New Left, New Right and Beyond : Taking the Sixties Seriously /A Generation Divided : The New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s,"

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Wed Dec 29 07:50:07 PST 1999


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.



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