Beyond Vietnam
320 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:29 Sep 2009
ISBN:9781558497122
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Beyond Vietnam

The Politics of Protest in Massachusetts, 1974-1990

University of Massachusetts Press
Narratives of the 1960s typically describe an ascending arc of political activism that peaked in 1968, then began a precipitous descent as the revolutionary dreams of the New Left failed to come to fruition. The May 1970 killings at Kent State often stand as an epitaph to a decade of protest, after which the principal story becomes the resurgence of the right.
In Beyond Vietnam: The Politics of Protest in Massachusetts, 1974–1990, Robert Surbrug challenges this prevailing paradigm by examining three protest movements that were direct descendants of Vietnam-era activism: the movement against nuclear energy; the nuclear weapons freeze movement; and the Central American solidarity movement. Drawing lessons from the successes and failures of the preceding era, these movements had a significant impact on the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which itself had been undergoing major transformations in the wake of the 1960s.
By focusing on one state—Massachusetts—Surbrug is able to illuminate the interaction between the activist left and mainstream liberalism, showing how each influenced the other and how together they helped shape the politics of the 1970s and 1980s. During these years, Massachusetts emerged as a center of opposition to nuclear power, the continuing Cold War arms race, and Ronald Reagan's interventionist policies in Central America. The state's role in national policy was greatly enhanced by prominent political figures such as Senator Edward Kennedy, Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, presidential candidate Governor Michael Dukakis, Vietnam veteran Senator John Kerry, and moderate Republican Silvio Conte.
What Beyond Vietnam shows is that the rise of the right in the aftermath of the 1960s was by no means a unilateral ascendancy. Instead it involved a bifurcation of American politics in which an increasingly strong conservative movement was vigorously contested by an activist left and a reinvigorated mainstream liberalism.
Beyond Vietnam should appeal to a considerable audience, given the paucity of books dealing with the history of radical movements in the United States over the past thirty years. The book has two major strengths: first, its close-in, tactile engagement with how activism actually works, beginning with Sam Lovejoy's spectacular tower-toppling through the various referenda, occupations, and campaigns; and second, its illumination of the connection between grassroots radicalism and mainstream liberal politics.'—Van Gosse, author of Rethinking the New Left: An Interpretative History
'Focusing on the activists and the political leaders, as well as the issues, Surbrug traces a (political continuity) from the movement against nuclear energy in the 1970s to the nuclear freeze movement and the Central American solidarity movement of the 1980s.'—Boston Globe
'The book examines antinuclear power in New England, the nuclear freeze in the early Reagan years, and the campaign against intervention in Central America. Surbrug describes the activists of that period as more affluent than those of the 1960s, but no less committed. . . . However, as this book brilliantly suggests, the Left hardly retired to wealth; it was alive and active. A first-rate effort. . . . Highly Recommended.'—
'If protest is a measure of what defines the Sixties, Robert Surbrug adds hearty grist to the discussion. . . . In a pattern Surbrug follows throughout, he moves from the local scene to regional and national activism. For example, New Hampshire's Clamshell Alliance, formed in opposition to building a nuclear power station in Seabrook, was inspired and partly staffed by Bay State 'anti-nuke' activists. . . .[His] deft ability to navigate between local, state, and national currents is one of this book's many joys. An even greater one is the insight he gives into the lives, personalities and passions of activists who are not household names but whose impact was enormous. . . . A final joy is the well-crafted wrapper from which Surbrug's meticulous research springs: the prose. . . . [He] more than accomplishes his task of extending the calendar of New Left-style activism.'—Historical Journal of Massachusetts
Robert Surbrug Jr. is assistant professor of history at Bay Path College.
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