FARMINGTON — The Shiretown Bookers are proud to announce their fall exhibition, “The Long Sixties, 1957-1974,” running from Oct. 7 through Jan. 11, in the Shiretown Bookers’ Hall in Mantor Library at 116 South St. The opening reception is open to the public and will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, at the library.

“The Long Sixties” ran from 1957, when the first Civil Rights Act was passed and Sputnik was launched, until 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in the Watergate scandal. The Swinging Sixties were a time of tumult and countercultural revolution, of the Vietnam War and the Beatles, of massive demonstrations for social justice and changes in the norms for music, drugs, dress and sexuality. Students aligned with labor to change governments. The country very nearly had a nuclear war. The back-to-the-land movement crossed with the hippie movement, technology crossed with the space program and we went to the moon.

The exhibition lays out both the wonderful creativity as well as the struggles of the period. The books, many in first edition, represent the whole spectrum of the events of that remarkable time when it looked to many as if peace would finally guide the planet and love would steer the stars.

The Shiretown Bookers, The Community Friends of Mantor Library, are a group of book lovers and collectors who support the university library by fostering its relationship with the community. The group provides free exhibitions and lectures on bookish subjects throughout the year.