Generation on Fire

Book excerpt: “An invigorating collection of fifteen testimonials from counter-culturists, conscientious objectors, and artists who came of age” during the ’60s (Publishers Weekly). Many of the freedoms and rights Americans enjoy today are the direct result of those who defied the established order during the Civil Rights Era. It was an era that challenged both mainstream and elite American notions of how politics and society should function. In Generation on Fire, oral historian Jeff Kisseloff provides an eclectic and personal account of the political and social activity of the decade. Among other things, the book offers firsthand accounts of what it was like to face a mob's wrath in the segregated South and to survive the jungles of Vietnam. It takes readers inside the courtroom of the Chicago Eight and into a communal household in Vermont. From the stage at Woodstock to the playing fields of the NFL and finally to a fateful confrontation at Kent State, Generation on Fire brings the '60s alive again. This collection of never-before published interviews illuminates the ingrained social and cultural obstacles facing those working for change as well as the courage and shortcomings of those who defied "acceptable" conventions and mores. Sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious, the stories in this volume celebrate the passion, courage, and independent thinking that led a generation to believe change for the better was possible.