Library Journal Review

Ah, the Sixties. We were thinner then. We were more innocent but losing that fast. The Fabulous 60s is a series of ten 45-minute summaries of each year, narrated by Peter Jennings. Obviously, cramming a year into a documentary of that length is impossible, especially given the global scope of the coverage. A painting monkey and the topless craze bump up against Freedom Riders and the Bay of Pigs. Context is obsolete or absent, especially in the later years, which show us, for instance, Nixon's presidency before the least hint of Watergate. That said, there's a great deal of primary material here-footage of the moon landing, Martin Luther King speaking, Berliners fleeing to the West. Superficial as televised news can be, parts of the film remain exceptionally moving. The 1960s may no longer loom as significantly as they did in 1970 (and many would argue that what we consider the 1960s ran from 1963 to 1974, anyway). The price is right though, and, on balance, most libraries will probably find the series useful.-John Hiett, Iowa City P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.