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Title: How We Got Here: The 70's: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life--For Better or Worse by David Frum ISBN: 0-465-04196-5 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 20 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (45 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A must-read roadmap of the 70s--but it needs editing!
Comment: Frum's book presents a compelling argument for his thesis that much of the societal change for which we assign credit/blame to the 60s actually occured in the 70s, and was a product of that decade's culture. He presents a complete--though by no means exhaustive--portrait of America's psyche during the 'Me' decade.
Frum writes in a very accessible, easygoing style, but his exploration of the 70s lacks any sense of nostalgia. (For instance, you'll read little of leisure suits, disco music, or Pet Rocks.) Rather, he presents a careful (but not really unbiased) analysis of how social institutions changed during the decade. He points out that much of our present distrust of government does not stem directly from Vietnam and Watergate (as it is usually assumed) but developed gradually throughout the years preceding them. He accurately diagnoses the causes and effects of the decline of "mainline" Protestantism in the 70s. Frum also points out how the sexual revolution happened not during the so-called "Summer of Love" but developed in the early 70s.
(I would *love* to see Frum take on the 80s, another greatly misunderstood decade.)
All in all, this book is fascinating and highly quotable. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this strange and powerful period in American history--or anybody who's just looking for a good read.
But I've got one quibble, and it's a big one: the proofreading in this book is *atrocious*. I've never seen a book reach the market with more spelling and grammatical errors. Unfortunately, there are factual errors as well: Frum states that , during the winter of 1977-78, "[t]emperatures plunged to minus 100 in Minnesota." That's simply wrong, and it casts doubt on some of the other unsubstantiated statements Frum makes.
I don't think this is serious enough to discredit the entire book. Frum provides sources for many of his factual claims; this book would simply benefit from more thorough and careful editing. But read it anyway!
Rating: 5
Summary: This is essential reading! Brilliant!
Comment: David Frum's new book is a masterpiece of historical, social, and economic analysis. Frum persuasively makes the case that the 1970s were far more influential than the 1960s in terms of impact upon the future of America. Frum obviously evaluates the 1970s from a very conservative point of view, but he is a not a new-jerk conservative who automatically condemns everything about the 1970s and nostagically longs for the 1950s. Frum contends that the social conventions and mindsets which prevailed between 1920 and 1970 constituted a unique period in American history, existing due to the demands of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Therefore, change was inevitable. Nevertheless, much of the change that occurred in the 1970s was undesirable because of its devestating impact on our culture. Frum accentuates the negative changes, but towards the end of the book he discusses the rays of hope that emerged at the end of a dark decade - deregulation, tax revolt, etc. Frum ranges across a remarkably diverse group of subjects from fashion to environmentalism to inflation in concise, definitive essays. Frum so frequently overwhelms the reader with his mastery of detail and narrative that editorial elaboration is not even necessary; he has already made his case. His prose sparkles and dazzles with the best style of any contemporary political writer. The book was a real page-turner; I could not put it down. I stayed up to 1 A.M. three nights in a row to finish it.
Rating: 3
Summary: It's about more than just the '70s
Comment: David Frum's book is fascinating for a number of reasons. He correctly locates the 1970s - not the 1960s - as the decade in which the current social, economic, cultural and political conditions of the US (at least as of 2000, when the book was published) were established. We should quibble with many of his interpretations of the specifics of the time, but I would argue we ought not treat this book as a work of history. Instead it is a conservative's attempt to make sense of the 20th century and direct other conservatives to pinpointing the true periods of decline and of promise.
Towards the end, Frum revealingly argues that conservatives should not idealize the 1950s as the period in which American society was greatest. Instead he attacks the New Dealist vision of government that underwrote the 1950s boom as restrictive of freedoms. Instead, he argues, conservatives should look at the pre-Theodore Roosevelt period as a time when Americans were freer, more religious, more moral. In this he is not so different from Grover Norquist, who argues along the same lines, but Frum's is a more intellectualized argument.
At other times, Frum reveals lines of thinking that would become important and influential after September 11, such as his dismissal of anti-Iranian prejudice in the wave of the 1979 hostage crisis, or his complaints about weak US responses to terrorism. It is important to note that the contents of Frum's ideas were worked out in full by the end of the 1990s - September 11 simply provided a vehicle to put these ideas into practice.
If you want to learn about the 1970s, skip this book. If you want to learn how the right-wing theorizes the 20th century, however, it's a must-read.
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Title: The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics by Bruce J. Schulman ISBN: 030681126X Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Seventies, The: A Tumultuous Decade Reconsidered by Editors of Rolling Stone ISBN: 0316815470 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 26 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: What's Right : The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America by David Frum ISBN: 0465041981 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Dead Right by David Frum ISBN: 0465098258 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind ISBN: 0684857081 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 04 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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