Introduction / David Remnick -- Part One. Reckonings. A note by George Packer. Silent Spring / Rachel Carson ; Letter from a region in my mind / James Baldwin ; Eichmann in Jerusalem / Hannah Arendt ; In cold blood : the corner / Truman Capote ; The village of Ben Suc / Jonathan Schell ; Reflections: half out of our tree / Richard H. Rovere -- Part two. Confrontation. A note by Kelfa Sanneh. Civil rights. It doesn't seem quick to me (desegregating Durham) / Katharine T. Kinkead ; An education in Georgia (integrating a public univerisity) / Calvin Trillin ; March on Washington / Calvin Trillin ; Youth in revolt. Letter from Berkeley (the Free Speech Movement) / Calvin Trillin ; The price of peace is confusion / Renata Adler ; The put-on / Jacob Brackman ; Letter from Chicago / Richard H. Rovere ; Harvard Yard / E. J. Kahn, Jr. -- Part three. American Scenes. A note by Jill Lepore. Pressure and possibility. Letter from Washington (The Cuba crisis) / Richard H. Rovere ; An inquiry into enoughness (visiting a missile silo) / Daniel Lang ; Letter from Washington (The great society) / Richard H. Rovere -- Lull (walking through Harlem) / Charlayne Hunter-Gault ; Demonstration (a Biafra rally) / Jonathan Schell ; Hearing (feminists on abortion) / Ellen Willis ; Notes and comment (Woodstock) / James Stevenson and Faith McNulty ; Shots were fired. Notes and comment (The assassination of John F. Kennedy) / Donald Malcolm, Lillian Ross, and E. B. White ; Views of a death (J.F.K.'s televised funeral) / Jonathan Miller ; Notes and comment (The assassination of Martin Luther King , Jr.) / Jacob Brackman and Terrence Malick ; Life and death in the global village / Michael J. Arlen ; Letter from Washington (The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy) / Richard H. Rovere --

Part four. Farther shores. A note by Evan Osnos. Though tribe and tongue may differ (Nigerian independence) / Emily Hahn ; Letter from Havana / Hans Koningsberger ; Letter from Vatican City / Xavier Rynne ; On the seventh day they stopped (Six Day War) / Flora Lewis ; Letter from Prague / Joseph Wechsberg ; The events in May: a Paris notebook / Mavis Gallant -- Part five. New Arrivals. A note by Malcolm Gladwell. Never Before Seen. Portal robot / F. S. Normal, Brendan Gill, and Thomas Meehan ; Telestar / Lillian Ross and Thomas Whiteside ; The Big Bang / John Updike ; Touch-tone / George W. S Trow ; Sgt. Pepper / Lillian Ross ; Apollo 11 / Henrys F. S. Cooper, Jr. ; Brief Encounters. Ornette Coleman / Donald Stewart and Whitney Balliett ; Cassius Clay / A. J. Liebling ; Glenn Gould / Lillian Ross ; Brian Epstein / D. Lowe and Thomas Whiteside ; Roy Wilkins / Andy Logan ; Marshall McLuhan / Lillian Ross and Jane Kramer ; Joan Baez / Kevin Wallace ; Twiggy / Thomas Whiteside ; Ronald Reagan / James Stevenson ; Tom Stoppard / Geoffrey T. Hellman ; Simon & Garfunkel / James Stevenson ; Maharishi Mahesh Yogi / Ved Mehta ; The Who / Hendrik Hertzberg -- Part six. Artists & Athletes. A note by Larissa MacFarquhar. A tilted insight (Mike Nichols & Elaine May) / Robert Rice ; The crackin', shakin', breakin' sounds (Bob Dylan) / Nat Hentoff ; Paterfamilias (Allen Ginsberg) / Jane Kramer ; Levels of the game (Arthur Ashe, Clark Graebner) / John McPhee ; Days and nights with the unbored (World Series 1969) / Roger Angell --

Part seven. Critics. A note by Adam Gopnik. The Current Cinema. All homage (Breathless) / Roger Angell ; After man (2001: a space odyssey) / Penelope Gilliatt ; The bottom fo the pit (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) / Pauline Kael ; Art & Architecture. False front or Cold-War concept / Lewis Mumford ; The Nineteen-Sixties: time in the museum / Harold Rosenberg ; Television. Television's war / Michael J. Arlen ; The bombs below go pop-pop-pop / Michael J. Arlen ; The Theatre. Sweet birdie of youth (Bye bye Birdie) / Kenneth Tynan ; The theatre abroad: London / Kenneth Tynan ; Off Broadway (Oh! Calcutta!) / Brendan Gill ; Music. Newport notes / Whitney Balliett ; Rock, etc. (packaging rock and post-rock) / Ellen Willis ; Rock, etc. (Woodstock) / Ellen Willis ; Whither? / Winthrop Sargeant ; Books. Our invisible poor (MIchael Harrington's The Other America) / Dwight MacDonald ; Polemic and the new reviewers / Renata Adler ; The author as librarian (J. L. Borges) / John Updike ; The fire last time (William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner) / George Steiner ; The unfinished man (Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint) / Brendan Gill ; The whole truth (Joyce Carol Oates's them) / L. E. Sissman --

Part eight. Poetry. A note by Dana Goodyear. The heaven of animals / James Dickey ; Tulips / Sylvia Plath ; Next day / Randall Jarrell ; The broken home / James Merrill ; The Asians dying / W. S. Merwin ; At the airport / Howard Nemerov ; Second glance at a jaguar / Ted Hughes ; Endless / Muriel Rukeyser ; Moon song / Anne Sexton ; Feel me / May Swenson -- Part nine. Fiction. A note by Jennifer Egan. The ormolu clock / Muriel Spark ; A & P / John Updike ; The hunter's waking thoughts / Mavis Gallant ; The swimmer / John Cheever ; The Indian uprising / Donald Barthelme ; The Key / Isaac Bashevis Singer.