960s by comparing and contrasting YAF
and SDS members (both rank and file members and leaders)
and tracing their personal histories up through the late 1990s.
Although she has a small sample size (less than 40 members
of each group)and then subdivides them again(into PLP and
Weathermen, libertarians and traditionalists) she provides
insight into commonalities and differences within the groups
on the counterculture, feminism, individualism,and the
centrality of political action. This is an informative analysis of
the development of young political activists (their background
and motivation for activism) and the changes which occur in
their lives as they reach late middle age.
Like many historians of the 60s, Klatch carries with her
personal involvement in student left political activities but
says "I have tried to set aside my own assumptions in listening
to the stories of the activists on all sides." This she has
successfully accomplished, much as she did in her earlier
work,"Women of the New Right." For the most part, she lets
her subjects speak for themselves while adding valuable
perspective and context.
The left's history has been written by Hayden, Flacks, Gitlin
and other activists from that era. As Klatch observes, however,
"the untold story of the 1960s is about the New Right," a story
that is now slowly seeping out in the works of John Andrew
"The Other Side of the Sixties" and Mary Brennan "Turning
Right in the Sixties." Although a true comparison of SDS and
YAF activists, Klatch's most valuable contribution is that her
work adds depth to an understanding of those individuals who
were the "cadres for conservatism" in the sixties. But the
limited size of her sample and the resultant scope of her work
only provides a clue to the varied backgrounds and future
developments of literally thousands of YAF alumni.
Unlike most of the SDS members, many of the YAF activists
studied went on to assume leadership positions in the GOP's
move to the right and to power in the 1980s and 1990s. As
Klatch notes, "Having survived their minority status during
the 1960s and early 1970s, they have helped bring many of
their issues to prominence during the past two decades."
Those who were active in YAF will recognize many of the
individuals studied by Klatch - even the four who tried to
remain anonymous but whose comments and descriptions will
give them away. Klatch's book is not a history of SDS or YAF
(although it covers the lasting divisions at both organizations
1969 conventions)but, rather, an in-depth profile of
individuals who became active in the 1960s, tracing their
personal and political paths on to the mid-1990s. The "before"
and "after" photos of the activists are intriguing and will bring
back memories for many readers of a time which seems so
long ago. A valuable contribution to anyone's understanding
of American history in the late 20th century.