Sizing Up the 60s

By JAY PARINI

A new book questions whether the era was marvelous or misguided

Whenever it comes to the era known as the 60s, I go wobbly in the knees. Perspective disappears, and reason evaporates. For me, this tumultuous decade — which in spirit runs from about 1960, with the election of John F. Kennedy, through the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 — has a charm and promise all its own, which I associate with a feeling of freedom from old pieties and a sense of fresh