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Title: It just seemed so superficial
Review: This books seemed to be based on two assumptions about history writing that are outdated and superficial. The two problems come up right at the begining with Farber's description of new year's eve in 1959 and what the three famous people (Ike, head of catholic church in USA, and MLK) were doing that evening. This book falls into the trap of looking at the sixties independent of its context as well as taking a top down perspective that ignores the local political movements that really move history. He redeems himself slightly with a nod to the fifties and the local activists in the 60's that really led the way to social change but it is too little too late. I have not seen a synthetic view of the 60's that is able to adequately show this overall context as well as give due credit to the underlying social movements. (John Dittmer does do a great job of this for the civil right movement in Mississippi in his book "Local People")
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