By the Light of Burning Dreams

Radical leaders of the 1960s and ’70s come to vivid life in this volume of revealing profiles from two veteran journalists.

The political landscape of the 1960s and 1970s was one of the most tumultuous in this country's history, shaped by the struggle for civil rights, women’s liberation, Black power, and ending the Vietnam War. In many ways, this second American revolution sought to fulfill the betrayed promises of the first—extending the full protections of the Bill of Rights to America’s marginalized populations.

Based on exclusive interviews, original documents, and archival research, By the Light of Burning Dreams explores critical moments in the lives of iconoclastic leaders of the twentieth century radical movement: Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers; Heather Booth and the Jane Collective, the first underground feminist abortion clinic; Vietnam War peace activists Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda; Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers; Craig Rodwell and the Gay Pride movement; Dennis Banks, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Russell Means and the warriors of Wounded Knee; and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s politics of stardom.

New York Times bestselling author David Talbot and New Yorker journalist Margaret Talbot reveal the epiphanies that galvanized these modern revolutionaries. Examining what they got right, as well as what they got wrong, this book celebrates their lasting impact on the country.

By the Light of Burning Dreams includes a sixteen-page black-and-white photo insert.

Winner of the Northern California Book Award for General Nonfiction