Bill Eppridge's A Time it Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties -- Thom Hartmann's Independent Thinker Review

THOM HARTMANN'S INDEPENDENT THINKER REVIEW OF THE MONTH

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Bill Ayers is doing interviews with Chris Matthews, John McCain based his campaign on his Vietnam War service, and Barack Obama is constantly compared with JFK or RFK. As much as time has passed, the Sixties are still with us.

It was a time when the middle class in America experienced the peak of its power. My wife worked her way through college working as a waitress in a Howard Johnson's restaurant; I did the same with a $2.35 (as I recall) an hour job at a radio station. College was accessible, jobs were plentiful, the economy worked, and "60 Minutes" actually did investigative reporting that had corporate American quaking in their boots. It was a time of prosperity for the "middle" not seen since the 1770s, as well as a time of social ferment that bore striking parallels to the Founders' generation.

Along those lines, although right wingers had a disconcerting habit of murdering progressive icons (and shooting students, as at Kent State), youth and minorities were demanding rights, one of the most popular things going was to recite Jefferson's words from the Declaration of Independence (particularly that part about our having an "obligation!" to overthrow oppressive governments, and the established power structure of the day seemed totally clueless.

The power attained by the middle class and their children -- it was those 15-30 who were driving the whole thing, in large part -- was unprecedented. As was the conservative backlash, with people like William F. Buckley openly pointing out how "dangerous" such an empowered middle class apparently was, setting up the 1997 words of Alan Greenspan to The Wall Street Journal about how his job as Fed Chairman was, in large part, to keep the economy from getting so good that a strong (and, thus, challenging to the establishment) middle class would re-emerge. (Greenspan said he had to maintain a certain "minimum threshold of worker insecurity" to keep society stable.)

If you lived through it, you know the power of the times. If not, you need to. Which brings us to Bill Eppridge's brilliant book, viewing the Sixties through the lens of the life and work and campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, "A Time It Was."

This is the first time I've ever recommended what is generally referred to as a "coffee table book," but this is a must-have for anybody who lived through or wants to know about the political side of the Sixties, and the text is every bit as rich as the photos.

Bill Eppridge took the iconic photo of Robert Kennedy as he died in the arms of a busboy, but the book is so very, very much more than that. Pete Hammill's introduction (titled "The Last Campaign") is an evocative, thoughtful, and brilliant first-person story of the times and places of RFK and the era. The photos by Bill Eppridge capture Bobby in a way that I've never, ever seen before. The book both fills your heart with pride and honor for what was, and brings tears to your eyes for what could have been.

But most important, it captures the vitality and power of a fully economically empowered - and thus politically empowered - middle class. Kids could pay for college with a summer job (I did radio, picked apples in northern Michigan, pumped gas, and worked as a dishwasher and cook in a Bob's Big Boy restaurant). Adults could raise a family with a single income (my dad raised four boys with a job at a tool-and-die shop, had full health care and a pension until the day he died, paid off his house and car, and lived the American Dream that, since Reagan, has slipped away from most working people).

It was a time of power, a time of change, a time of revolution -- in a very real sense (witness the women's and civil rights movements, and the revolts in the Castro, not to mention our shutting down campuses and cities with anti-war protests). It reshaped America.

This marvelous book is not only history in your hand, it is inspiration, transformation, and love. It's essential viewing and reading. 

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times bestselling Project Censored Award winning author and host of a daily talk show on Air America Radio. You can learn more about Thom Hartmann at http://www.thomhartmann.com and find out what stations broadcast his program.

THOM HARTMANN'S INDEPENDENT THINKER REVIEW OF THE MONTH

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