John Morton Blum

Years of Discord

"A vivid and masterful account of the terrible discord and violence of those years." —C. Vann Woodward

Victorious in a great and "good" war, the United States in 1945 bestrode the world unchallenged, but by 1960 that dominance was eroding. For fifteen tense and troubled years, between the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, the United States struggled to direct its domestic life and its role in a rapidly changing world.

These years are as rich as any in American history: rich in incident—from the Cuban Missile Crisis and the civil rights struggle to the antiwar movement and the opening of China; rich in personality—from Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to Henry Kissinger, Lyndon Johnson, and the Beatles. Years of Discord is a story of turning points of power and decline, conflict and idealism, of a time that has found in John Morton Blum its ablest chronicler.

"In this incisive, judicious and eminently readable book, a master historian tels the story of those tangled and turbulent years just behind us—years that shook and remolded the republic." —Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

"Once again, John Morton Blum has brought to life a critical period of American history. An illuminating account of the amazing Sixties, and an invaluable contribution to the history of our times." —Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post