The Long Sixties: A Review
One of the first things that anyone will notice about the book, The Long Sixties by Christopher B. Strain is its size. For a book, with the word “long” in the tile, it is surprisingly short, wrapping up at just under two hundred pages in the paperback printing. Strain addresses the length of his book right up front in his Preface by admitting that the book is not intended to be a complete dissection of the time, but an overview of a complex period in American history. But once you get past the size of the book and dive in to the story of The Sixties you start to understand how long they really were. The book is thoughtfully organized, well defined, and has a lot of personality. This personality shines through the language used throughout the book and the pictures and cartoons chosen for each chapter.
To get the most out of The Long Sixties, it is important to know who you are going to take this long, strange trip with. Christopher Strain received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkley in 2000 and specializes in modern American History. Strain is currently an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches classes each year about Civil Rights, African American History, and the 1960’s. He is a well-established author, having four
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In it we are introduced to life in the 50’s, the Cold War, a great society, the rise of a rebellious generation, a war with lasting consequences, the space age and drug age, and the reversing of political ideals with the Nixon administration. Strain takes the reader through all these movements and moments with ease and shows that The Sixties were more than just a decade where the baby boomers grew up, but that they were an age of change that would influence the nation for decades to