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1959: The Year Everything Changed
Acclaimed national security columnist and noted cultural critic Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed AmericaWhile 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.
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.
322 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
October 29, 2009
What happened in 1959? Well, I can think of a few things... Near the peak of world-wide nuclear paranoia, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro each toured the U.S. and received surprisingly friendly receptions. Meanwhile, a group of Eisenhower-dispatched U.S. military advisers were killed outside Saigon. Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue and was beaten-up by police outside a club he was performing at. Ornette Coleman began playing at New York’s Five Spot. And William S. Burroughs began serializing Naked Lunch.
In 1959, John Howard Griffin started his Black Like Me project in New Orleans. Laws segregating Atlanta buses and Arkansas schools were overturned. Martin Luther King visited India and was deeply inspired by Gandhi. Six months after Frank Lloyd Wright’s death, the Guggenheim opened its doors. The Soviets and U.S. each launched space probes to explore the remote corners of the solar system. Texas Instruments demonstrated the solid integrated circuit. Ford killed the Edsel. Motown Records released its first hit, “Money (That’s What I Want)�. G.D. Searle Pharmaceuticals applied for FDA approval for Enovid, aka the birth control pill. And, oh yeah, JFK decided to run for President.
So, that’s right, nothing much happened in 1959. Thankfully, Kaplan doesn’t confine himself to that uneventful year, with so much of his back story taking place in the 1950s and extending into the early 1960s. This all-too-brief survey of events is Kaplan’s thoughtful reminder that so many of the revolutions of the 1960s had already sparked to life in the decade before.
In 1959, John Howard Griffin started his Black Like Me project in New Orleans. Laws segregating Atlanta buses and Arkansas schools were overturned. Martin Luther King visited India and was deeply inspired by Gandhi. Six months after Frank Lloyd Wright’s death, the Guggenheim opened its doors. The Soviets and U.S. each launched space probes to explore the remote corners of the solar system. Texas Instruments demonstrated the solid integrated circuit. Ford killed the Edsel. Motown Records released its first hit, “Money (That’s What I Want)�. G.D. Searle Pharmaceuticals applied for FDA approval for Enovid, aka the birth control pill. And, oh yeah, JFK decided to run for President.
So, that’s right, nothing much happened in 1959. Thankfully, Kaplan doesn’t confine himself to that uneventful year, with so much of his back story taking place in the 1950s and extending into the early 1960s. This all-too-brief survey of events is Kaplan’s thoughtful reminder that so many of the revolutions of the 1960s had already sparked to life in the decade before.
April 28, 2010
Whenever I read a book that is devoted to a single year, it is so frequently accompanied by the implication that no other year could possibly match it in terms of change that I really don't believe it any longer. There is, in fact a book written about 1969 that uses the exact same tag line as Fred Kaplan's intriguing 1959: The Year Everything Changed.
I mock the drama of implying that the history of the world hinged on a single year - really, it's never that simple. But 1959 was a unique year, one that I really didn't know all that much about until I read this book. In truth, while I am fascinated by later 20th century history, the 50s don't interest me much. I'd much rather read about the turbulent 60s or the stagnant 70s. I was a bit suspect of this book, figuring that it might start out with a bang and then peter out quickly or worse, be full of facts and figures that I couldn't care less about.
What I got instead was a interesting run through some of the highlights of the year. While many books of this ilk limit themselves to talking about either politics or world affairs or cultural events, Kaplan discusses a wide array of topics. You get the obligatory chapters on US-USSR relations, the space race resulting from the Soviet launch of Sputnik and how the seeds of the race riots of the 60s were actually well planted by 1959, but there is also a healthy dose of the unexpected. There is a whole chapter on Motown and how it came into being as a direct result of African Americans drawn to Detroit by the promise of jobs in the auto industry. The origin of indie film is traced (somewhat spuriously, in my opinion) to John Cassavettes' improvisational film Shadows. Finally, at least three chapters were devoted to the evolution of jazz music.
The Beat Generation plays a large role in the book as well. I've always been only mildly interested in this topic - the antics of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg just never really held all that much appeal to me. That said, the chapters about these men were fascinating. It almost made me want to go and try to read Kerouac's On The Road again - a book I have started twice and abandoned twice. I know better than that though. On The Road is just a book I will die not having read.
1959: The Year Everything Changed reminded me a lot of my favorite book on the 70s, It Seemed Like Nothing Happened in that it gave a really good overview of the time period, sprinkling in just enough detail to keep me engaged but not so much that I was overwhelmed. It painted the era in wide brush strokes, covering a lot of ground in a short period of time, but I also didn't feel cheated. Ultimately, recent history is hard to write about because we're still too close to it. I would argue that we're just starting to get enough distance between us and the 50s such that our experiences now are not coloring our recollection.
Despite that fact, I really do recommend this book to those that are interested in not just recent history but pop culture too. It may not have really been the year everything changed, but it's certainly a year worth reading about.
I mock the drama of implying that the history of the world hinged on a single year - really, it's never that simple. But 1959 was a unique year, one that I really didn't know all that much about until I read this book. In truth, while I am fascinated by later 20th century history, the 50s don't interest me much. I'd much rather read about the turbulent 60s or the stagnant 70s. I was a bit suspect of this book, figuring that it might start out with a bang and then peter out quickly or worse, be full of facts and figures that I couldn't care less about.
What I got instead was a interesting run through some of the highlights of the year. While many books of this ilk limit themselves to talking about either politics or world affairs or cultural events, Kaplan discusses a wide array of topics. You get the obligatory chapters on US-USSR relations, the space race resulting from the Soviet launch of Sputnik and how the seeds of the race riots of the 60s were actually well planted by 1959, but there is also a healthy dose of the unexpected. There is a whole chapter on Motown and how it came into being as a direct result of African Americans drawn to Detroit by the promise of jobs in the auto industry. The origin of indie film is traced (somewhat spuriously, in my opinion) to John Cassavettes' improvisational film Shadows. Finally, at least three chapters were devoted to the evolution of jazz music.
The Beat Generation plays a large role in the book as well. I've always been only mildly interested in this topic - the antics of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg just never really held all that much appeal to me. That said, the chapters about these men were fascinating. It almost made me want to go and try to read Kerouac's On The Road again - a book I have started twice and abandoned twice. I know better than that though. On The Road is just a book I will die not having read.
1959: The Year Everything Changed reminded me a lot of my favorite book on the 70s, It Seemed Like Nothing Happened in that it gave a really good overview of the time period, sprinkling in just enough detail to keep me engaged but not so much that I was overwhelmed. It painted the era in wide brush strokes, covering a lot of ground in a short period of time, but I also didn't feel cheated. Ultimately, recent history is hard to write about because we're still too close to it. I would argue that we're just starting to get enough distance between us and the 50s such that our experiences now are not coloring our recollection.
Despite that fact, I really do recommend this book to those that are interested in not just recent history but pop culture too. It may not have really been the year everything changed, but it's certainly a year worth reading about.
February 10, 2017
I picked up "1959: The Year Everything Changed" while trying to fill my bag on the last day of our town's library book sale. I was interested in the title because I was born in the 50's and was too young to know what happened in 1959 to "change everything" and lead us toward the "New Frontier."
After reading the book, I agree with the author that much of life as we experience it in 2017 is rooted in the year 1959. Even more surprising, our politics in America seem eerily similar to 1959. So what happened in 1959 that changed the world? Well, here's a short list:
--The FDA gets an application for the birth control pill and approves it six months later
--Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments invents the integrated circuit chip, now used in computers
--The Supreme Court strikes down strict obscenity laws in favor of free speech
--Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman release jazz from its chordal boundaries
--The US Civil Rights Commission is established and begins to tackle racial injustices
--Barry Gordy forms Motown
--Art is pushed off the canvas through artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Allen Kaprow
--Literary forms expand through Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Borroughs
--The Mercury 7 astronauts are chosen, and the first attempts to receive extraterrestrial radio signals begin.
In the last chapter of the book, the author Fred Kaplan observes that despite these events (or maybe because of them), in 1959 "many people wanted to step back from the New Frontier--even to indulge in a countermyth of a simpler time, small towns, and provincial values, when categories were stark and choices seemed clear; a clash of myths that would define American politics in the decades to come, even into the next century." In the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, the New Frontier won out. In the election of 2016, the countermyth prevailed. The struggle continues......
I gave the book three stars instead of four because the book was heavily tilted to the author's passions and areas of expertise--art, literature and music--and relatively less toward the politics, technology and sociology that also gripped my interest. Nevertheless, the book filled in the details on people and events I had only vaguely heard of, and opened my eyes to the importance of the year 1959 in our lives today.
After reading the book, I agree with the author that much of life as we experience it in 2017 is rooted in the year 1959. Even more surprising, our politics in America seem eerily similar to 1959. So what happened in 1959 that changed the world? Well, here's a short list:
--The FDA gets an application for the birth control pill and approves it six months later
--Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments invents the integrated circuit chip, now used in computers
--The Supreme Court strikes down strict obscenity laws in favor of free speech
--Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman release jazz from its chordal boundaries
--The US Civil Rights Commission is established and begins to tackle racial injustices
--Barry Gordy forms Motown
--Art is pushed off the canvas through artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Allen Kaprow
--Literary forms expand through Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Borroughs
--The Mercury 7 astronauts are chosen, and the first attempts to receive extraterrestrial radio signals begin.
In the last chapter of the book, the author Fred Kaplan observes that despite these events (or maybe because of them), in 1959 "many people wanted to step back from the New Frontier--even to indulge in a countermyth of a simpler time, small towns, and provincial values, when categories were stark and choices seemed clear; a clash of myths that would define American politics in the decades to come, even into the next century." In the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, the New Frontier won out. In the election of 2016, the countermyth prevailed. The struggle continues......
I gave the book three stars instead of four because the book was heavily tilted to the author's passions and areas of expertise--art, literature and music--and relatively less toward the politics, technology and sociology that also gripped my interest. Nevertheless, the book filled in the details on people and events I had only vaguely heard of, and opened my eyes to the importance of the year 1959 in our lives today.
August 10, 2014
This is an interesting exploration of the events of a single year.
First, though it is never stated explicitly on the jacket, this book completely focuses on 1959 in the United States. You won't find any stories about the election of Charles De Gaulle, the marriage of Prince Akihito to a commoner, the revolution in the Dominican Republic, or the flight and exile of the Dalai Lama.
The articles move in chronological order, and as a result there are three topics that are returned to repeatedly: the Cold War, beatniks, and jazz. Only a small handful of articles fall outside of these categories. Nevertheless, each episode is fact-filled but delivered with a conversational tone, and I particularly liked the sections about Herman Kahn's tour and the first Americans killed in the Vietnam conflict.
A few events mentioned I could have done without. Project Ozma's importance was merely to make the question of extraterrestrial life worthy of discussion. Robert Frank's The Americans immediately went out of print until 1968. I thought that the visit of Anastas Mikoyan could have been combined with visit of Khrushchev. Meanwhile, other events that I would have thought merited inclusion were left out: the debut of Barbie dolls, statehood for AL and HI, the first gay uprising in the world (at Cooper's Doughnuts in Los Angeles), and the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway.
The only two inventions mentioned are the microchip and the birth control pill. The section on the microchip also addresses the first modern computer, but doesn't say anything about the first Xerox machine. Apparently there were no pivotal events concerning health or environmental matters, and the pill is the only event that involves gender relations.
First, though it is never stated explicitly on the jacket, this book completely focuses on 1959 in the United States. You won't find any stories about the election of Charles De Gaulle, the marriage of Prince Akihito to a commoner, the revolution in the Dominican Republic, or the flight and exile of the Dalai Lama.
The articles move in chronological order, and as a result there are three topics that are returned to repeatedly: the Cold War, beatniks, and jazz. Only a small handful of articles fall outside of these categories. Nevertheless, each episode is fact-filled but delivered with a conversational tone, and I particularly liked the sections about Herman Kahn's tour and the first Americans killed in the Vietnam conflict.
A few events mentioned I could have done without. Project Ozma's importance was merely to make the question of extraterrestrial life worthy of discussion. Robert Frank's The Americans immediately went out of print until 1968. I thought that the visit of Anastas Mikoyan could have been combined with visit of Khrushchev. Meanwhile, other events that I would have thought merited inclusion were left out: the debut of Barbie dolls, statehood for AL and HI, the first gay uprising in the world (at Cooper's Doughnuts in Los Angeles), and the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway.
The only two inventions mentioned are the microchip and the birth control pill. The section on the microchip also addresses the first modern computer, but doesn't say anything about the first Xerox machine. Apparently there were no pivotal events concerning health or environmental matters, and the pill is the only event that involves gender relations.
February 1, 2023
I knew a lot of the events covered in this book - the Cuban Revolution, the recording of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the visit of Krushchev to America, the release of Shadows by John Cassavetes, the Civil Rights battles, the first steps in the final legalization of the Birth Control Pill - but I never thought of them as all happening at the same time.
All this and lots more. The Guggenheim Museum opened. Action painters were given prominence. The writer of the book Black Like Me lived life undercover as a Negro and taught whites that there was a lot more to the hatred of prejudice than they knew. Ornate Coleman caused a sensation in jazz. Censorship laws were loosened and Lady Chatterly's Lover was allowed to be published. The first Americans were killed in Vietnam.
Kaplan does a very good job of focusing in on these and other subjects, putting them in context with prior and later events. I always love history that takes a slice of time and lets us see what was going on in many different areas. He makes a good case that much of what we think of as "The Sixties" emerged out of roots laid down in 1959.
All this and lots more. The Guggenheim Museum opened. Action painters were given prominence. The writer of the book Black Like Me lived life undercover as a Negro and taught whites that there was a lot more to the hatred of prejudice than they knew. Ornate Coleman caused a sensation in jazz. Censorship laws were loosened and Lady Chatterly's Lover was allowed to be published. The first Americans were killed in Vietnam.
Kaplan does a very good job of focusing in on these and other subjects, putting them in context with prior and later events. I always love history that takes a slice of time and lets us see what was going on in many different areas. He makes a good case that much of what we think of as "The Sixties" emerged out of roots laid down in 1959.
December 27, 2013
Available as a 10+-hour two-part audio download from .
This audiobook made a long round-trip via ground transporation, made during the holidays with the usual delays and heavy traffic, much more enjoyable.
This book belongs to a school of historical storytelling which I am pleased to call the Herodutus School of History Writing. It could also be less charitably called the Attention Deficit Disorder School. I enjoy reading books of this type very much, allowing myself to be transported by the author's enthusiasm and energy. It's like the author is always poking you in the ribs, saying, “And then THIS happened! And THAT It was the first of its type! Oh, and there was another cool thing. Yeah, and that reminds me of a great story which may or may not be true... �
Some people don't enjoy this sort of historical storytelling so much. They want a thesis and a discipline march of facts. I call these people partisans of the Thucydides School of History Writing, or alternately Grown-Ups.
Another enjoyable activity is to (warning: incoming mixed metaphor) pick nits in the avalanche of facts in a book. In this case, in the second part, chapter 12, time 5:15, Kaplan says Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the President, was a bootlegger. This is false -- see, for example, by , p. 367.
This audiobook made a long round-trip via ground transporation, made during the holidays with the usual delays and heavy traffic, much more enjoyable.
This book belongs to a school of historical storytelling which I am pleased to call the Herodutus School of History Writing. It could also be less charitably called the Attention Deficit Disorder School. I enjoy reading books of this type very much, allowing myself to be transported by the author's enthusiasm and energy. It's like the author is always poking you in the ribs, saying, “And then THIS happened! And THAT It was the first of its type! Oh, and there was another cool thing. Yeah, and that reminds me of a great story which may or may not be true... �
Some people don't enjoy this sort of historical storytelling so much. They want a thesis and a discipline march of facts. I call these people partisans of the Thucydides School of History Writing, or alternately Grown-Ups.
Another enjoyable activity is to (warning: incoming mixed metaphor) pick nits in the avalanche of facts in a book. In this case, in the second part, chapter 12, time 5:15, Kaplan says Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the President, was a bootlegger. This is false -- see, for example, by , p. 367.
January 4, 2016
I asked my mother (you know who you are)...1959 really wasn't the year everything changed. But, like so many college students (even then!), she was oblivious to contemporary events at that time, so I needed to read this book to see if she was indeed right.
However, the author sets up 1959 and the late 50s in general as the set up years for the 60s movement. Movements never come in nice neat decade-long packages. The reality is that the 50s lasted through 1963, the 1960s through 1974 and so on. The set up events include the beatniks culture, new jazz interpretations (Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis), 1957 (watered down) Civil Rights Act, the "pill" and scientific discovery spurred on by Sputnik. All these events challenged conventional wisdom. Of those, the single most important one, the author intimates, was the pill, as it liberated women from having a primary role as mothers and not employees. While its importance can not be discounted, the women's movement was surely going to happen without it (was it not?).
Seminal years of the 20th century included 1914, 1929, 1938, 1963, 1968 and 1974; I would not put 1959 in that category but certainly the activities of the 1950s in general did set up the larger movements and social changes which lasted through the 1970s.
However, the author sets up 1959 and the late 50s in general as the set up years for the 60s movement. Movements never come in nice neat decade-long packages. The reality is that the 50s lasted through 1963, the 1960s through 1974 and so on. The set up events include the beatniks culture, new jazz interpretations (Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis), 1957 (watered down) Civil Rights Act, the "pill" and scientific discovery spurred on by Sputnik. All these events challenged conventional wisdom. Of those, the single most important one, the author intimates, was the pill, as it liberated women from having a primary role as mothers and not employees. While its importance can not be discounted, the women's movement was surely going to happen without it (was it not?).
Seminal years of the 20th century included 1914, 1929, 1938, 1963, 1968 and 1974; I would not put 1959 in that category but certainly the activities of the 1950s in general did set up the larger movements and social changes which lasted through the 1970s.
October 10, 2011
Every year could be considered unique in its own way, of course, but after reading this detailed look at the year 1959 (actually the period 1957-1961 or so), it's amazing what a crossroads that period was. From politics, society, race, art and music, to science, electronics & computers, sex and more, we are where we are today because of dramatic changes, innovations and awakenings that happened during this period. For those who like details and linkages between supposedly disparate historical events not usually found in other history books, this book is for you. For example, the interconnections between key people in the art, music, literary and architectural scenes, and their effects on other facets of society, really brings the events to life and helps makes sense of history as a flow of interweaving decisions and actions rather than a hodgepodge of individual factoids. Enjoyable read, with chapters short enough to give time to think about each set of events as you read along.
September 9, 2010
Since I turned 8 in 1959, I felt like this was a book that put my childhood in historical context. Kaplan argues that the particular gestalt of 1959--well, really, the late 50's and early 60's--was the simultaneous belief in possible annihilation from the recently deployed atomic bomb and the infinite possibilities inspired by space exploration. With chapters on subjects as diverse as Ginsberg and Kerouac; the legal battle over the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover; the early days of the Cuban revolution; the development of the microchip; and the FDA approval of the birth control pill, among others, Kaplan tells his story in an inviting and interesting manner. As with all history books, I seemed to forget everything within a few days of reading, but this appears to be my problem, and not the author's.
October 19, 2014
This book was disappointing. His thesis is that 1959 is under appreciated as a year that was pivotal in political, social, and cultural changes in America. But 1959 itself is rather random -- most of the things he describes took place over a period of years, and he would find some sort of 1959 "hook" to make things look coherent. The book could easily have been "1958" or "1961." The idea that the 50's were not as staid and stable and that the 60's really "began in the 50's" is not particularly novel or new. I did learn some neat factoids about various artists and social movements but not much else about the book was that great. l
June 28, 2013
The premise of this book is that all the changes for the 1960s were teed up in 1959. (I guess they're playing off the whole 1491 idea?)
It's interesting when he's talking about changes in science, world affairs, politics, racial strife, etc. He spends waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time talking about jazz, which is stupid, and other world-changing literature of the day. Some of that is cool, but he utterly fails to mention the Twilight Zone, which debuted in 59. (Boo.)
Still, interesting stuff - reading it made me want to watch season 1 of Mad Men again.
It's interesting when he's talking about changes in science, world affairs, politics, racial strife, etc. He spends waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time talking about jazz, which is stupid, and other world-changing literature of the day. Some of that is cool, but he utterly fails to mention the Twilight Zone, which debuted in 59. (Boo.)
Still, interesting stuff - reading it made me want to watch season 1 of Mad Men again.
February 4, 2010
I enjoyed the book on the whole, but I thought Mr. Kaplan overstretched the importance of 1959. He would say while "x" occured in 1959, it was only because a more important event happened two years earlier. But I learned a lot of small things that happened in that year, including a lot of jazz history.
July 30, 2012
I really, really enjoyed this book. Like most, I idealize the 1960s as a time of massive cultural shifts, but I never realized how much of that was made possible by the events of 1959. The section on the birth of the birth control pill was most enlightening, and topical given the current assault on women's healthcare and reproductive rights.
July 11, 2009
A well-written, well-organized argument that the year 1959 was a watershed year in both science and popular culture.
August 19, 2009
I still don't know why 1959 is so darned important. In fact, this book made me less convinced that it is.
May 5, 2014
1959 -- a lot happened during this year and while the author could have just listed the things that happened and provided a brief explanation of each item, Fred Kaplan went in a different direction.
He talks about each occurrence and then provides a detailed history that surrounds these events. For some things, such as the birth control pill, 1959 was a sort of culmination of years of work by Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) and her contemporaries.
For other events, 1959 was the beginning. For example, John F. Kennedy decided to run for President of the United States at the end of 1959. This would mark the beginning of a "new" political dynasty that carried through Ted Kennedy's passing 40 years later.
Some things that left their mark while I was reading this:
At the start of his 7th year as president, Dwight Eisenhower was sixty-eight, up till then the oldest man ever to hold office. His notoriously belligerent secretary of state, John Foster Dulles (think about Dulles airport), was terminally ill with cancer and would die before the summer. After prolonged war prosperity, the American economy was in recession ...
On January 2nd, Soviets' Lunik 1 spacecraft breaks the Earth's gravitational pull. Later in the year, we would be introduced to the idea of civilization on other planets and "Interstellar Communication".
There were breakthroughs in music ... Miles Davis recorded "Kind of Blue"; Dave Brubeck developed and displayed new musical rhythms in his recording "Time Out"; Ornette Coleman and his jazz quartet redefined the shape of Jazz = all of these musicians changed the shape of Jazz for the future and for the better!
Unfortunately, the country also saw more racism and it wasn't just in the south. Miles Davis was "attacked" by two (2) policemen in New York while outside on a break from the club where he was performing.
Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro both visited the US in 1959. The "cold war" may have ended sooner if ... (p. 112-113).
On July 8, 1959, six of the eight US military advisers in Hoa Binh -- a tree-lined provincial center twenty miles NE of Saigon -- were shot in their mess hall after dinner. Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand were killed in the attack. They were the first of 58,217 Americans who would die over the next 16 years in Vietnam.
Nobody knew it at the time, but 1959 marked the start of what came to be called the 2nd Indochina War.
"Open Door Imperialism" -- a revisionist view of the US Foreign Policy was "reborn" in a book written by University of Wisconsin in Madison professor, William Appleman Williams in his book, "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy".
"The New Language of Diplomacy" begins on pg. 125. This whole chapter is very interesting and explains a lot about how things worked an continue to work in the US State Dept.
Towards the end of the year John Howard Griffin began his trip to the Deep South, disguised as a black man, for his book "Black Like Me". The "lessons" he learned and the knowledge he acquired is scary.
On November 19,1959, Ford Motor Company announced that it was shutting down production of the Edsel after only two (2) years on the market. The Edsel was also known as the "E-car" -- Experimental car during its development phase, in which Ford had invested $400 million. To the public, Edsel stood for "Every Day Something Else Leaks". Ford had expected to sell 200,000 Edsels the first year; in fact, it sold 63,100. The second year's figures were more abysmal and the company lost $250 million.
The Edsel had been developed in flush times, but now the economy was in recession (sound familiar?). The International Auto Show in New York in April, took up one-third more floor space than the previous year's show and featured cars made by 65 companies in 9 foreign countries ... Sales of a squat German car called the Volkswagen were skyrocketing and for the first time, Japanese cars were on display, including the new brands Toyota and Datsun.
According to Kapland, the Edsel's demise marked the first sign of many to come that Detroit could no longer dominate its market, any more than Washington could dictate the world. Do you really think we've learned this lesson?
But just at this moment of incipient decline, a different sort of factory was rising up, a musical assembly line called Motown -- a wordplay on "Motor" City -- that would transform the culture of the nation and the world ...
An impressive book that encourages us to ask questions of our own!
He talks about each occurrence and then provides a detailed history that surrounds these events. For some things, such as the birth control pill, 1959 was a sort of culmination of years of work by Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) and her contemporaries.
For other events, 1959 was the beginning. For example, John F. Kennedy decided to run for President of the United States at the end of 1959. This would mark the beginning of a "new" political dynasty that carried through Ted Kennedy's passing 40 years later.
Some things that left their mark while I was reading this:
At the start of his 7th year as president, Dwight Eisenhower was sixty-eight, up till then the oldest man ever to hold office. His notoriously belligerent secretary of state, John Foster Dulles (think about Dulles airport), was terminally ill with cancer and would die before the summer. After prolonged war prosperity, the American economy was in recession ...
On January 2nd, Soviets' Lunik 1 spacecraft breaks the Earth's gravitational pull. Later in the year, we would be introduced to the idea of civilization on other planets and "Interstellar Communication".
There were breakthroughs in music ... Miles Davis recorded "Kind of Blue"; Dave Brubeck developed and displayed new musical rhythms in his recording "Time Out"; Ornette Coleman and his jazz quartet redefined the shape of Jazz = all of these musicians changed the shape of Jazz for the future and for the better!
Unfortunately, the country also saw more racism and it wasn't just in the south. Miles Davis was "attacked" by two (2) policemen in New York while outside on a break from the club where he was performing.
Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro both visited the US in 1959. The "cold war" may have ended sooner if ... (p. 112-113).
On July 8, 1959, six of the eight US military advisers in Hoa Binh -- a tree-lined provincial center twenty miles NE of Saigon -- were shot in their mess hall after dinner. Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand were killed in the attack. They were the first of 58,217 Americans who would die over the next 16 years in Vietnam.
Nobody knew it at the time, but 1959 marked the start of what came to be called the 2nd Indochina War.
"Open Door Imperialism" -- a revisionist view of the US Foreign Policy was "reborn" in a book written by University of Wisconsin in Madison professor, William Appleman Williams in his book, "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy".
"The New Language of Diplomacy" begins on pg. 125. This whole chapter is very interesting and explains a lot about how things worked an continue to work in the US State Dept.
Towards the end of the year John Howard Griffin began his trip to the Deep South, disguised as a black man, for his book "Black Like Me". The "lessons" he learned and the knowledge he acquired is scary.
On November 19,1959, Ford Motor Company announced that it was shutting down production of the Edsel after only two (2) years on the market. The Edsel was also known as the "E-car" -- Experimental car during its development phase, in which Ford had invested $400 million. To the public, Edsel stood for "Every Day Something Else Leaks". Ford had expected to sell 200,000 Edsels the first year; in fact, it sold 63,100. The second year's figures were more abysmal and the company lost $250 million.
The Edsel had been developed in flush times, but now the economy was in recession (sound familiar?). The International Auto Show in New York in April, took up one-third more floor space than the previous year's show and featured cars made by 65 companies in 9 foreign countries ... Sales of a squat German car called the Volkswagen were skyrocketing and for the first time, Japanese cars were on display, including the new brands Toyota and Datsun.
According to Kapland, the Edsel's demise marked the first sign of many to come that Detroit could no longer dominate its market, any more than Washington could dictate the world. Do you really think we've learned this lesson?
But just at this moment of incipient decline, a different sort of factory was rising up, a musical assembly line called Motown -- a wordplay on "Motor" City -- that would transform the culture of the nation and the world ...
An impressive book that encourages us to ask questions of our own!
November 7, 2011
Despite its many serious faults, I did like the book. It's simple writing style makes it easy to read. For those of us over 50 it lead to a fun memory trip judging from our discussions; for those under 50 it may be informative about recent history. I'll give it a 3.
Kaplan commits the fallacy of trying to locate the changes which took place in the 60's in a single when there were many changes which took place over a series of years that prepared the way for the 60's. Kaplan has an excessive tendency to generalize from a single point source. Most of his footnotes relied upon a single source.
He gives an exciting account of the development of jazz music but his knowledge of other musical genres is appalling weak. How can a writer cover music of the 60's and not mention hootenannies, Woody Guthrie and Alan Lomax? He totally flubbed the importance of Bill Haley and the Comets in the development of Rock.
His political comments are rash and poorly supported and he actually misleads his readers. In three places, talking about the missile gap, Kaplan claims it is now known that it did not exist. First, he tells us that this information comes from Russian archives now open to the public and cites one book by two noteworthy Russian sources. Further research casts doubt upon the openness of the sources. Were those archives opened for research or were these two historians granted special access? If they had access was it free and open or were they only presented with limited, selected materials? We don't know but Kaplan tells us that the information is now free and open. Kaplan also justifies his position but citing his other works. There was plenty of space in the large type footnotes to summarize his findings. Intentionally failing to do so is the worst kind of self-promotion. It smells like intellectual dishonesty. He further seems to misunderstand the actual dispute. The US probably did have less tonnage to heave but the argument was that there was no missile gap because both sides had achieved mutual, assured destruction not that parity existed.
Despite those failings, I did enjoy reading the book. It may not be worth serious study but it is entertaining reading.
Kaplan commits the fallacy of trying to locate the changes which took place in the 60's in a single when there were many changes which took place over a series of years that prepared the way for the 60's. Kaplan has an excessive tendency to generalize from a single point source. Most of his footnotes relied upon a single source.
He gives an exciting account of the development of jazz music but his knowledge of other musical genres is appalling weak. How can a writer cover music of the 60's and not mention hootenannies, Woody Guthrie and Alan Lomax? He totally flubbed the importance of Bill Haley and the Comets in the development of Rock.
His political comments are rash and poorly supported and he actually misleads his readers. In three places, talking about the missile gap, Kaplan claims it is now known that it did not exist. First, he tells us that this information comes from Russian archives now open to the public and cites one book by two noteworthy Russian sources. Further research casts doubt upon the openness of the sources. Were those archives opened for research or were these two historians granted special access? If they had access was it free and open or were they only presented with limited, selected materials? We don't know but Kaplan tells us that the information is now free and open. Kaplan also justifies his position but citing his other works. There was plenty of space in the large type footnotes to summarize his findings. Intentionally failing to do so is the worst kind of self-promotion. It smells like intellectual dishonesty. He further seems to misunderstand the actual dispute. The US probably did have less tonnage to heave but the argument was that there was no missile gap because both sides had achieved mutual, assured destruction not that parity existed.
Despite those failings, I did enjoy reading the book. It may not be worth serious study but it is entertaining reading.
November 4, 2018
A good summary of history around 1959 and the range of seminal events that occurred in this year that were transformational across society - an eclectic mix including music, technology, civil rights, race relations, the Cold War, Vietnam, censorship and contraception. Notwithstanding this is nearly 60 years ago, the more things change the more they stay the same.
March 3, 2017
1959 was, I have learned, an important year. It marked the invention of the integrated circuit, the advent of the birth control pill, the beginning of jet air travel, the start of the race to the moon and the Vietnam War, and major breakthroughs in music, art and literature. It was a hinge point between the generation that had been through two global wars and a depression, for whom social good meant formal suits and dresses, conformity to the rules and "civilized" behavior, and a new generation of iconoclasts who wanted to rip apart conventions to expose what was underneath.
In a series of essays on a wide range of subjects, Kaplan's 1959: The Year Everything Changed explores the different breaking points where the old order started to crack and new ways of thinking began to poke through. Each chapter deals with one subject, explores the antecedents of the changes, and in some instances takes the reader forward into the 60s and 70s to show what happened next. This is very much an American story; although the action occasionally shifts abroad, the reader doesn't get much sense of what was happening in the rest of the world. It's a very personal, non-exhaustive short (244-page) history that doesn't engage (at least in the text; I didn't read the endnotes) with the work of historians of the era.
For all that, I enjoyed it. I was born in 1959 and was too young to appreciate much of the 1960s, but this book has given me some starting points from which to explore a decade that I'm starting to feel I need to understand. I was vaguely conscious of growing up in a time of important transitions, especially being in England where traces of World War II were still very much apparent, but by the time I reached the age of real awareness we were well into the 70s and the changes that Kaplan enumerates were pretty much taken for granted.
I'm not sure how much I would enjoy 1959 if I didn't have that sense of peripheral familiarity with the era. For anyone under 40, this time must fall squarely into the category of "history", and I don't think the reminiscence style of writing really works well there. I'd love to get the thoughts of younger Book Book contributors on this. For me, this is a book written by a Boomer for Boomers. But if you like popular history, it's well written and pacy. Worth a look.
In a series of essays on a wide range of subjects, Kaplan's 1959: The Year Everything Changed explores the different breaking points where the old order started to crack and new ways of thinking began to poke through. Each chapter deals with one subject, explores the antecedents of the changes, and in some instances takes the reader forward into the 60s and 70s to show what happened next. This is very much an American story; although the action occasionally shifts abroad, the reader doesn't get much sense of what was happening in the rest of the world. It's a very personal, non-exhaustive short (244-page) history that doesn't engage (at least in the text; I didn't read the endnotes) with the work of historians of the era.
For all that, I enjoyed it. I was born in 1959 and was too young to appreciate much of the 1960s, but this book has given me some starting points from which to explore a decade that I'm starting to feel I need to understand. I was vaguely conscious of growing up in a time of important transitions, especially being in England where traces of World War II were still very much apparent, but by the time I reached the age of real awareness we were well into the 70s and the changes that Kaplan enumerates were pretty much taken for granted.
I'm not sure how much I would enjoy 1959 if I didn't have that sense of peripheral familiarity with the era. For anyone under 40, this time must fall squarely into the category of "history", and I don't think the reminiscence style of writing really works well there. I'd love to get the thoughts of younger Book Book contributors on this. For me, this is a book written by a Boomer for Boomers. But if you like popular history, it's well written and pacy. Worth a look.
September 25, 2014
I think it would be hard to do what Mr. Kaplan has done here—to take a single year in history that was so full of significance, to break it down into its main currents, and then to show the links between those currents—but he has effectively pulled it off. Did you know, for example, that an NCO from Great Bend, Kansas, was sitting in India during the Second World War trying to make radios lighter for commandos air-dropping into Burma and used this work to invent the microprocessor? Not too far away, Norman Mailer was jotting down notes that would later produce “The Naked and the Dead� and his long-term struggles to top that work while bouncing around Greenwich Village are also woven into the narrative here. For a non-musician, the chapters on Jazz are a little slow, but hanging out with Miles Davis, Brubeck, and Dizzy Gillespie make it worth the read. Kaplan’s past work on the NY Times Arts & Leisure Section is easy to see here, but so is his time at the Boston Globe, working the Pentagon and Post-Soviet Moscow beats. He effectively asks the ‘What-If� questions pertinent to a world constantly thinking about Sputnik and the looming threat of nuclear annihilation as he explores the U-2 incident that sabotaged the relationship between Eisenhower and Khrushchev, the ominous developments in Southeast Asia after the French left, and Castro’s visit to the U.S. after toppling Batista. His chapter on Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the Museum of Modern Art did little to dispel my opinion that modern artists are all a bit squirrelly, and I still don’t have much use for Allen Ginsberg or William S. Burroughs—but I better understand their significance after reading this book. The chapter on Barry Gordy and Motown (heartbreaking, for anyone paying attention to what Detroit has become over the last 20 years) is superlative, as are the narratives on the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of the Birth Control Pill. Mr. Kaplan has effectively connected and described the main currents of the year that flowed into the �60s—teeing up JFK, Viet Nam, and the protest movements—and the collapse of idealism that later hit us at Altamont, the �68 Democratic Convention, and the Tet Offensive. There’s something new in this book for anyone interested in current affairs or American culture; recommend.
February 2, 2013
OK nostalgia but force-fed history.
This is Concept History. The traditional historian researches first, then pronounces conclusions. The concept historian pronounces first, then researches.
The concept here is that 1959 was the year when America pivoted from the shallow, stultified '50s to the dynamic, creative 60s.
The trouble with The Concept Method is that the concept deforms the facts. The concept here is simple-minded at best, silly at worst.
David Halberstam's marvelous "The Fifites" put to rest forever the notion that the 50s were a stagnant time. On the contrary, as Halberstam demonstrated in his captivating style, it was an especially dynamic, innovative era. I could find no reference to Halberstam in Kaplan's sources, an astonishing omission.
It's true that the era was characterized by a certain stylized posturing and peer-enforced conformity. "Decent" people were untroubled by Jim Crow, scandalized by rock and roll, and apoplectic over such then-rebels as Lenny Bruce. We laugh at them now.
But there was more diversity than Kaplan allows. Moreover, the Fifties were positively free-wheeling compared to the stylized posturing and peer-enforced conformity that characterized the 60s. We laugh even harder at them.
I give the book three stars, despite the flawed concept, because it is a diverting piece of nostalgia. Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, C. Wright Mills, Tropic of Cancer, Lady Chatterley, Mort Sahl, Project Mercury, the Edsel, Chuck Berry, Harry Belafonte, Miles Davis; such deservedly forgotten figures as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and of course Eisenhower Nixon Kennedy Castro and Khrushchev--we get to revisit them all. You will probably not learn anything new, but re-visitations can have their own value.
This is Concept History. The traditional historian researches first, then pronounces conclusions. The concept historian pronounces first, then researches.
The concept here is that 1959 was the year when America pivoted from the shallow, stultified '50s to the dynamic, creative 60s.
The trouble with The Concept Method is that the concept deforms the facts. The concept here is simple-minded at best, silly at worst.
David Halberstam's marvelous "The Fifites" put to rest forever the notion that the 50s were a stagnant time. On the contrary, as Halberstam demonstrated in his captivating style, it was an especially dynamic, innovative era. I could find no reference to Halberstam in Kaplan's sources, an astonishing omission.
It's true that the era was characterized by a certain stylized posturing and peer-enforced conformity. "Decent" people were untroubled by Jim Crow, scandalized by rock and roll, and apoplectic over such then-rebels as Lenny Bruce. We laugh at them now.
But there was more diversity than Kaplan allows. Moreover, the Fifties were positively free-wheeling compared to the stylized posturing and peer-enforced conformity that characterized the 60s. We laugh even harder at them.
I give the book three stars, despite the flawed concept, because it is a diverting piece of nostalgia. Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, C. Wright Mills, Tropic of Cancer, Lady Chatterley, Mort Sahl, Project Mercury, the Edsel, Chuck Berry, Harry Belafonte, Miles Davis; such deservedly forgotten figures as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and of course Eisenhower Nixon Kennedy Castro and Khrushchev--we get to revisit them all. You will probably not learn anything new, but re-visitations can have their own value.
March 15, 2011
NOT MY GLASS OF MUSCATEL.
“It was the year of the microchip, the birth-control pill, the space race, and the computer revolution; the rise of Pop art, free jazz, “sick comics,� the New Journalism, and indie films; the emergence of Castro, Malcolm X, and personal superpower diplomacy; the beginnings of Motown, Happenings, and the Generation Gap—all breaking against the backdrop of the Cold War, the fallout-shelter craze, and the first American casualties of the war in Vietnam.”—front-cover flap.
Despite the exciting promise of the first sentence of the front-cover flap (quoted above), and despite a smattering of interesting asides (e.g. “[Louis ‘Satchmo’] Armstrong canceled a 1957 [goodwill] trip to Moscow after Eisenhower refused to send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce a court order to integrate the schools.”—page 126; and all of chapter 24—‘Andromeda Freed from Her Chains’—pages 221/232), in his book �1959: The Year Everything Changed,� Fred Kaplan wastes way too much ink and far to much of the good reader’s time ruminating over Beat poets, Beat novelists, new-jazz ‘improvisarios,� (“…some of them making their horns sound deliberately ugly as a rebellion against white, bourgeois notions of beauty.”—page 210),
abstract-impressionist painters, avant-garde composers, and other whack-jobs, for my liking.
Recommendation: Read David Halberstam’s ‘The Fifties� instead.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. hardback edition, 322 pages
“It was the year of the microchip, the birth-control pill, the space race, and the computer revolution; the rise of Pop art, free jazz, “sick comics,� the New Journalism, and indie films; the emergence of Castro, Malcolm X, and personal superpower diplomacy; the beginnings of Motown, Happenings, and the Generation Gap—all breaking against the backdrop of the Cold War, the fallout-shelter craze, and the first American casualties of the war in Vietnam.”—front-cover flap.
Despite the exciting promise of the first sentence of the front-cover flap (quoted above), and despite a smattering of interesting asides (e.g. “[Louis ‘Satchmo’] Armstrong canceled a 1957 [goodwill] trip to Moscow after Eisenhower refused to send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce a court order to integrate the schools.”—page 126; and all of chapter 24—‘Andromeda Freed from Her Chains’—pages 221/232), in his book �1959: The Year Everything Changed,� Fred Kaplan wastes way too much ink and far to much of the good reader’s time ruminating over Beat poets, Beat novelists, new-jazz ‘improvisarios,� (“…some of them making their horns sound deliberately ugly as a rebellion against white, bourgeois notions of beauty.”—page 210),
abstract-impressionist painters, avant-garde composers, and other whack-jobs, for my liking.
Recommendation: Read David Halberstam’s ‘The Fifties� instead.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. hardback edition, 322 pages
December 5, 2015
This was interesting to me because it covered art' architecture, Jazz, Motown, technology, Cold War, arms race, space race, the Beats, and Civil Rights. Edsel and microchip also, but death of Buddy Holly was one sentence. Sure, Kind of Blue was big, but Ornette Coleman was less important than Holly or Elvis in retrospect. Also, artists like Jasper Johns or Jackson Pollack were pretentious crap Meisters. I guess my only quibble is what was left out, and it overemphasized the importance of Jazz and Modern Art. Don't get me wrong, I love Jazz, but I think that it kind of ended with Coltrane, and he was like a prophet in the desert, searching for something, while he was rambling, spouting non-sequiturs, foaming at the mouth. He didn't find what he was looking for, didn't find a direction. Ornette Coleman was not the direction that music was going. I think he was doing interesting stuff, but people didn't like it. Then you get people who think they are hip, on the cutting edge, liking music solely because it is difficult to understand. The situation is similar to when 12 tone rows and atonality became mandatory. Even Stalin complained to Shostokovich, with good reason. I am kind of going off on a tangent myself, because actually I really liked this book.
February 17, 2010
Major events that affect change in a society are not spontaneous but have occurred because of small, seemingly insignificant occurrences that build together to create what most people actually see. Most of the premise of the book, "1959, The Year That Changed Everything" is a collection of stories about these small events that would lead to what many think is the most defining decade of sociological change for the US, the 1960's. From the Beat generation writers, the new musicians like Coltrane, Davis and Coleman, the art of Cassavettes, Pollack to the beginnings of the movements to equalize rights for blacks and women, Kaplan has written interesting and often humorous stories of the seeds that were planted in 1959.
The book was almost a collection of short stories for me and could be read a chapter at a time. It was interesting and informative, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't put down or wait to pick up.
The book was almost a collection of short stories for me and could be read a chapter at a time. It was interesting and informative, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't put down or wait to pick up.
May 27, 2016
When Kaplan's writing about the various forms of avant-garde/experimental culture that emerged in the early years of the "Long Sixties"--anti-Holywood film, happenings, free (or semi-free) jazz, the "sick" comics, Mailer--he can be quite good. When he's writing about politics, which he seems to do as an obligation, he's much less interesting, prone to sweeping generalizations. It's more a collection of essays loosely organized around the theme of change than an integrated book, but if you're interested in the topic, it's worth the time.
The title appears to have been delivered by an agent or editor. 1959 was an interesting enough year, but not the crucial moment the title implies. And, while 1959 is present in each chapter, Kaplan spends at least half his word count delving into the background and "future" of the currents he focuses the chapters on. That doesn't really diminish the value of the book, but don't be surprised.
The title appears to have been delivered by an agent or editor. 1959 was an interesting enough year, but not the crucial moment the title implies. And, while 1959 is present in each chapter, Kaplan spends at least half his word count delving into the background and "future" of the currents he focuses the chapters on. That doesn't really diminish the value of the book, but don't be surprised.
July 2, 2015
Well, not only was this one of the oldest books on my list, but I wanted it because (gasp) I was born in 1959. It was another Bookstock 2015 treasure! I found it to be a good read about what was going on in this era; things that I was obviously too young to absorb at the time. There was a lot about jazz, which seems to be a topic that keeps coming across my radar lately. I've got page corners turned down for topics I want to follow up on. The author never got in so deep that I felt over my head, but he certainly gave each topic its due discussion. Since this era has never been of interest to me--perhaps because I feel like I lived it, even though I could not possibly remember it? Whatever..a good read that covers history from the fifties through the early sixties including things like the cold war, Castro's early days in Cuba, the beginning of the Vietnam war, and racial inequalities.
August 15, 2010
This book accomplished what I always hope for when I open a book, it made me think new thoughts. I have been heard to say that the Greatest Generation saved us from the Nazis and then came home and blew it raising their children - the Boomers - who in turn, raised my generation. This book brought new insight to the why and how this happened. And I have a new sense of gratitude for these pioneers who really looked around and started to ask why things in America functioned like they did and ushered in new opportunities for all Americans. The author does not gloss over the trouble that accompanied some of these new opportunities nor does he simplify the outcomes with the clear vision of hindsight. A great book for anyone who looks at the post WWII era of American history and asks, why?
October 31, 2010
Kaplan makes a great, great case for 1959 being the year in which so many pivotal events took place. Castro seized power in Cuba. Ginsberg read "Howl" at Columbia. Berry Gordy started Motown. Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue. Obscenity cases were won in court, ending a ban on mailing materials like Lady Chatterley' Lover. The U.S. Civil Right Commission released its first report on discrimination in America. The MOMA staged a show featuring Rauschenberg and Johns. The Pill was tested on hundreds of women. This is an entertaining and informative read. On the other hand, I suspect Kaplan's prejudicial blind spots � no history with or appreciation of rock music, nor television —prevent his book from being a true retrospective.
October 22, 2009
Or rather "1959: the year some things important to the author changed." Kaplan is very, very good at describing the changes in arts and culture that happened during his titular year. He does so with compact, knife-sharp thumbnail sketches. In fact he covers everything with these thumbnail sketches (the book feels like a series of magazine articles more than anything else) but when he talks about politics it's somehow less interesting.
In any case his stuff on "Kind of Blue" and "The Shape of Jazz to Come" was pretty fresh even though those albums have been covered to death. A fun, quick read.
In any case his stuff on "Kind of Blue" and "The Shape of Jazz to Come" was pretty fresh even though those albums have been covered to death. A fun, quick read.
November 17, 2009
1959 saw a remarkable number of significant changes in our daily lives, changes that influenced our lives today. Each chapter in this book--there are 25--tells of one change, discovery, or invention. The book covers politics, art, poetry, music, civil rights, comedy, astronomy, electronics, and on and on.
The chapters aren't that long. There are no superfluous sentences. Kaplan doesn't get too technical with any explanations, but he gives you all that you need to know.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I found some things I knew, but then I found out more about them. I found some things I never heard of before. And that was also intriguing.
The chapters aren't that long. There are no superfluous sentences. Kaplan doesn't get too technical with any explanations, but he gives you all that you need to know.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I found some things I knew, but then I found out more about them. I found some things I never heard of before. And that was also intriguing.
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