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Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Kusch
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Category: Book
Buy New: $49.95
New (7) Used (6) from $37.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1580253
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 206
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 027598138X
Dewey Decimal Number: 977.311043
EAN: 9780275981389
ASIN: 027598138X
Publication Date: September 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Did the police lose control of themselves in dealing with demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention? Or were they simply men who saw themselves as protecting their city from the forces of revolution? Kusch contends that Chicago's police were more than unthinking "thugs," that they had, in effect, become a counterculture, even more so than the people they ended up attacking. From Polish and Irish working class backgrounds, these men felt they represented a time gone by, a different way of life. The world they found themselves in during August of 1968 was an almost alien environment. Analyzing interviews of men who were on the streets and examining in-depth their actions and the reasons behind them, Kusch challenges traditional thinking on this pivotal event. As television cameras rolled, and flash bulbs popped, young middle-class college kids were attacked by Chicago's finest. For four days, police chased, bludgeoned, and kicked, not only the protesters, but innocent onlookers and dozens of media representatives. Going beyond stereotypes and addressing what went on behind the cameras, Kusch challenges the assumptions that the police rioted and that the violence was limited to a handful of individuals. These officers are revealed as real men, with families, lives, and fears. It was these fears--as much as their hatred of the antiwar movement and the people in it--that led to the violent showdown. This work tackles a turbulent period when presentation was key for all the major players: the protesters, the media, and the police themselves.
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| Customer Reviews:
 History via swinging batons October 6, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is not your typical history book; lots of action, violence, swearing--in other words, real life as it was in the 1960s. Kusch writes that the police did not riot or lose control of themselves, which sounds like a stretch, until he convincingly deonstrates his argument with varied evidence and skilled articulation. It's a little slow in the begining but catches fire once the author gets into the street battles that marked the '68 convention. A tad pricey but a good look at 1968 and the police who made headlines.
Chicago blues September 11, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Frank Kusch takes the reader on a blow-by-blow account of the violence between protesters and the police during the summer of 1968 in Chicago. Instead of the usual view from the anti-war movment, Kusch presents the events fromm the point of view of the cops and offers a more balanced view of that summer than anyone else. The author's account is convincing because the hyperbole is gone and the gritty facts remain. While the police are not always portrayed as angels, they come off as real men facing a possible inserection, not unthinking henchmen in blue. Battleground Chicago is a great read.
 Chicago '68 from the point-of-view of the cop wielding the baton September 8, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Why all the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago? The official government inquiry said it was a "police riot"--individually and collectively, the Chicago police lost their professional control and engaged in mob violence. True? Or were the cops just following orders? Or were they provoked into a violent reaction by physical and verbal violence from the antiwar activists and agitators?
Kusch interviewed dozens of retired Chicago police officers who were on the streets and in the parks of Chicago back in August of 1968. He tries to understand their thinking and emotions, tries to untangle their motivations and reactions. Ultimately he gives a well-argued, complex answer to that persistent question: why the violence?
Kusch's narrative of the events of that week in August is too brief for this to serve as your only source for information about Chicago '68--read the books by David Farber and John Schultz, too--but there is no more thorough examination available of the role of the police in the street battles that marked that most remarkable of political conventions.
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