The years that made up the 1960s were some of the most exciting and turbulent years in American history. The post–World War II baby boomers grew up, a president and prominent civil rights leaders were assassinated, the Vietnam War dragged on for years, millions of Americans openly experimented with psychoactive drugs, and rock and roll music became a cacophonous national anthem.

It seemed that there was group action in the streets almost every day. Angry students took over campus administration buildings in protest of various social problems. Anti–Vietnam War demonstrations turned into full-scale street battles. Riots exploded in big-city black neighborhoods across the nation. For average Americans—or the "silent majority" as President Richard Nixon called them—it appeared that the United States was collapsing into chaos.

While America never devolved into anarchy as it often seemed that...