Revisiting the Sixties: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on America’s Longest Decade ed. by Laura Bieger and Christian Lammert (review)

Revisiting the Sixties is comprised of fifteen individual essays, compiled by the North American Studies or American Studies departments of three German universities, with a stated objective of examining the 1960s by approaching the decade from interdisciplinary perspectives. The collection also aims to place the 1960s within the context of the US today — that is to say, to relate the events of the 1960s to more recent episodes such as the 2008/2009 banking and housing crises and the Occupy Wall Street movement. The series editors hail from the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, where many of these essays were first presented as papers in a lecture series. Interest in studying the US is universal. Yet, can American Studies from the perspective of “outsiders” (meaning non-Americans, in this case) still be too inward-looking? In other words, can such a universal field of study be nonetheless exclusive at times? This is the impression I had when I began reading this collection. I first turned to an essay by Andreas Etges about President John F. Kennedy. I was immediately stumped by a quote in German in the introductory paragraph. No translation was offered, not even in a footnote, causing me to wonder who the intended readership is for this collection.

Etges’s essay proceeds to describe JFK’s well-known Democratic nomination acceptance speech, and here the author provides a somewhat wearisome explanation of the significance of the term “frontier” in American history and culture — hardly necessary for any reader versed in American Studies. This lesson about Frederick Jackson Turner is followed by a description of JFK’s inauguration speech, the illnesses that he hid from the public, his use of his WWII service to boost his image during the election campaign, his role in founding the Peace Corps — again, suggesting that, if not this entire book, then this particular essay is intended for readers who are not scholars of American Studies, or for readers who are not already reasonably familiar with key events and personalities of the 1960s. The author (not unlike many other JFK admirers) gives the former president an easy pass in his assessment of his time in office by concluding that JFK’s ambitions were set so high that of course he was unable to accomplish all that he had promised. The essay’s concluding thesis — that there was a “Kennedy myth” — is hardly a new idea.

Several of the other essays are more useful, in that they are more original and daring in the ideas that they present. Leslie Ann Viola’s examination of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident as a case study for a discussion of whether deception of a citizenry by its government is ever justified provides a quick but thorough summary of events, then deftly places the incident into a larger historic and theoretical context, before attempting to answer the questions: “Is government deception justified if it is for the public good?” and, if so, then “What is the public good?” Eli Zaretsky examines the New Left within the historical context of other American leftist movements, reminding readers that “the movement” of the 1960s did not take place in an historical vacuum, and that leftist movements have indeed occurred in America prior to the 1960s. (This book was published before the sudden rise to national prominence of Social Democrat Bernie Saunders, and it would be interesting to see where in this context Zaretsky would posit the unexpected popularity — and ultimate defeat — of Saunders in the 2016 Democratic nomination race.)

In a piece titled “The Cinema of Insanity,” author Simon Schleusener surveys perceptions of madness and normality as reflected in Hollywood films of the 1960s, leading to the conclusion that the 1960s were a time when America’s traditional standards of “normality” shifted. And an article by Winfried Fluck provides...