Preview
  • The Shattering

  • America in the 1960s
  • By: Kevin Boyle
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
  • Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (40 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Shattering

By: Kevin Boyle
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

On July 4, 1961, the rising middle-class families of a Chicago neighborhood gathered before their flag-bedecked houses, a confident vision of the American Dream. That vision was shattered over the following decade, its inequities at home and arrogance abroad challenged by powerful civil rights and antiwar movements. Assassinations, social violence, and the blowback of a "silent majority" shredded the American fabric.

Covering the late 1950s through the early 1970s, The Shattering focuses on the period's fierce conflicts over race, sex, and war. The civil rights movement develops from the grassroots activism of Montgomery and the sit-ins, through the violence of Birmingham and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the frustrations of King's Chicago campaign, a rising Black nationalism, and the Nixon-era politics of busing and the Supreme Court.

Kevin Boyle captures the inspiring and brutal events of this passionate time with a remarkable empathy that restores the humanity of those making this history. Often they are everyday people like Elizabeth Eckford, enduring a hostile crowd outside her newly integrated high school in Little Rock, or Estelle Griswold, welcoming her arrest for dispensing birth control information in a Connecticut town.

©2021 Kevin Boyle (P)2021 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Shattering

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The insights of this period are enlightening

Though I am not a history buff, I loved this book. It was as good as any thriller!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The 1960’s unpacked sheds light on today’s troubles

I started high school in the early 60’s in a privileged but not wealthy family in a small all white town in southeastern Missouri sheltered from the black struggle in the south, finished college in the late 60’s, married in 72 and became a father in 73 having voted for Nixon in his first term because he used a Bob Dylan song in a campaign ad, the only time in my life I have voted Republican.
The Shattering made clear for me what I only remembered from back then as highlighted events and peoples names.
And as advertised it helped draw important historical parallels from the 1960’s to our current cultural and political realities today.
I feel more hope for our future having been freshly reminded of my past.
Thanks to professor Boyle.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting review of the 60s

Doesn’t cover everything and doesn’t try, but captures the root causes and the core outcomes of the era.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good overview of the 60s

Good look back at the 60s but the colloquial, old school narrator detracted. Also went further back into the 40s and 50s.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!