Kirkus Review
The big news, for those who keep track of such things: Tom Hayden, New Left enfant terrible, never dropped acid. "Marijuana was another matter," he writes, "although I came to believe that it made no sense to be stoned when under police surveillance." This salvo of a book is only incidentally about drugs and their counterculture users. Instead, it is about what Hayden calls the "coming 'battle over memory' "though that battle has long been here, as witness the swiftboaters of the 2004 presidential race and the furor over Weather Underground veteran Bill Ayers in 2008. Even though the '60sare not yet over, Hayden notes that one aspect of Barack Obama's presidency has been a clear desire to move beyond the messy issues of the time. Not so fast, the author writes. Afghanistan and Iraq have uncomfortable similarities to Vietnam, and though the sitting president didn't get us into the mess, he seems to be having a hard time getting us out of it. Hayden updates the protest movement of old to what he calls a "movement against Machiavellians." He admits, however, that the term is both a little "gimmicky" and a bit unfair to Machiavelli, whose work was more subtle than the decidedly unsubtle adjective for "power technicians...who represent the institutional hierarchies of business, government, the military, the intelligence agencies, the media, and organized religion." The movement to elect Obama, Hayden writes, was one such anti-Machiavellian endeavor, and highly reminiscent of the movements of old, which accomplished quite a bit, not least "the fall of two presidents." What the current one needs, says Hayden, is a new New Left to keep things moving. With elements of a new Rules for Radicals and knowing takes on such old New Left moments as The Port Huron Statement, Hayden's book could be a worthy foundational document. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* With the approach of a decade of anniversaries of the 1960s, iconic figure Hayden stakes a strong claim in the ongoing debate over memories of the turbulent time. He begins by reviewing movements and Machiavellians, attempts at social progress and the powers that be that blocked every step before co-opting and adopting modified reforms. Concerned about how memories of the '60s are presented in the media, he argues that the decade has had a profound effect on American culture and politics, leading up to the election of Barack Obama. Hayden's analysis offers a sense of the sweep and depth of reform movements across the U.S. that had been brewing for decades and ignited in the '60s, including civil rights, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and the green movement. Hayden intersperses analysis with personal memories of his years with Students for a Democratic Society, the Chicago 8 conspiracy trial, visiting Vietnam. He ponders how different global politics would be now if Machiavellians hadn't stopped leftist developments and laments the commodification of the '60s and its activist figures. Hayden combines the fervor of his radical youth and continued commitment to progressive politics, the introspection of his years, and the research and analysis of his academic career in this insightful, passionate look at progressive reform.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2009 Booklist
Choice Review
Tom Hayden's career in the 1960s was rich in experiences, from the civil rights movement in the South to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Unlike Daniel Ellsberg's memoirs, Hayden's recollections do not so much enlighten as hold the reader in frustrated suspense. Insights on Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and Allard Lowenstein are few and far between, particularly on Lowenstein, whose connection to the CIA's National Student Association had tremendous consequences for the Left. Hayden simply mentions that Lowenstein had a secret draft deferment and leaves it at that. Much of the book is in that vein, along with Hayden's sprinkling of views on every social controversy and movement of the sixties. Hayden's book shows him as engaged in politics and culture now as he was when he was a student at the University of Michigan. But it does not reveal many insights on the Students for a Democratic Society or its failure in 1969. Nevertheless, this book is valuable as a portrait of an activist of that turbulent era. For all readers. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. D. R. Turner Davis and Elkins College
Library Journal Review
Hayden, a longtime proponent of progressive thought and action, is a fine witness to the pivotal events of the Sixties. In a book both sweeping and reflective, he offers a primer on the era's political and cultural upheavals and an early assessment of President Obama measured against Sixties ideals. Hayden was everywhere then, from Newark to Berkeley, Hanoi, Cuba, Chicago, and Northern Ireland, and he knew everybody who was in power or a threat to power. Writing of the beginnings of the counterculture, feminist, and environmental movements, he highlights parallels between Vietnam and Wounded Knee; explores liberation theology, Jack Kerouac and the Beats, urban violence and poverty, and his strained relationship with Bill Ayers and the Weathermen; and writes movingly of a 2007 visit to old friends in Vietnam. Hayden is optimistic about Obama's leadership but concerned about current war policies and critical of current economic policies. He lists suggestions for Obama and indicates that a New Left is needed to advance a truly progressive agenda. VERDICT This book will introduce a new generation of readers to Hayden and provoke discussion of the impact of the Sixties on the current political scene. With fine notes and a useful 50-page time line; highly recommended.-Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
