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What Readers Are Saying

“The memoir is well organized and often humorous, as when Wachsberger recounts his first-ever arrest by ‘Officer Grunt’ and ‘Sergeant Nostrel’, or the horror of searching for a Band-Aid he lost in some dip while catering. The book vividly captures the mood of the early 1970s and the East Lansing environment, which included bicycle co-ops, guerrilla theater groups, and a nightclub called Cave of the Candles…. [T]he author emerges as an admirable figure, and his advice remains on-point: ‘learn from the past, keep the vision, read banned books, and laugh often.’ An open and funny account that spans decades with joy and passion.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Ken Wachsberger’s memoir is a captivating journey through the evolution of a gentle, courageous, and often hilarious man. His storytelling brings each moment to life, whether he’s dodging (or falling on) authorities at protests in the 70s, navigating the chaos of a catering business, or empowering others to share their stories through authorship. The book is well-written, blending vivid imagery with sharp wit, making you feel as if you’re right there alongside him. His experiences are not just entertaining but also deeply inspiring, showcasing resilience, activism, and a passion for making a difference in the world. The puke-in had me ROLLING!! This memoir is a must-read for anyone who appreciates a life well-lived and well-told. I LOVE IT!”

—Anne Bonney, keynote speaker and author of Get Over It! and Get Them Over It!

“…. One of the things that makes Thumbs Up an interesting book is that it connects left-wing radical organizers—what Donald Trump likes to call ‘left-wing lunatics’—with what used to be traditional, mainstream American values: fair treatment for all, kindness to strangers, tolerance of all manner of divergent behavior and lifestyles, not to mention all races and sexual orientations, and the constant, diligent effort to avoid hurting anyone. Already in the 1960’s these values were doing a rapid fadeout in America, which is one of the things that makes Wachsberger’s life so hard and his tale so interesting….

Wachsberger almost always writes with love, not anger—even about hard things, from the killing of student protesters at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970 to the demonization and deportation of immigrants in the present era. Abbie Hoffman wrote powerful screeds filled with anger, but they lacked that love—and so in Thumbs Up Wachsberger shows us another side of the social justice movement, a side that is too often lacking in all the condemnations of it that are now codified in the pejorative label “woke.”

Thumbs Up is an important book because it straightens out a history that has been deliberately twisted in the telling, and hopefully it will open a lot of eyes to what really happened in the Sixties, and even more urgently needs to happen again in America.”

—Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe, Home to War, and Last of the Lincolns

“As a long-time fan of Ken Wachsberger’s books, I give this remarkable memoir my heartiest Thumbs Up! Finally, he dishes all the “dirt” his admirers longed to know. From the transfixing tales of his ancestors, to his funny/not-funny stint in solitary as an “accidental revolutionary,” he goes on to find the love of his life and a career in the world of publishing. Wachsberger’s galloping prose traces the journey of a ‘70s activist through at least nine lives on his way to the 21st Century. His is a life and a book to be jubilantly celebrated and honored.”

— Sue Katz, wordsmith, rebel, and author of Lillian in Love and A Raisin in My Cleavage

“[S]pins a Kerouac-worthy tale of an adventure-filled life well spent. Full of fight and fun, THUMBS UP delivers on a beautiful family legacy and monumental archivist triumph with an irreplaceable volume of priceless people’s journalism.”

—Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman, activist, author of Solartopia, The People’s Spiral of US History, and other green-inspired works, from his foreword to Thumbs Up

“For decades, Ken Wachsberger has done heroic work in archiving the truly independent media of the 20^thcentury—newspapers filled with anti-war, LGBTQ+, Native American, Black, and feminist voices—and the stories behind them. In Thumbs Up, which bursts with love and hope, he candidly tells his own inspiring story—and explodes the notion that activism recedes with age.”

—Sean Howe, author of Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s

“This memoir is a gift, a cultural outbreak of joy in the dark time of the 1970s for our own dark time.”

—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, feminist historian and author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

“Ken Wachsberger’s Thumbs Up is a joy to read and far more than just another life’s tale of one man’s journey. It is a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of how things really got done during his days as a wet-behind-the-ears activist marching through to his dogged—and successful—efforts to preserve much of the great array of material produced by the underground/alternative press during the Vietnam War. Wachsberger shares his hard-learned lessons that our intergenerational peers, the folks who are the age now that we were then, can apply as they pick up the struggle from us. And to give them confidence that when we organize we win.”

—Dennis Giangreco, author of Truman and the Bomb and over a dozen books on historical and sociopolitical subjects under D. M. Giangreco