Lattin, Don. New York: Harper San Francisco, 2003. 288 pp., $ 24.95
(USD). ISBN: 0-06-009394-3 (cloth).
[1] Don Lattin defines the 'sixties as the period spanning from
January 20, 1961, the date of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural
address, through to November 18, 1978 and the mass suicide of members
of the People's Temple. These very appropriate boundaries represent
both “the idealism, religious activism, and social commitment
that defined the best of the Sixties” and a tragedy that saw “the
spiritual and political dreams of the Sixties [collapse] in a collective
nightmare” (3). This creative treatment of the “decade” of
the 1960s combines a realistic look at the social, intellectual,
and spiritual shifts in American society without descending into
mere sentimental nostalgia.
[2] Lattin’s exploration of the 'sixties is largely organized
around first-hand accounts of those who lived through selected trends
and events; this period of dramatic social change is therefore described
through the stories of “the real children of the Sixties—kids
born and raised amid some of the era’s wildest social, spiritual,
and sexual experimentation” (2; emphasis in the original).
Through these stories, excerpts from interviews, and first-hand
experiences, Lattin manages to present a vast array of religious
themes: shifts in Roman Catholicism, the arrival of Eastern spirituality
in North America, and Rock ’n’ Roll as “another
vehicle for spiritual transcendence” (114) among them, and
the emergence of such religious leaders as the Reverend Sun Myung
Moon and Jim Jones. The developments of the American religious experience
explored in Following Our Bliss are not always positive.
Lattin notes, for example, that psychedelics may “ignite the
spirit,” but they can also “fry the brain” (171)
and sexual abuse never seems to be far away when religious organizations,
traditional and otherwise, involve power structures or charismatic
personalities. The book provides realistic snapshots of selected
topics; balanced, not idealized.
[3] A book largely built around anecdotal evidence can lack a sense
of organization and ultimately closure. However, Lattin manages
to pull together a fitting conclusion as he identifies key “aspects
of Sixties spirituality, good and bad” (238) that emerge
from the period, namely that it is liberating, experiential, antiauthoritarian,
eclectic, unifying, and therapeutic.
Michael Gilmour
Providence College
Otterburne, Manitoba
Michael.Gilmour@prov.ca
