The result is a stunning and comprehensive account of one of the most divisive periods in American history. We're shown all sides of the tumultuous era from conservatives, to hippies and the drug culture, to hard-core activists. Clara Bingham puts these pieces together in order of events, as well as dividing them by specific topics (Woodstock, Weathermen, My Lai, etc.). Rather than using interviews as research, then stringing together a chronological, impersonal narration, the author lets her interviewees tell the story in their own words. I absolutely loved the author's unique approach in writing this. Witness to the Revolution is a powerful, compelling, intense, immersive, easy to read, hard to put down, brilliant book. Many thanks to all involved in providing me with this opportunity. Those who love music to accompany their reading might wish to flip to the back, page 559 in my edition, where a playlist of relevant music has been provided along with a watch list and and reading list for those who long for more information on the topic.I received a complimentary copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway. More than a story of what happened, Witness is the story of what was felt, what was lost, and the bittersweet gains of this turbulent decade.
Firsthand stories of Madison, Woodstock, Vietnam, the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, Kent State, the Altamont Free Concert, the Hard Hat Riot, and other events across the nation are told by an array of people including veterans, musicians, draft resisters, police officers, Black Panthers, FBI Agents, and family members of those lost in the chaos. Seventy-seven different voices share their perspectives of pivotal events occurring in this culture-altering decade. Witness to the Revolution is a memoir of the "Awakened Generation". Woven together from one hundred original interviews, Witness to the Revolution provides a firsthand narrative of that period of upheaval in the words of those closest to the action-the activists, organizers, radicals, and resisters who manned the barricades of what Students for a Democratic Society leader Tom Hayden called "the Great Refusal." Read more
Witness to the Revolution, Clara Bingham's unique oral history of that tumultuous time, unveils anew that moment when America careened to the brink of a civil war at home, as it fought a long, futile war abroad.
The American death toll in Vietnam was approaching fifty thousand, and the ascendant counterculture was challenging nearly every aspect of American society. It was the year of the My Lai massacre investigation, the Cambodia invasion, Woodstock, and the Moratorium to End the War. From August 1969 to August 1970, the nation witnessed nine thousand protests and eighty-four acts of arson or bombings at schools across the country. As the 1960s drew to a close, the United States was coming apart at the seams.
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