Making History / Making Blintzes
512 pages, 6 x 9
37 illustrations
Hardcover
Release Date:31 Oct 2018
ISBN:9780813589220
Making History / Making Blintzes
How Two Red Diaper Babies Found Each Other and Discovered America
By Mickey Flacks and Dick Flacks
Rutgers University Press
Making History/Making Blintzes is a chronicle of the political and personal lives of progressive activists Richard (Dick) and Miriam (Mickey) Flacks, two of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). As active members of the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s, and leaders in today’s social movements, their stories are a first-hand account of progressive American activism from the 1960s to the present.
Throughout this memoir, the couple demonstrates that their lifelong commitment to making history through social activism cannot be understood without returning to the deeply personal context of their family history—of growing up “Red Diaper babies” in 1950s New York City, using folk music as self-expression as adolescents in the 1960s, and of making blintzes for their own family through the 1970s and 1980s. As the children of immigrants and first generation Jews, Dick and Mickey crafted their own religious identity as secular Jews, created a critical space for American progressive activism through SDS, and ultimately, found themselves raising an “American” family.
Throughout this memoir, the couple demonstrates that their lifelong commitment to making history through social activism cannot be understood without returning to the deeply personal context of their family history—of growing up “Red Diaper babies” in 1950s New York City, using folk music as self-expression as adolescents in the 1960s, and of making blintzes for their own family through the 1970s and 1980s. As the children of immigrants and first generation Jews, Dick and Mickey crafted their own religious identity as secular Jews, created a critical space for American progressive activism through SDS, and ultimately, found themselves raising an “American” family.
Mickey and Dick's joint autobiography gives a window onto the strands of culture and commitment that connect the social movements of the 1930s and 1960s. Movements do indeed teach each other!'
A moving and intelligent memoir of radical political engagement from the 1960’s to the present by two extraordinary people. The deeply personal, intimate nature of the account makes it an especially compelling read.
This is a book of two people who are living to build movement for a better world and build a life together. It is a delicious read. And we are all better for the lives they led.
[A] significant, clearheaded memoir.
SB Authors: Dick and Mickey's Epic Memoir' feature by Jerry Roberts
The message...in this book, that living one’s values is found in all the 'little' choices forging professional, family and movement connections into a coherent and livable whole. Bringing such supposedly small personal bits into the whole picture of activism, like chocolate chips into the cookie dough, changes the flavor of the whole. And, like the blintz recipe, it is one that I can recommend as being as tasty as it seems — and easily shareable.
Making History, Making Blintzes, written in the alternating voices of Mickey and Dick, is an engaging account of two intertwined and well-lived lives over more than a half century of left-wing engagement.'
New Books Network - New Books in Sociology' interview with Dick and Mickey Flacks
The delightful back and forth of Mickey and Dick, often talking about the same events in their own voices and with different memories or perspectives, carries throughout the entire book making for a fast read. It’s true that they made plenty of blintzes, and oh what history did this lovely couple make along the way!
MIRIAM FLACKS is a social activist and a researcher in biology. She is the coauthor of Children of a Vanished World.
RICHARD FLACKS is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the author of numerous books, including Making History: The American Left and the American Mind.
RICHARD FLACKS is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the author of numerous books, including Making History: The American Left and the American Mind.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword vii
1 Sonia Hartman 1
2 A Red Diaper Baby: Mickey’s Story 12
3 Mildred Flacks 34
4 The House I Lived In: Dick’s Story 54
5 Coming of Age in the Fifties 72
6 Starting out in the Sixties 96
7 Our Sixties: Blowin’ in the Wind 155
8 Our Sixties: Making History Together 179
9 Our Sixties: Some Scenes from the Theater of “Revolution” 237
10 Our Sixties: 1968 and Beyond 253
11 Moving to California 309
12 A Long March? 348
13 Socialism in One City 364
14 Confessions of a Tenured Radical 395
15 Playing for Change 434
16 Some Things
We’ve Learned about What’s Left 451
17 Trump Time 463
18 Last Words 468
Acknowledgments 477
Notes 479
Index
Foreword vii
1 Sonia Hartman 1
2 A Red Diaper Baby: Mickey’s Story 12
3 Mildred Flacks 34
4 The House I Lived In: Dick’s Story 54
5 Coming of Age in the Fifties 72
6 Starting out in the Sixties 96
7 Our Sixties: Blowin’ in the Wind 155
8 Our Sixties: Making History Together 179
9 Our Sixties: Some Scenes from the Theater of “Revolution” 237
10 Our Sixties: 1968 and Beyond 253
11 Moving to California 309
12 A Long March? 348
13 Socialism in One City 364
14 Confessions of a Tenured Radical 395
15 Playing for Change 434
16 Some Things
We’ve Learned about What’s Left 451
17 Trump Time 463
18 Last Words 468
Acknowledgments 477
Notes 479
Index
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