Todd Gitlin Book order

"Set during America’s 1960s New Left movement, The opposition tells the story of twenty-something young men and women linked by a fierce desire to change the world who become involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements, when under the pressure of Vietnam, and America, unraveling, their web of passion and pain reaches a breaking point. Four women and four men meet in a Midwestern college town in 1963. As racist violence surges in the Deep South, they are seized by the civil rights movement. They all take part in demonstrations; Melissa, who is black, leaves to help voter registration in Mississippi, and several decide to organize in a poor white community in Cleveland. One of the women, Sally, has an illegal abortion. As the Vietnam war accelerates and things go awry with community organizing, some of the group get involved in antiwar projects, and another of the women, Valerie, goes to Mexico to study art. Matt, the son of a pro-war minister, is summoned by his draft board, and has a powerful drug experience on his way into draft resistance. The group rendezvous in Chicago during the Democratic Convention of August 1968 and the police do not take kindly to them. Passions flair and arguments erupt amid street fights. One of the activists, Kurt, reconsiders confrontations and decides to work with a liberal Congressman to lobby for legislation to end the war. Ronnie, a radical filmmaker, and his lover, Marcia, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, get close to the just-founded Weathermen. The novel moves through these eight lives to a tragic conclusion."-- Provided by publisher

Providing both interpretation of where the movement has come from while teasing out the significant role it's likely to play in political culture over the coming years, this book is suitable for those looking to understand the revolution playing out before their eyes.

Set against the backdrop of George W. Bush's re-election and Alan Meister's lymphoma diagnosis, the narrative intertwines personal struggle with philosophical exploration. As Alan undergoes chemotherapy, he embarks on writing "The Health of a Sick Man," positing that Nietzsche's philosophy reflects his own battles with health and relationships. Through the lens of Nietzsche as a companion, Alan navigates his illness, finding solace and connection in the philosopher's insights, which serve as a reminder of life's enduring pulse amidst adversity.

Say “the Sixties” and the images start coming, images of a time when all authority was defied and millions of young Americans thought they could change the world—either through music, drugs, and universal love or by “putting their bodies on the line” against injustice and war.Todd Gitlin, the highly regarded writer, media critic, and professor of sociology at  the University of California, Berkeley, has written an authoritative and compelling account of this supercharged decade—a decade he helped shape as an early president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and an organizer of the first national demonstration against the Vietnam war. Part critical history, part personal memoir, part celebration, and part meditation, this critically acclaimed work resurrects a generation on all its glory and tragedy.

New preface for this classic of media studies. One of the founders of SDS describes the response of the various news organizations and arrives at the way the New Left came to be characterized.