Author: Kevin Powell's Writing Workshop
Publisher: R. R. Bowker
ISBN: 9781735199740
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
2020 is a year we shall never forget-not America, not the world. The tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter GiGi. The global pandemic called COVID-19. The police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The massive street protests of Black Lives Matter. The passing of famous names like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chadwick Boseman, Naya Rivera, and Congressman John Lewis. The U.S. presidential election and its ugly aftermath. Amidst all of this, acclaimed writer Kevin Powell and the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe partnered on seven free Zoom writing workshops to allow people to express themselves in a safe and non-judgmental space, and to build community given the harsh realities of COVID. Writers of all ages and identities showed up. Seven workshops turned into ten workshops plus a permanent Facebook group of a few hundred writers. And now this book: 2020: THE YEAR THAT CHANGED AMERICA. Award-winning and game-changing writers like Nikki Giovanni, Gloria Steinem, Etan Thomas, Nancy Mercado, Dave Zirin, Jackson Katz, jessica Care moore, asha bandele, Tim Wise, Bob Holman, and V (formerly Eve Ensler) join both previously published and newly published writers of blogs, essays, poetry, journal entries, and fiction. Soulful, informational, eye- catching, and gut-wrenching, this anthology is a testimony of resilience and loss, of hurt and hope, of stories remembered and stories forgotten, of politics and the political, and what is possible when so much seems impossible.
2020
Author: Kevin Powell's Writing Workshop
Publisher: R. R. Bowker
ISBN: 9781735199740
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
2020 is a year we shall never forget-not America, not the world. The tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter GiGi. The global pandemic called COVID-19. The police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The massive street protests of Black Lives Matter. The passing of famous names like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chadwick Boseman, Naya Rivera, and Congressman John Lewis. The U.S. presidential election and its ugly aftermath. Amidst all of this, acclaimed writer Kevin Powell and the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe partnered on seven free Zoom writing workshops to allow people to express themselves in a safe and non-judgmental space, and to build community given the harsh realities of COVID. Writers of all ages and identities showed up. Seven workshops turned into ten workshops plus a permanent Facebook group of a few hundred writers. And now this book: 2020: THE YEAR THAT CHANGED AMERICA. Award-winning and game-changing writers like Nikki Giovanni, Gloria Steinem, Etan Thomas, Nancy Mercado, Dave Zirin, Jackson Katz, jessica Care moore, asha bandele, Tim Wise, Bob Holman, and V (formerly Eve Ensler) join both previously published and newly published writers of blogs, essays, poetry, journal entries, and fiction. Soulful, informational, eye- catching, and gut-wrenching, this anthology is a testimony of resilience and loss, of hurt and hope, of stories remembered and stories forgotten, of politics and the political, and what is possible when so much seems impossible.
Publisher: R. R. Bowker
ISBN: 9781735199740
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
2020 is a year we shall never forget-not America, not the world. The tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter GiGi. The global pandemic called COVID-19. The police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The massive street protests of Black Lives Matter. The passing of famous names like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chadwick Boseman, Naya Rivera, and Congressman John Lewis. The U.S. presidential election and its ugly aftermath. Amidst all of this, acclaimed writer Kevin Powell and the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe partnered on seven free Zoom writing workshops to allow people to express themselves in a safe and non-judgmental space, and to build community given the harsh realities of COVID. Writers of all ages and identities showed up. Seven workshops turned into ten workshops plus a permanent Facebook group of a few hundred writers. And now this book: 2020: THE YEAR THAT CHANGED AMERICA. Award-winning and game-changing writers like Nikki Giovanni, Gloria Steinem, Etan Thomas, Nancy Mercado, Dave Zirin, Jackson Katz, jessica Care moore, asha bandele, Tim Wise, Bob Holman, and V (formerly Eve Ensler) join both previously published and newly published writers of blogs, essays, poetry, journal entries, and fiction. Soulful, informational, eye- catching, and gut-wrenching, this anthology is a testimony of resilience and loss, of hurt and hope, of stories remembered and stories forgotten, of politics and the political, and what is possible when so much seems impossible.
1919 The Year That Changed America
Author: Martin W. Sandler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1547605766
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 1919 was a world-shaking year. America was recovering from World War I and black soldiers returned to racism so violent that that summer would become known as the Red Summer. The suffrage movement had a long-fought win when women gained the right to vote. Laborers took to the streets to protest working conditions; nationalistic fervor led to a communism scare; and temperance gained such traction that prohibition went into effect. Each of these movements reached a tipping point that year. Now, one hundred years later, these same social issues are more relevant than ever. Sandler traces the momentum and setbacks of these movements through this last century, showing that progress isn't always a straight line and offering a unique lens through which we can understand history and the change many still seek.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1547605766
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 1919 was a world-shaking year. America was recovering from World War I and black soldiers returned to racism so violent that that summer would become known as the Red Summer. The suffrage movement had a long-fought win when women gained the right to vote. Laborers took to the streets to protest working conditions; nationalistic fervor led to a communism scare; and temperance gained such traction that prohibition went into effect. Each of these movements reached a tipping point that year. Now, one hundred years later, these same social issues are more relevant than ever. Sandler traces the momentum and setbacks of these movements through this last century, showing that progress isn't always a straight line and offering a unique lens through which we can understand history and the change many still seek.
2020: The Year That Changed Us
Author: The Conversation
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
ISBN: 1760761397
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The year 2020 began with fire-fuelled orange skies over Australia and parts of New Zealand, before nations prepared for COVID-19 to hit their shores. What ensued was crisis: a pandemic, political upheaval, an international human rights movement, global recession and localised emergencies dwarfed by a world spinning on an axis of turmoil. These fifty essays from leading thinkers and contributors to The Conversation examine what will be one of the most significant and punishing years in the 21st century. 2020: The Year That Changed Us explores the key lessons from this remarkable year and kickstarts the discussion about what comes next. Contributors include: Michelle Grattan Peter Martin Raina MacIntyre Joëlle Gergis Peter Greste Thalia Anthony Shino Konishi Fiona Stanley
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
ISBN: 1760761397
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The year 2020 began with fire-fuelled orange skies over Australia and parts of New Zealand, before nations prepared for COVID-19 to hit their shores. What ensued was crisis: a pandemic, political upheaval, an international human rights movement, global recession and localised emergencies dwarfed by a world spinning on an axis of turmoil. These fifty essays from leading thinkers and contributors to The Conversation examine what will be one of the most significant and punishing years in the 21st century. 2020: The Year That Changed Us explores the key lessons from this remarkable year and kickstarts the discussion about what comes next. Contributors include: Michelle Grattan Peter Martin Raina MacIntyre Joëlle Gergis Peter Greste Thalia Anthony Shino Konishi Fiona Stanley
1968
Author: Mark Kurlansky
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0345455827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “In this highly opinionated and highly readable history, Kurlansky makes a case for why 1968 has lasting relevance in the United States and around the world.”—Dan Rather To some, 1968 was the year of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Yet it was also the year of the Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy assassinations; the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Prague Spring; the antiwar movement and the Tet Offensive; Black Power; the generation gap; avant-garde theater; the upsurge of the women’s movement; and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. In this monumental book, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that pivotal year, when television’s influence on global events first became apparent, and spontaneous uprisings occurred simultaneously around the world. Encompassing the diverse realms of youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media, 1968 shows how twelve volatile months transformed who we were as a people—and led us to where we are today.
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0345455827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “In this highly opinionated and highly readable history, Kurlansky makes a case for why 1968 has lasting relevance in the United States and around the world.”—Dan Rather To some, 1968 was the year of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Yet it was also the year of the Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy assassinations; the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Prague Spring; the antiwar movement and the Tet Offensive; Black Power; the generation gap; avant-garde theater; the upsurge of the women’s movement; and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. In this monumental book, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that pivotal year, when television’s influence on global events first became apparent, and spontaneous uprisings occurred simultaneously around the world. Encompassing the diverse realms of youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media, 1968 shows how twelve volatile months transformed who we were as a people—and led us to where we are today.
The Year that Changed the World
Author: Michael Meyer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1849831998
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343
Book Description
'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' This declamation by president Ronald Reagan when visiting Berlin in 1987 is widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The West had won, so this version of events goes, because the West had stood firm. American and Western European resoluteness had brought an evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, in this extraordinarily compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, begs to differ. Drawing together breathtakingly vivid, on-the-ground accounts of the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the stealth opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague, and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin, Meyer shows that western intransigence was only one of the many factors that provoked such world-shaking change. More important, Meyer contends, were the stands taken by individuals in the thick of the struggle, leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague; Lech Walesa; the quiet and determined reform prime minister in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth; and the man who realized his empire was already lost and decided, with courage and intelligence, to let it go in peace, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Michael Meyer captures these heady days in all their rich drama and unpredictability. In doing so he provides not just a thrilling chronicle of perhaps the most important year of the 20th century but also a crucial refutation of American mythology and a misunderstanding of history that was deliberately employed to lead the United States into some of the intractable conflicts it faces today.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1849831998
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343
Book Description
'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' This declamation by president Ronald Reagan when visiting Berlin in 1987 is widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The West had won, so this version of events goes, because the West had stood firm. American and Western European resoluteness had brought an evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, in this extraordinarily compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, begs to differ. Drawing together breathtakingly vivid, on-the-ground accounts of the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the stealth opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague, and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin, Meyer shows that western intransigence was only one of the many factors that provoked such world-shaking change. More important, Meyer contends, were the stands taken by individuals in the thick of the struggle, leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague; Lech Walesa; the quiet and determined reform prime minister in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth; and the man who realized his empire was already lost and decided, with courage and intelligence, to let it go in peace, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Michael Meyer captures these heady days in all their rich drama and unpredictability. In doing so he provides not just a thrilling chronicle of perhaps the most important year of the 20th century but also a crucial refutation of American mythology and a misunderstanding of history that was deliberately employed to lead the United States into some of the intractable conflicts it faces today.
1969
Author: Rob Kirkpatrick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1626366179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
For the fortieth anniversary of 1969, Rob Kirkpatrick takes a look back at a year when America witnessed many of the biggest landmark achievements, cataclysmic episodes, and generation-defining events in recent history. 1969 was the year that saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the Cinderella stories of Joe Namath’s Jets and the “Miracle Mets,” the Harvard student strike and armed standoff at Cornell, the People’s Park riots, the first artificial heart transplant and first computer network connection, the Manson family murders and cryptic Zodiac Killer letters, the Woodstock music festival, Easy Rider, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the Battle of Hamburger Hill, the birth of punk music, the invasion of Led Zeppelin, the occupation of Alcatraz, death at Altamont Speedway, and much more. It was a year that pushed boundaries on stage (Oh! Calcutta!), screen (Midnight Cowboy), and the printed page (Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex), witnessed the genesis of the gay rights movement at Stonewall, and started the era of the “no fault” divorce. Richard Nixon became president, the New Left squared off against the Silent Majority, William Ayers co-founded the Weatherman Organization, and the nationwide Moratorium provided a unifying force in the peace movement. Compelling, timely, and quite simply a blast to read, 1969 chronicles the year through all its ups and downs, in culture and society, sports, music, film, politics, and technology. This is a book for those who survived 1969, or for those who simply want to feel as alive as those who lived through this time of amazing upheaval.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1626366179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508
Book Description
For the fortieth anniversary of 1969, Rob Kirkpatrick takes a look back at a year when America witnessed many of the biggest landmark achievements, cataclysmic episodes, and generation-defining events in recent history. 1969 was the year that saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the Cinderella stories of Joe Namath’s Jets and the “Miracle Mets,” the Harvard student strike and armed standoff at Cornell, the People’s Park riots, the first artificial heart transplant and first computer network connection, the Manson family murders and cryptic Zodiac Killer letters, the Woodstock music festival, Easy Rider, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the Battle of Hamburger Hill, the birth of punk music, the invasion of Led Zeppelin, the occupation of Alcatraz, death at Altamont Speedway, and much more. It was a year that pushed boundaries on stage (Oh! Calcutta!), screen (Midnight Cowboy), and the printed page (Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex), witnessed the genesis of the gay rights movement at Stonewall, and started the era of the “no fault” divorce. Richard Nixon became president, the New Left squared off against the Silent Majority, William Ayers co-founded the Weatherman Organization, and the nationwide Moratorium provided a unifying force in the peace movement. Compelling, timely, and quite simply a blast to read, 1969 chronicles the year through all its ups and downs, in culture and society, sports, music, film, politics, and technology. This is a book for those who survived 1969, or for those who simply want to feel as alive as those who lived through this time of amazing upheaval.
The Year That Broke America
Author: Andrew Rice
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062979841
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590
Book Description
“In his beautifully crafted and rigorously reported volume, Andrew Rice takes readers back to Florida in 2000, laying out a cultural and political history of a moment at which America’s political system was turned inside out, its power structures upended. The Year That Broke America is vivid and wide-ranging; it also happens to be a page turner.”—Rebecca Traister, bestselling author of Good and Mad “Engrossing, insightful, tragic and above all, irresistible.”— Ronald Brownstein Combining the compelling insight of Nixonland and the narrative verve of Ladies and Gentleman: The Bronx is Burning, a journalist’s definitive cultural and political history of the fatefully important moment when American politics and culture turned: the year 2000. Before there was Coronavirus, before there was the contentious 2020 election or the entire Trump presidency, there was a turning-point year that proved momentous and transformative for American politics and the fate of the nation. That year was 2000, the last year of America’s unchallenged geopolitical dominance, the year Mark Burnett created Survivor and a new form of celebrity, the year a little Cuban immigrant became the focus of a media circus, the year Donald Trump flirted with running for President (and failed miserably), the year a group of Al Qaeda operatives traveled to America to learn to fly planes. They all converged in Florida, where that fall, the most important presidential election in generations was decided by the slimmest margin imaginable. But the year 2000 was also the moment when the authority of the political system was undermined by technical malfunctions; when the legal system was compromised by the justices of the Supreme Court; when the financial system was devalued by deregulation, speculation, creative securitization, and scam artistry; when the mainstream news media was destabilized by the propaganda power of Fox News and the supercharged speed of the internet; when the power of tastemakers, gatekeepers, and cultural elites was diminished by a dawning recognition of its irrelevance. Expertly synthesizing many hours of interviews, court records, FOIA requests, and original archival research, Andrew Rice marshals an impressive cast of dupes, schmucks, superstars, politicians, and shameless scoundrels in telling the fascinating story of this portentous year that marked a cultural watershed. Back at the start of the new millennium it was easy to laugh and roll our eyes about the crazy events in Florida in the year 2000—but what happened then and there has determined where we are and who we’ve become.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062979841
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590
Book Description
“In his beautifully crafted and rigorously reported volume, Andrew Rice takes readers back to Florida in 2000, laying out a cultural and political history of a moment at which America’s political system was turned inside out, its power structures upended. The Year That Broke America is vivid and wide-ranging; it also happens to be a page turner.”—Rebecca Traister, bestselling author of Good and Mad “Engrossing, insightful, tragic and above all, irresistible.”— Ronald Brownstein Combining the compelling insight of Nixonland and the narrative verve of Ladies and Gentleman: The Bronx is Burning, a journalist’s definitive cultural and political history of the fatefully important moment when American politics and culture turned: the year 2000. Before there was Coronavirus, before there was the contentious 2020 election or the entire Trump presidency, there was a turning-point year that proved momentous and transformative for American politics and the fate of the nation. That year was 2000, the last year of America’s unchallenged geopolitical dominance, the year Mark Burnett created Survivor and a new form of celebrity, the year a little Cuban immigrant became the focus of a media circus, the year Donald Trump flirted with running for President (and failed miserably), the year a group of Al Qaeda operatives traveled to America to learn to fly planes. They all converged in Florida, where that fall, the most important presidential election in generations was decided by the slimmest margin imaginable. But the year 2000 was also the moment when the authority of the political system was undermined by technical malfunctions; when the legal system was compromised by the justices of the Supreme Court; when the financial system was devalued by deregulation, speculation, creative securitization, and scam artistry; when the mainstream news media was destabilized by the propaganda power of Fox News and the supercharged speed of the internet; when the power of tastemakers, gatekeepers, and cultural elites was diminished by a dawning recognition of its irrelevance. Expertly synthesizing many hours of interviews, court records, FOIA requests, and original archival research, Andrew Rice marshals an impressive cast of dupes, schmucks, superstars, politicians, and shameless scoundrels in telling the fascinating story of this portentous year that marked a cultural watershed. Back at the start of the new millennium it was easy to laugh and roll our eyes about the crazy events in Florida in the year 2000—but what happened then and there has determined where we are and who we’ve become.
The Best of Times
Author: Haynes Johnson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156027014
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist looks back on the 1990s--the tumultuous era that led the nation from an age of innocence into an age of terrorism. Features a new Foreword, Afterword, and postscript by the author. A "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156027014
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist looks back on the 1990s--the tumultuous era that led the nation from an age of innocence into an age of terrorism. Features a new Foreword, Afterword, and postscript by the author. A "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year.
The Book That Changed America
Author: Randall Fuller
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143130099
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race “A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin’s just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Each of these figures seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin’s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things. Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143130099
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race “A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin’s just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Each of these figures seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin’s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things. Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.
1959
Author: Fred Kaplan
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470730277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470730277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
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.