Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, an Oral History

Journalist and pop historian Kisseloff presents an invigorating collection of 15 testimonials from counter-culturists, conscientious objectors, and artists who came of age during one of the most volatile decades in American history. Told in these revolutionaries' own energized words, these galvanizing rants are not polished, heady, or particularly well-crafted, but simply tell it like it was¾and therein lies their immediate, unadorned power. From Barry Melton's freewheeling tale of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll in Berkeley-based folk band Country Joe and the Fish, to Gloria Richardson Dandridge's charged retelling of her experiences as a pro-violence Civil Rights activist, to Bernard LaFayette's sobering account of his life-threatening work with Martin Luther King as a SNCC leader, these offerings are candid and eye-opening in the extreme. Of particular merit is the chapter called ""Allison's Story,"" in which Allison Krause's mother and then-boyfriend compare notes about the days leading up to and immediately following the Kent State shooting in May 1970, when Allison and three of her classmates were killed by members of the National Guard. While Kisseloff's clumsy introductions to each entry may err on the side of campy, the testimonies themselves more than make up for it in substance and spirit. 40 photos.