FIRE IN THE STREETS: America in the 1960s

by Milton Viorst ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 1979

The most ambitious account of the disruptive decade yet--which encompasses almost all of the furor, and conveys almost none of the excitement. Viorst, a newsman and author of Hustlers and Heroes (1971), has opted for a chronological scheme, keyed to salient figures, that both spotlights and trivializes the decade's events: John Lewis (""Sitting In, 1960""); James Farmer (""Freedom Riding, 1961"") Tom Hayden (""Manifesto Writing, 1962""); Bayard Rustin (""Marching to Washington, 1963""); Joseph Rauh, Jr. (""Organizing Mississippi, 1964""); Clark Kerr (""Igniting Berkeley, 1964""); Paul Williams (""Exploding Watts, 1965""); Stokely Carmichael (""Blackening Power, 1966""); Allard Loewenstein (""Dumping Johnson, 1967""); Jerry Rubin (""Assaulting Chicago, 1968""). Plus: two unknowns representing the Weathermen (1969) and Kent State (1970). On the plus side, almost every development is somehow fitted in (though the women's rights movement gets short shrift); the accounts of CORE, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, etc., are based on the recognized sources, supplemented--sometimes amended--by interviews; and Viorst does attempt a balanced assessment of such controversial personalities as Rustin, Carmichael, and Martin Luther King. (His introductory chapter on the other leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, community-organizer--and sleeping car porter--E.D. Nixon, is perhaps his best). On the debit side, Viorst is a peppy, colorless writer with no knack for portraying individuals. His sections on Allen Ginsberg (also introductory) and Jerry Rubin are obtuse and humorless; and the inordinate time he spends with the floundering souls he selects to represent Watts, the Weathermen, and Kent State is just plain dull. More critical--were anyone to take this seriously as history--is his interpretive hinge: 1964, which he sees as the beginning of the ""disintegration"" (due to student radicalism and black/white separatism), not climactic '68. And seldom, from Viorst, do we get a sense of the decade's intense moral concern. But in the absence of a bona fide history of even the civil rights movement, this will do to clue in latecomers and refresh fading memories.

Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION