The Times They Were a-Changin'

1964, the Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn

By: Robert S. McElvaine

Narrated by: David de Vries

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

An award-winning historian on the transformative year in the sixties that continues to reverberate in our lives and politics—for fans of Heather Cox Richardson.

If 1968 marked a turning point in a pivotal decade, 1964—or rather, the long 1964, from JFK’s assassination in November 1963 to mid-1965—was the time when the sixties truly arrived. It was then that the United States began a radical shift toward a much more inclusive definition of “American,” with a greater degree of equality and a government actively involved in social and economic improvement.

It was a radical shift accompanied by a cultural revolution. The same month Bob Dylan released his iconic ballad “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” January 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty. Spurred by the civil rights movement and a generation pushing for change, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act were passed during this period. This was a time of competing definitions of freedom. Freedom from racism, freedom from poverty. White youth sought freedoms they associated with black culture, captured imperfectly in the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.” Along with freedom from racist oppression, black Americans sought the opportunities associated with the white middle class: “white freedom.” Women challenged rigid gender roles. And in response to these freedoms, the changing mores, and youth culture, the contrary impulse found political expression in such figures as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, proponents of what was presented as freedom from government interference. Meanwhile, a nonevent in the Tonkin Gulf would accelerate the nation's plunge into the Vietnam tragedy.

In narrating 1964’s moment of reckoning, when American identity began to be reimagined, McElvaine ties those past battles to their legacy today. Throughout, he captures the changing consciousness of the period through its vibrant music, film, literature, and personalities.

©2022 Robert S. McElvaine (P)2022 Skyhorse Publishing

Critic reviews

“Illuminating, provocative, and entertaining . . . The book shines when serving as a reminder of why the public remains infatuated with the decade. The 1960s, McElvaine explains, ‘still define the political, social, cultural, and economic battle lines along which Americans contend today.’”—Washington Post

“The Times They Were a-Changin’ is a riveting book on the progressive advances that were achieved in 'the Long 1964.' McElvaine presents vivid details and unapologetic truths that can help to thwart rightwing radicals’ plans to annihilate the progress we have made toward equality. This eye-opening book makes clear the reasons society must study past mistakes to prevent them from reoccurring.”—Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman, House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on U.S. Capitol

"In a lively, lucid, and fast-paced narrative, Robert McElvaine summons the past to illuminate today’s existential threats to democracy—and the resources that might help us surmount them. In the hands of this gifted storyteller, 1964 becomes a prism through which to see the present with fresh eyes, just in time to save the future."—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America

The line it was drawn, the curse it was cast...

Using the Bob Dylan album and song which is paraphrased in the title as his through line, the author takes the listener on an enjoyable and edifying ride through the greater 1964, ranging roughly from the assassination of JFK in November 1963 through the summer of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act. Much like books written about another important year of the decade, 1968, it weaves together many different stories to reveal a tapestry of great significance.

I think the greatest achievement of the book is the deftness with which the complexity of LBJ is handled. Always professional and objective, it doesn't shy away from open adulation of the man's clear virtues, nor does it pull any punches in his shortcomings and catastrophic failures. Too easily the man is dismissed as a thuggish Texas politico and coup beneficiary by conspiracy theorists, or the fountainhead of government overreach by conservative zealots, or the spearhead of the American debacle in Vietnam, by progressives. Rarely is his civil rights works mentioned any more. Truth is the first two groups listed above don't view civil rights as particularly important, and the last group generally only sees it as mildly countering his foreign policy negatives. But the truth is laid out in this book, LBJ was demonstrably more progressive, particularly on race and socio-economic issues, than JFK ever was. We can only speculate on what a longer JFK presidency would have brought, or what RFK might have shown (admittedly more progressive by '68, than his brother had been). But LBJ did produce significant advancement in civil rights legislation (sadly at risk nearly 60 years later by the evil spawn of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan). I appreciate the nuance of presentation of LBJ's highly complex, mixed legacy.

The book also delves into pop culture, but not without a few wobbles. Its goal is to give an overview of the zeitgeist of 1964, and that has to include the British music invasion that year, rightfully broken down into two waves. The first wave, headed by the Beatles, bringing simple, innocuous melodies and even simpler, jejune lyricism for a country still grieving over its fallen leader (fortunately the group would rise above boyband status with the help of Dylan's influence on their lyrics). Then secondly, and arguably more revolutionary, the second with the Rolling Stones, bringing back the rhythm and blues and pure blues sounds of African Americans back to the country of its birth, and to its white inhabitants. This is another theme that runs through the book, the parallel of bringing white freedom to Blacks and Black freedom to whites (if anyone wonders why Black is capitalized and white isn't, read James Baldwin). It's an interesting contrast and works reasonably well overall. The comparison of the Beatles and Stones is a bit simplistic, and generally finds different ways to say the same thing, the Beatles wanted to hold the girl's hand, the Stones wanted to <ahem> do more.

Overall the book was quite entertaining. As mentioned, LBJ is the first among equal figures in this story. But significant historical figures like Fannie Lou Hamer, Barry Goldwater, and the trio of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, all play a part. And it's a case when the book Subtitle is right on the mark, not at all hyperbole. The battle lines were definitely drawn in 1964. Evidenced by the fact, highlighted in the book, that Ronald Reagan, heir to the Goldwater conservative movement, chose Neshoba County, site of the killing of Chaney, Goodman and Scherner, to campaign for president in 1980, citing a commitment to states rights. This only 16 years after those three civil rights workers lost their lives trying to help bring racial justice to Mississippi. And the attack is still going on from the right to this day. It's kind of embarrassing that this book of history is still so relevant today. Highly recommend.