
- 336 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Acclaimed national security columnist and noted cultural critic Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed America
While conventional accounts focus on the sixties as the era of pivotal change that swept the nation, Fred Kaplan argues that it was 1959 that ushered in the wave of tremendous cultural, political, and scientific shifts that would play out in the decades that followed. Pop culture exploded in upheaval with the rise of artists like Jasper Johns, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Miles Davis. Court rulings unshackled previously banned books. Political power broadened with the onset of Civil Rights laws and protests. The sexual and feminist revolutions took their first steps with the birth control pill. America entered the war in Vietnam, and a new style in superpower diplomacy took hold. The invention of the microchip and the Space Race put a new twist on the frontier myth.
- Vividly chronicles 1959 as a vital, overlooked year that set the world as we know it in motion, spearheading immense political, scientific, and cultural change
- Strong critical acclaim: "Energetic and engaging" ( Washington Post ); "Immensely enjoyable... a first-rate book" ( New Yorker ); "Lively and filled with often funny anecdotes" ( Publishers Weekly )
- Draws fascinating parallels between the country in 1959 and today
Drawing fascinating parallels between the country in 1959 and today, Kaplan offers a smart, cogent, and deeply researched take on a vital, overlooked period in American history.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Praise
- Timeline
- Chapter 1 - Breaking the Chains
- Chapter 2 - A Visitor from the East
- Chapter 3 - The Philosopher of Hip
- Chapter 4 - Generations Howling
- Chapter 5 - The Cosmonaut of Inner Space
- Chapter 6 - The End of Obscenity
- Chapter 7 - Sickniks
- Chapter 8 - Thinking about the Unthinkable
- Chapter 9 - The Race for Space
- Chapter 10 - Toppling the Tyranny of Numbers
- Chapter 11 - The Assault on the Chord
- Chapter 12 - Revolutionary Euphoria
- Chapter 13 - Breaking the Logjam, Hitting the Wall
- Chapter 14 - The Frontier’s Dark Side
- Chapter 15 - The New Language of Diplomacy
- Chapter 16 - Sparking the Powder Keg
- Chapter 17 - Civilizations in the Stars
- Chapter 18 - A Great Upward Swoop of Movement
- Chapter 19 - Blurring Art and Life
- Chapter 20 - Seeing the Invisible
- Chapter 21 - The Off-Hollywood Movie
- Chapter 22 - The Shape of Jazz to Come
- Chapter 23 - Dancing in the Streets
- Chapter 24 - Andromeda Freed from Her Chains
- Chapter 25 - New Frontiers
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Credits
- Index