1968: The Year In Review

The events of 1968 changed the country and the people who lived through them. Political upheaval and culture wars became constant, as did the younger generation's coping methods of music, social activism, and bucking the status quo.  

"It was really the explosion of the faith in the conventional wisdom, which began in earnest as the Vietnam War fell apart," said Charles Kaiser, author of 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation. "It proved that whatever the establishment had told you about anything was not necessarily to be believed."

As the establishment's foundation was shaken and political violence escalated, music became a unifying force for young people, said Kaiser, who turned 18 years old in 1968. Great musicians, including Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and The Beatles, helped create community and a moral clarity. 

"What kept me and everyone my age alive through all of [the chaos] was what we could hear on the radio," Kaiser said.

This is the final segment of WNYC's series "1968: Fifty Years Later." The entire series can be found on our show page.