THE SHATTERING

A concise, beautifully written history of the “long” 1960s, bringing the most important events and developments of that tumultuous decade to vivid life.

Boyle, who won the National Book Award for Arc of Justice (2004), aims his latest at general readers intrigued by this pivotal period of U.S. history. However, it’s likely that those most affected by the text will be those who lived through the period; the author delivers a potent reminder of the unremitting, searing crises of those years. Assassinations, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate crisis are only the most significant. Other incidents and cultural changes weren’t far behind in impact: Woodstock, experimentations in drugs and sex, sit-ins and teach-ins, protest marches, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws, the 1968 Democratic Convention, Roe v. Wade, the Pentagon Papers, etc. Boyle slights no major figures—Lyndon Johnson, Abbie Hoffman, the Beatles, Tom Hayden, Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon get their due—while bringing in many lesser-known ones. Admitting to necessary selectivity, the author has to pass over many issues then just coming to prominence, including Latino and Native rights, the women’s movement, and the emerging environmental crisis. Boyle convincingly, if too subtly, contends that the “old order,” though undoubtedly under immense pressure from the outside, also “cracked from within.” Boyle is skilled at setting events in their particular context, although occasionally, as in the throat-clearing opening 60 pages on the years before 1960, he overdoes it. What makes the book particularly effective is the author’s inclusion of the lives and situations of ordinary Americans; Boyle’s memorable character sketches capture the hard realities and significant changes that occurred during that time. The author is also commendably balanced in his assessments; it’s difficult to discern his partialities. Ultimately, this is a standout example of narrative analytical history.

A brilliantly achieved history of some unusually fraught years of American history.