Our Sixties: An Activist's History

By Paul Lauter

What is my book about?

My memoir, Our Sixties, is a social history of the 1960s activities in which I was lucky enough to participate: for instance, Mississippi Summer in 1964, the Selma-Montgomery March, Students for a Democratic Society, draft counseling, demonstrating, and resistance to oppose the war on Vietnam, the founding of Resist in 1967 and of The Feminist Press in 1970, the GI anti-war movement. While I received my Ph.D. (in literature) in 1958, I got my political education working in the Movement I describe—with all its joys and warts—in Our Sixties. I came to these challenges ill-prepared, often scared and ignorant, but Movement people taught me unstintingly and well. My book is an effort to share their wisdom and hopes.