Michael P. Amram grew up during the Vietnam war and vividly remembers the political atmosphere of the period. The country convulsed repeatedly, spewing out new prototypes for democracy each time. Amid the assassinations and riots, one group challenged the hawkish path that the Johnson-Humphrey administration chose to follow. What the McCarthy Democrats did was quixotically rare in politics. It exemplified how a minority, beginning at the level of local government and working within the political structure, can ultimately affect the course of the federal government. Amram watched the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) dissent from within to support Senator Eugene McCarthy as an anti-war candidate, and watched the political process run its course from local to national levels. Thisis a heroic and timely book--a reminder that people can and should stand up for what they believe in. It details how, between 1965 and1968, a group of Democrats in Minnesota worked towards forming aconstituency with the goal of permanently ending the Vietnam war,based on their convictions that it was immoral and unconstitutional. MichaelP. Amram is a natural story teller who masterfully balances thewealth of historical events with lush details of life at home. Hisrare sensitivity to human affairs draws you deeply into this accountof American culture at one of its most important crossroads, andmakes the book impossible to put down. __Ila France Porcher, Authorof The Shark Sessions Hindsightis most often the clearest. It blurs the farther one looks. I wrotethis book with the sense that I had to create a foundation, areference of events. I felt I needed to outline the tacticalmaneuvers of the war in Vietnam, the movement in America to bring aswift end to it, the protests, the changes toward racial and genderequality. I needed to relate information that was withheld untilyears following the war. I wanted to tell what really went on, thingsthat our government didn't want us to know. I tried to coordinatethis fluidly with my own memories of childhood. The book is dedicatedto my parents. It's written for all the gentle souls who, in 1968,dissented from the Democratic party to campaign for their ownanti-war candidate--Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN)--as he soughthis party's nomination against, in the end, Vice President HubertHumphrey. Itried to find a comfortable balance, an equitable mesh, betweenhard--albeit creatively told--historical facts of the war andplausibly tendered reminiscences of growing up in an atmosphere ofhard-lined liberal politics. I tread a thin line trying to capturethe reality of war and the innocence of youth. Actually, there is asubtle irony to my balancing act. In the chapter "Assassinations ofCharacter" I describe a car accident from which I lost a good senseof balance and fine coordination. The book implements incidentalevents, good or bad, how they impacted me or me in a family and howwe dealt with the war and other issues in society because of them. Inthe chapter "A Retreat from Politics," I show how I rememberthose days in the early 70s, in the waning days of the war, how inspite of it, because of it, our convictions to end it, we werebrought closer: "Back at thehotel we swam in the indoor pool. We had drinks and bonded in theroom before dinner. We were tight as a family unit. The accident, theauctions and the politics all had nourished that bonding, strange asit seemed." As one who grew up in the critical years of the Vietnam War, I hold deepmemories of the political atmosphere of the time. The period wasriddled with opportunities for growth and change. The countryconvulsed repeatedly, spewing out a prototype for democracy eachtime. Amid the assassinations, riots, and withdrawals, one groupchallenged the hawkish path the Johnson-Humphrey administration choseto follow. What the McCarthy Democrats did was quixotically rare inpolitics. It was brash and exemplified how a minority beginning atthe local government, working within the political structure, canultimately affect the course of the federal government. I watched theDFL (Democratic Farmer-Labor) Party dissent from within to supportSenator Eugene McCarthy as an anti-war candidate. I saw the politicalprocess run its course from local to national levels. Both of myparents served as delegates to pivotal national conventions in modernAmerican politics--my dad in 1968 and my mom in 1972. Most suburban kids who grew up in the'70s were not immersed in politics.Parents of friends on my block did not particularly care about takingan active role in ending the war, much less gender and racialequality. I grew up around the mentality that saw injustices existingin the world more sharply than others did. From watching the Apollo11 moon landing in the backroom of a general store to opening ourhouse to a DFL fundraiser featuring Gene McCarthy reading his poetry,I was witness to many key and rare moments in the Vietnam era.