America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60's by Laban Carrick Hill

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60's Reviews

• 
  Betsy

  Essentially what we have here is a book written about the children of the 50s and 60s for the children of the 00s, reviewed by a child of the 80s. Now let me tell you a little story. My husband is friends with a former Black Panther. It's New York. You can meet anyone here. And for years now I've been searching desperately for child and YA novels and works of non-fiction that mention the Panthers. Until now I've come up bone dry, but then, lo and behold, I heard about "America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the '60s". It wasn't precisely what I was looking for, but the essential conceit was so fascinating that I felt inclined to check it out in and of itself. After all, there's a blurb from Howard Zinn on the cover and one from Peter Seeger as well. Author Laban Carrick Hill takes a step back with this book and views The Sixties purely within the context of the youth who defined it. He examines where these kids came from, the state of America at the time, and then systematically takes a closer look at the Civil Rights Movement, the Radical Youth Movement, the Hippie and Alternative Lifestyle Culture, Black Nationalism, the Women's Movement, Native American Rights, South-American Movements, and the start of environmentalism. What's more, he does this within 165 pages in a bright, colorful, consistently eclectic format. The result is a book that kids will be inextricably drawn to with subject matter that is beautifully researched and impeccably honed.
  
  Hill gives a little more form and context to these vague ideas we've all bought into. The structure of the book complements this. Considering how time and influences flow in and out of one another, the fact that Hill limits his backing and forthing, keeping the book moving in a consistent and practical direction, is notable. Aside from mythbusting, Hill also draws attention to historical details that many kids, and probably more than a few adults, might not have known. Levittown didn't allow in African-Americans until 1957. Elvis only walked into Sam Phillips's Sun Records to make a record of gospel songs for his mom. The significance of The Albany Movement. The term "hippie" was created by the Beats and meant, "young people who were trying to be hip, but weren't." Until 1966 LSD was legal in the United States. GOON squads are actually Guardians of the Oglala Nation squads. He even puts the Watts riot into great perspective, giving us an understanding of not only why it happened but also why people even riot at all.
  
  As with any historical work, you're going to have some differences of opinion regarding motivations and what we can learn in hindsight from the organizations of the past. It happens. And Maynard G. Krebs is misspelled as "Maynard Grebs" here, which is a goof but a correctable one. Only a couple things got my goat as I read. The book does make it appear that Rosa Parks was physically tired when she sat on that bus in 1955, without mentioning her participation in the Civil Rights movement before that time. That myth has always bugged me a little.
  
  In the end, I can't think of a better book to bring to any tween or teen interested in history, particularly that of the recent past. Because of the layout and the voice of the narration, young people will find themselves drawn to a book that is neither fuddy nor particularly duddy. Near the end of the book Hill deftly plays off a quote from Dick Armey regarding the Sixties against one from Tom Hayden, showing how there is still debate regarding the legacy of that time period. Best of all, he cleverly ties in the Gay Rights movement, which continues to this day, showing that not everyone has achieved their civil rights quite yet. With all the parallels that currently exist between the state of our government now and back then, "America Dreaming" will hopefully appear attractive to enough young people so as to keep them from being doomed to repeat many of history's past mistakes.
  
• 
  Erin

  Fantastic. One of those rare creatures of a young adult nonfiction book that is interesting and cool.
• 
  Ellie

  This is a fabulous book from a graphic design standpoint. In fact, the beautiful design made me increase my rating from 3 to 4 stars. I loved the early chapters of the book, especially those dealing with pop culture of the 50s evolving into the 60s, the Civil Rights movement, anti-war and hippie movements, etc. The book got bogged down for me in the final chapters; the chapters on Native American and Latino Rights, the feminist and ecology movements got downright boring to read in parts.
• 
  Karlyn

  Beautiful and exciting layout. Good textbook format for high school student's first encounter with the mov'ts of the 1960s. I found Hill's King-centered focus of the civil rights movement, write-off of the Black Panther Party as an ultimately violent failure of an organization and his lack of attention to the gay rights mov't disappointing.
• 
  Megan

  A great overview of the 1960s with an attractive, youth-oriented layout. Students may find this fun to flip through and find interesting tidbits on each page, or they could use it as a resource for a research on music, civil rights, hippies, women's rights, or one of several other topics covered here.
• 
  Azur

  A comprehensive guide to the 1960s. Would make a good resource for homework essays.