Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul

In her latest work, Bingham (Class Action) has compiled an assortment of oral histories ranging from August 1969 to August 1970. Organized into narrative form, the accounts capture volatile and revolutionary change, relaying a feeling for what it was like to live during this period. The material includes profiles of participants associated with the Black Panthers, the trial of the Chicago Eight in 1969, Kent State University in the wake of the 1970 shootings, the My Lai Massacre in 1968, the Nixon administration, the Pentagon Papers, the Weathermen, and Woodstock. Broader topics touch on the Vietnam War, the draft, domestic terrorism, and the peace and women's movements. Together the descriptions of events reveal the radicalness and turmoil of the era. Bingham's prose is often engaging and dramatic, transferring the experience of these times to readers. Additionally, the reports draw out the earnestness of the participants as players within this political and cultural conflict.