America's Uncivil Wars
Lytle, Mark Hamilton. America’s Uncivil Wars, New York: Oxford University Press. 2006.
America’s Uncivil Wars is a book written about the sixties era that captures that provides understanding of how and why events occurred during this period, as well as their historical roots from the time since the Second World War. The author, Mark Hamilton Lytle, used a chronological approach to explain the era by dividing the sixties into three separate phases. The first is the era of consensus, which starts approximately around 1954 and includes the years up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. From there, Lytle talks about events in the second phase: the years from 1964 to 1968. These are the years after Kennedy’s death until the election of Richard Nixon as president that “popularizes” the sixties. This is also the phase in which Lytle claims the uncivil wars begin.
Lastly, in the third phase, are the ascension, reign, and fall of Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1974, which is described as the era of essentialist politics.
The reason Lytle framed the era this way, he explained, is for “Those who lived through the sixties know they did not simply begin with the election of John F. Kennedy and end with the ringing in of the New Yea on January 1, 1970” (6). He believes the sixties are better understood as a collection of events that span those twenty years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. It is not safe assuming that the period of the sixties, or any decade for that matter, starts on New Years of the first year and ends on New Years Eve of the last. The sixties, as further described by Lytle, involved time beyond its decade and had influence well past January 1, 1970.
America’s uncivil wars got its roots in the first phase before it began to take shape during the second. In the first phase, the cold war consensus was at its climax. This was the period of McCarthyism where the nation had a mission to halt Communism’s expansion in the World and made absolute
America’s Uncivil Wars is a book written about the sixties era that captures that provides understanding of how and why events occurred during this period, as well as their historical roots from the time since the Second World War. The author, Mark Hamilton Lytle, used a chronological approach to explain the era by dividing the sixties into three separate phases. The first is the era of consensus, which starts approximately around 1954 and includes the years up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. From there, Lytle talks about events in the second phase: the years from 1964 to 1968. These are the years after Kennedy’s death until the election of Richard Nixon as president that “popularizes” the sixties. This is also the phase in which Lytle claims the uncivil wars begin.
Lastly, in the third phase, are the ascension, reign, and fall of Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1974, which is described as the era of essentialist politics.
The reason Lytle framed the era this way, he explained, is for “Those who lived through the sixties know they did not simply begin with the election of John F. Kennedy and end with the ringing in of the New Yea on January 1, 1970” (6). He believes the sixties are better understood as a collection of events that span those twenty years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. It is not safe assuming that the period of the sixties, or any decade for that matter, starts on New Years of the first year and ends on New Years Eve of the last. The sixties, as further described by Lytle, involved time beyond its decade and had influence well past January 1, 1970.
America’s uncivil wars got its roots in the first phase before it began to take shape during the second. In the first phase, the cold war consensus was at its climax. This was the period of McCarthyism where the nation had a mission to halt Communism’s expansion in the World and made absolute