The Revolution That Was

Here's the first serious review from the academic left of By the Light of Burning Dreams -- the new book by Margaret Talbot and me. The New Republic review is by Michael Kazin, a Georgetown University historian with roots (like me) in the Bay Area New Left. Let me just engage with Michael on one of his critical points. He disputes our contention that the upheavals of the 1960s and '70s amounted to a "second American Revolution," pointing out the New Left's neglect of class oppression (except on the sectarian fringes and the doomed United Farm Workers).

It's true that the radical movements of this era failed to take control of "the means of production." As Michael himself admits, he's a traditional social democrat, with Marxist inclinations (he served on the board of the Berkeley journal Socialist Review -- formerly Socialist Revolution -- in his youth). But my sister and I have a much broader view of "revolution." That's why, as Michael acknowledges, we tell a wide array of stories -- including those of gay leader Craig Rodwell, feminist activist Heather Booth, Black power militants Bobby Seale, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, and Native American warriors Dennis Banks, Madonna Thunder Hawk and Russell Means. What these courageous -- if sometimes deeply flawed -- leaders accomplished was nothing short of revolutionary. They spearheaded movements that radically transformed America, even if we didn't seize control of Wall Street and Washington.

I'm old enough to remember America in the late 1950s. That country was a different planet than the one we live on today -- largely because of the radical activists of the '60s and '70s.

But I agree with Michael on another major point. As he concludes his review, we need another American revolution to compel the country to live up to its shining founding ideals, for working people of all descriptions.

The Young Lords on the march in 1971