Back to the Future

That mythical era called a richly complicated decade that lasted roughly 20 years (1955-1975), remains a major touch stone of political and cultural debate in U.S. Despite constant attempts to trivialize and contain era, power of phrase the to evoke imagery and provoke controversy is little diminished. Trivialization, accomplished primarily by mainstream me dia, most often takes form of cliches like sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll (for cultural side) and adolescent rebellion (for po litical side). From point of view of social movement studies, perhaps most telling and devastating version of containment is phrase sixties-style demonstration, as if ac tivism is just a lifestyle choice comparable to a brand of jeans, or as though social move ments are forever hermetically sealed in one era of U.S. history. If this kind of reductive reading of six ties is largely product of conservatism and mainstream media tropes, two books under review suggest that left too has contributed significantly to reducing power and complexity of politico-cultur al history of sixties. George [Jorge] Mariscal and Laura Pulido, in quite different but largely complementary ways, argue that subsequent era of identity politics has distorted degree to which social move ments of sixties and early seventies (in case of these books) frequently sought and sometimes achieved international, cross racial, and cross-identity alliances. Both au thors engage in historical revisionism regard ing era misnamed the sixties, while keeping a clear eye on implications of that time for social movement work in present era. Mariscal (Professor of Literature and Di rector of Chicano/a-Latino/a Arts and Hu manities program at University of Califor nia, San Diego) has written previously on topic of Chicano/as and Viet Nam War. His experiences talking to Chicano/a veter Brown-Eyed Children of Sun: Lessons from Chicano Movement, 1965-1975, by George Mariscal. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2005. 348 pp. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 0826338054

Ethnic group · Internationalism (politics · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Sociology · Solidarity · American Political and Social Dynamics · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Music History and Culture