Book review “The Shattering: America in the 1960” by Kevin Boyle

Instead, “The Shattering” unfolds a few miles from Grant Park and years before the 1968 Democratic convention with the story of the Cahill family, who lived in the “chalet belt” in the northwest part of the state. Chicago. Part of the postwar white middle class, the family patriarch, Ed Cahill, a World War II veteran turned salesman, decided in 1961 to cover his entire estate. himself with the American flag to celebrate the 4th of July. The Chicago Tribune published a photo on the back page of Ed the next day; his wife, Stella; their children; and more than 30 of their neighbors against a blanket of Old Glories. The group, men and women, young and old, but all Caucasian, provided a sense of security and pride as they stood “smiling into the sixties”. Boyle sought to show that the decade had come to enhance the sense of stability and confidence among Americans like them.