The Age of Great Dreams

In this book, David Farber grounds our understanding of the extraordinary history of the 1960s by linking the events of that era to our country's grand projects of previous decades. Farber's important study, based on years of research in archives and oral histories as well as in historical literature, explores Vietnam, the Civil Rights Act, the War on Poverty, the entertainment business, the drug culture, and much more.

“The Sixties in a finely crafted nutshell; David Farber's is the best synthesis yet to appear.”

"The best single volume we have on America in the 1960s. For those who came of age during those years . . . Farber's powerfully written book will resonate, sending chills of recognition. For those too young to know the 1960s, [it] will instruct." --William M. Tuttle, University of Kansas

"" --Jonathan Alter, Newsweek

"Quite simply, the history of America in the 1960s that we have long awaited. Persuasively argued and elegantly written, it illuminates the intersection of political, social, cultural, economic, diplomatic, and military dynamics during this tumultuous decade, Once again David Farber demonstrates that good history makes for good reading. I couldn't put the book down." --Richard H. Immerman, Temple University

David Farber teaches history at the University of New Mexico and is the author of Chicago '68 and co-author, with Beth Bailey, of The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii.

In this absorbing new book, David Farber gives us the history of our collective and individual memories of the 1960s: the brilliant colors of revolt and rapture, of flames and raised fists, of napalm and tear gas, of people desperate to make history even as others fought fiercely to stop them. More than thirty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this book grounds our understanding of the terrible events of that era by linking them to our country's grand projects of previous decades: the forging of a national system of social provision in the New Deal; our new agenda as global superpower after World War II; the creation of the national security state; and the maturation of a national consumer-driven mass-mediated marketplace. Farber's account, based on years of research in archives and oral histories as well as in the historical literature, deals in full not only with nation building in Vietnam, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Watts riot, and the War on Poverty, but with the entertainment business, the drug culture, and much more.

In this book, David Farber grounds our understanding of the extraordinary history of the 1960s by linking the events of that era to our country's grand projects of previous decades. Farber's important study, based on years of research in archives and oral histories as well as in historical literature, explores Vietnam, the Civil Rights Act, the War on Poverty, the entertainment business, the drug culture, and much more.

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