Meta Mendel-Reyes provides a critical look at our fascination with the sixties, discusses the ways in which democratic participation was at the heart of sixties politics, and explores the interrelationship between the history and memory of the sixties and contemporary democratic politics.

Mendel-Reyes stresses that if told properly, the story of the sixties could help open our eyes to the possibility that ordinary people can take democratic action and do have the ability to make a difference in nineties politics.

In a time of cynicism about the American government's ability to solve the crises of inequality, poverty and racism, Mendel-Reyes puts the decline of political participation in historical context and provides hope for the coming decades.