The art of return : the sixties & contemporary culture /

Many historians have effectively made the case that the 1960s shaped the US's future for subsequent decades, most fundamentally in the areas of politics, society, and culture. In this extraordinarily ambitious work, Meyer (curator of modern art, National Gallery of Art) seeks to affirm that the lasting impact of the 1960s is most apparent in American culture. Meyer examines "a broad cohort of artists, filmmakers, writers and academics" (p. 7) whose works reflect their continued fascination with the era. The 1960s are important, Meyer argues, because those years "constitute both the conclusion of modernism and its memory, the memory of the futurist dream of being-new" (p. 8). This declaration suggests the demands this work imposes on readers, which in part 1 "explores the interpenetrating borders of history and memory" in a fashion that the author concedes is drawn from his own childhood. Part 2 carries readers through the shifting perception of the 1960s as Meyer reached middle age. The last part, "The End of the Sixties," examines Kerry James Marshall's Mementos series as a window into African Americans' civil rights memories. Copiously illustrated and doggedly analytical, this book will challenge readers who seek a deeper explanation for the persistence of the sixties in American life. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Blaine T. Browne, emeritus, Broward College