Nineteen Sixty-Eight: A Personal Report

To Koning, novelist and activist, the radical promise that 1968 held was not the dawn of a New Age or social revolution. Rather, it was the realization by large sectors of the American people that our leaders and the mass media had consistently lied to us about U.S. motives abroad and exploitive conditions at home. For many, the author stresses, 1968the year of the Tet offensive, the siege of Chicago and the King and Kennedy assassinationsmarked a turn away from self-contemplation, toward a shared belief that collective aciton could make a difference. Koning, who was active in antiwar protests, writes from an insider's perspective as he re-creates the sense of urgency felt by many throughout 1968. This diary is a welcome antidote to the '60s-bashing that has overtaken the media. (October 26)