Manyebook

Fire in the Streets

The most ambitious account of the disruptive decade yet — which encompasses almost all of the furor & conveys almost none of the excitement. Viorst has opted for a chronological scheme, keyed to salient figures, that both spotlights & questions the decade's events: John Lewis (Sitting In '60); James Farmer (Freedom Riding '61); Tom Hayden (Manifesto Writing '62), Bayard Rustin (Marching to Washington '63); Joseph Rauh Jr (Organizing Mississippi '64); Clark Kerr (Igniting Berkeley '64); Paul Williams (Exploding Watts '65); Stokely Carmichael (Blackening Power '66); Allard Loewenstein (Dumping Johnson '67); Jerry Rubin (Assaulting Chicago '68) & two unknowns representing the Weathermen ('69) & Kent State ('70). On the plus side, almost every development is somehow fitted in & Viorst does attempt a balanced assessment of such controversial personalities as Rustin, Carmichael & Martin Luther King. (His introductory chapter on the other leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, community-organizer — & sleeping car porter — E.D. Nixon, is perhaps his best). On the debit side, he's a pappy, colorless writer with no knack for portraying individuals. His sections on Allen Ginsberg & Jerry Rubin are obtuse & humorless. Seldom 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 & refresh fading memories. — Kirkus

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 591
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780671428143
  • Genres
  • history
  • Release date
  • 1981