Berkeley at War The 1960s [Paperback]

Berkeley, California stood at the center of the political, social, and cultural upheaval that made the 1960s a unique period in American history. InBerkeley at War, W.J. Rorabaugh, who attended the graduate school of the University of California at Berkeley in the 1970s, presents a lively, informative account of the events that changed forever what had once been a quiet, conservative white suburb.
Rorabaugh's meticulously researched, authoritative narrative covers the entire period, from the rise of the Free Speech Movement to the growth and increasing militance of a black community struggling to end segregation; from the emergence of radicalism and the anti-war movement to the blossoming hippie culture; and from the explosive conflict over People's Park to the beginnings of modern-day feminism and environmentalism. An invaluable account of its time and place,Berkeley at Waranchors the sixties in American history, both before and since that colorful decade.

Accessible and stiulating. --Perry Blatz, Duquesne University

Thorough and engaging popular history. --New York Newsday

A skillful researcher who also possesses a vigorous narrative style, Rorabaugh brings scholarly clarity to the turmoil of the mid- to late-1960's. --Publisher's Weekly

Evocative and smoothly written....A compelling story of politics and power, silliness and cynicism, ideology and idiosyncrasies....Rorabaugh catches the temper of the times....He leads deftly from boardroom to classroom, coffeehouse to crash pad, in a perceptive and evenhanded Baedeker to a turbulent era. --Kirkus Reviews

[Rorabaugh's] meticulous account brings back those years, while showing how little most of us really knew about the forces setthing around us then....The book conveys many vivid images of a unique city as well as provides an authoritative account of an era. The significance ofBerkeley at Warlies in thlcä