Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.923
EAN num: 9780312219307
ISBN number: 031221930X
Label: St. Martin's Press
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 282
Printing Date: 1999-06
Publishing house: St. Martin's Press
Sale Popularity Level: 1214347
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Few events during that whirlwind of movements, conflicts and upheaval known as 'the sixties' took Americans more by surprise, or were more likely to inspire their rage, than the rebellion of those who were young, white, and college educated. Perhaps none have been more maligned or misunderstood since. In A Fiction of the Past, Dominick Cavallo pushes past the contemporary fog of myth, cold disdain and warm nostalgia that shrouds the radical youth culture of the '60s. He explores how the furiously chaotic sixties sprang from the comparatively placid forties and fifties. The book digs beyond the post-World War II decades and seeks the historical sources of the youth culture in the distant American past. Cavallo shows how the sixties' most radical ideas and values were deeply etched in the American soul.
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Come one, come all and see before your very eyes how the 60s lives, once again! This book is for anyone who either missed or misunderstood the origins of discontent that led to the radical 60s in America.
This book is not heavy reading. Cavallo masterfully locates the roots of American counterculture in 1950's child-rearing and popular culture as well as specific historical movements of the late 18th and the 19th century that made this brand of radicalism clearly American. Cavallo begins with an examination of popular child-rearing practices that he terms "the cult of security." The "cult of security" is, in part, a blend of post World War II parental determination to build character in their children based on a love of independence and fierce determination to succeed. This was a mid 20th century secular version of the 19th century Protestant struggle with individual "free will" and the external constraints of God's Kingdom here on earth. But what has this to do with social, cultural and political rebellion in the 1960s?
Cavallo points out that in order to rebel against traditional forms of authority (SDS), to reconsider the structure and functions of the family (communes), and to reject mainstream art and music (rock & roll and street theater) is not to be accomplished by the faint of heart. For this kind of self-disolving and self evolving activity, character formation in childhood and early adolescence requires a blend of parental love, a demand for independent thinking and a fierce determination to achieve success. This is the stuff of strong ego formation-the glue that cemented a rebellious spirit to the harsh demands of emotional and physical participation in social unrest. Even that icon of moral childhood socialization, Walt Disney, reinforced this emerging independent spirit through none other than Jimminy Cricket who exhorted all children whao were watching to "always let your conscience be your guide." Some cartoon, heh. Ironically, while parents never wavered in their determination to provide updated soldiers for capitalism harnessing their children's independent spirit to hard work ala Bill Gates, what they got instead was sex, drugs and rock & roll in the persons of Timothy Leary, Jimmy Hendrix and Jerry Rubin! Trust Cavallo on this one, this was not what mom and pop had in mind.
Cavallo's deft touch weaves together a tapestry of popular imagery from Parents Magazine, television's Marlboro Man and non-fiction from the Organization man to The Female Eunuch to disclose the soul of a new American manhood and feminism-- a transition from "McCarthyism" to the underbelly of "Camelot," 60s radicalism. Where other writers serve up moral platitudes and half baked opinions tagging 60s radicalism as naive, bizarre or a communist plot, Cavallo sheds light on how close the rebellion of youth was to mainstream values and cultural antecedents in the late 18th and the 19th century.
Cavallo, for example, links rock & roll and street theater to mainstream values of hard work and professionalism. This synthesis would have even been tough for G.W. Hegel, but Cavallo succeeds nevertheless. In fascinating chapters that read like a tour guide, Cavallo takes us on a "trip" down a San Francisco street where we encounter the "Diggers," the pied pipers of street theater and street games. Stopping traffic, they hold up a big picture frame right in front of you to provide you with a "new frame of reference." Or walk with Cavallo into one of the Diggers "free" stores in Haight Asbury where, by definition, stealing is impossible. By the time that Abby Hoffman would write, "Steal This Book," the Diggers had already "been there, done that" nearly a decade before. In fact, these Shakespeare of the streets according to Cavallo, were even branded as too weird and excluded by more practical political rebels like the SDS. Did he say "practical"?
Cavallo reserves his best insight for the chapter on Rock & Work. Unlike their popular image that Rockers are self indulgent, irresponsible, and morally bankrupt, Cavallo lets us in on a little secret through the personal letters of rock stars and through media interviews-Rockers worked hard, took pride in their work as professionals and fought for artistic integrity often at the expense of fame and moolah. Hard work and integrity truly lied center stage in 60s Rock & Roll exemplified by rock stars such as Janis Joplin. Joplin masked her middle class determination to be the best female blues vocalist through a regimen of hard work with a boosey-bluesy radical political interpretation of down-home Texas blues. Cavallo demonstrates that it was not only about hard work and professionalism. It was also control about who would control their own music and how to protect it from homogenization by the Robber Barons of the music industry ... Read More
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