Author Description

1969 stood as the final year of a tumultuous decade, shattering domestic tranquility with epic events and cultural upheaval. On the fiftieth anniversary of 1969, eight authors have published their coming-of-age experiences, vivid memories, and lessons learned from that raucous, electrifying year. This book provides eyewitness accounts, personal tales, uncommon confessions, and fact-based fictional stories by eight witnesses to a transformative decade. The book merges documentary-style reporting with creative exploration, capturing the perspectives of journalists, fiction and nonfiction writers, and social and political commentators. Joining lead author Brent Green in this writing alliance are veteran authors Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., David Cogswell, Robert William Case, Bob Moses, Jed Diamond, Ph.D., Greg Dobbs, and Richard Adler.In January 1969, The Beatles gave their final public performance on the rooftop of Apple Corps in London. In July, NASA's Apollo 11 space mission launched Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong beyond earth's gravitational grip to a successful moon landing. In August, Woodstock attracted over 400,000 rock 'n' roll fans and sixties' music icons to a four-day countercultural gathering. The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, in October, was the largest peaceful protest of a war in American history, flooding the nation's capital and including more than 2 million antiwar protesters nationwide. As the decade closed, the war raged on. Just months into the following year, the Kent State shootings shook the nation, bringing violent suppression of free expression to a U.S. college campus.One question reverberates throughout this book: Are you still listening? The book inspires readers to think about the nation's social and political progress fifty years later. Do we see greater national unity today? Do we hear lingering discord? Do we sense progress toward equal opportunity for all?For those who experienced 1969 firsthand, this book can stir memories and invi