Twilight of the Mad Men - 1959 - a Book Review

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1959: The Year Everything Changed, by Fred Kaplan (Wiley, 322 pp., $27.95)


http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=5898

 

[Widebrim]

Haven't read the book (just the attached review), but making 1959 the year seems a bit subjective, despite all that did transpire during those 12 months...

 

[dhermann1]

Well, in February Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper went down in that tragic plane crash in Iowa, "The Day the Music Died". The Yankees were shocked by the White Sox for the American League pennent. Two great masters of meaningless double talk held the two most important positions of authority in my reality: Casey Stengel was still the Yankees' manager and Dwight Eisenhower was still president
Ford came out with a really gorgeous car, and Chevy came out with a hideous one. The Edsel was in the middle of its disastrous 3 year existence.
The Twilight Zone debuted.
Here's a list of the top songs of the year:
http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1959.htm
I'd have to say that 1959 was just another year in the continuing evolution of modern American culture. If you'd been there, you'd think everything was moving along at just about the right pace. The Cold War was still very scarey, but we'd gotten used to it. There was no hot war, foreign or domestic, on the horizon. The real convulsions were still several years away.
In sum, I'd have to agree with the reviewers comments.

 

[Widebrim]

Ford came out with a really gorgeous car, and Chevy came out with a hideous one.

What Chevy are you speaking of? The gull-winged makes? They are beauties!