In the Heat of the Summer

The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime (Politics and Culture in Modern America)

By: Michael W. Flamm

Narrated by: Marlin May

On the morning of July 16, 1964, a white police officer in New York City shot and killed a black teenager, James Powell, across the street from the high school where he was attending summer classes. Two nights later, a peaceful demonstration in Central Harlem degenerated into violent protests. During the next week, thousands of rioters looted stores from Brooklyn to Rochester and pelted police with bottles and rocks. In the symbolic and historic heart of black America, the Harlem Riot of 1964, as most called it, highlighted a new dynamic in the racial politics of the nation. The first "long, hot summer" of the 60s had arrived.

In this gripping narrative of a pivotal moment, Michael W. Flamm draws on personal interviews and delves into the archives to move briskly from the streets of New York, where black activists like Bayard Rustin tried in vain to restore peace, to the corridors of the White House, where President Lyndon Johnson struggled to contain the fallout from the crisis and defeat Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, who had made "crime in the streets" a centerpiece of his campaign. In the Heat of the Summer spotlights the extraordinary drama of a single week when peaceful protests and violent unrest intersected.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.

©2017 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A searing account of the 1964 New York City riots...sets the stage for today's debates...." (David Farber, University of Kansas)

"This moving and insightful book...tells the story...with verve, empathy and grace." (Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara)

"The best history ever written about race and urban violence in the 1960s." (Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918)

Studiously neutral account of the Harlem riot of 1964——and its impact on American history

Flamm argues that the Harlem riot of 1964, which happened in the midst of Barry Goldwater’s campaign for president, inspired the focus on law-and-order politics that would ultimately come to dominate the American political scene for decades.

The book is loosely organized. It’s not always clear how each chapter connects to that theme. And the book’s title is a little misleading, since many chapters are seemingly not concerned with Harlem at all, but with the subsequent emergence of Johnson’s “War on Crime.”

The book also spends perhaps spends too much of its time focused on politicians and civil rights leaders——and on the details of the shooting death of fifteen-year old James Powell, which lead directly to the riots——at the expense of a focus on the broader frustrations of the Black community with police brutality and the broader origins of the riots.

I didn’t feel like I came away with a strong understanding of where the riots came from——or of the situation in Harlem at the time that led to them? I would have liked to hear more about that.

That said, there’s a wealth of material here. Lots of interesting stuff about the infighting in the Civil Rights movement——and there are cameos from any number of important figures from the 1960’s: Robert Kennedy, Jay Edgar Hoover, Bayard Rustin, etc, etc.

Worth a read! And it’s well read by the narrator.

Objective and thorough

Looking at a myriad of viewpoints, Flamm lays out the details of a horrific and pivotal era without selling one view over another. Enlightening that modern day police killings and subsequent protests and riots are exact repeats of events 50 years ago.

Concise and interesting historical account

I am currently in Rochester and found that this narrative effectively brought the Rochester and New York City Narrative in line with the National one. The end of the book adequately connected that history to our current moment in history.

60 years later

Absolutely remarkable how very little has changed. Catering to criminals is never a good policy that could sustain the progression of humanity..