The Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Summer of Love—the 1960s were one of the most turbulent decades in US history. These years launched an unprecedented public debate over the meaning of “America,” dividing US society in deep and troubling ways. Yet despite the passage of time, the contemporary crises in the “American way of life” and the political system that sustain it might well make one wonder: to what degree are we still living on the outskirts of the '60s? By examining crucial events, trends, and individuals from the civic, social, political, intellectual, cultural, and economic spheres across a range of disciplines, this volume offers a nuanced and pluralist account of the longest decade in America.

Laura Bieger is junior professor of North American culture at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. She is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Imaginary and its Worlds: American Studies after the Transnational Turn, co-edited with Ramón Saldívar and Johannes Voelz. Christian Lammert is professor of North American politics at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.