HOW WE GOT HERE: The 70's --- The Decade That Brought You Modern Life --- For Better or Worse
By David Frum
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465041965


Why is contemporary America such a greedy, culturally devoid, deplorably shallow, self-congratulatory cesspool? Blame it on the '70s, the decade whose greatest claims to fame were Watergate and the disco ball --- or so David Frum would say in his effortlessly readable yet extraordinarily intelligent book, HOW WE GOT HERE. Frum offers an entertaining and thought-provoking (what a concept!) examination of today's changing (read: declining) political and social culture, refuting the much propagandized belief that the '60s lay claim to the most profound of countercultural upheavals; hippies, drugs, and war protests pale in comparison to the unmitigated political, economic and social revolutions precipitated by the leisure suit era. Know someone who still hasn't recovered from the shock of Studio 54 closing? Give them HOW WE GOT HERE and make them feel guilty about instigating the downfall of modern society.

BEETLE MANIA, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug: A History and Celebration of an Unlikely Icon
By Alessandro Pasi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312265247


Many a kid spent many a car ride playing the "punch-buggy" game, watching the road like a hawk and hoping to spot a VW Bug before his older brother shouted "punch-buggy yellow" and began wailing him in the arm with clenched fists and a crazed look in his eye. With those cartoonish headlights, that egg-like body, and those bold color choices, just the sight of the Volkswagen Beetle can lift your spirits (or save your upper arm from definite bruising!). Owing its existence to Adolf Hitler, who envisioned an affordable and mass-produced car for the German worker, its States-side popularity to the hippies, and its longevity to the .com-ers, the history of the Beetle makes for a fascinating story; a story captured in both image and text by Alessandro Pasi in his long-awaited retrospective, BEETLE MANIA, Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug: A History and Celebration of an Unlikely Icon. An extensive survey, BEETLE MANIA features over 300 color and black & while photographs, examples of the cleverest of ad campaigns, and a complete timeline of the creation of the new Beetle. BEETLE MANIA reminds us why Volkswagen means "the people's car." 

WONDER WOMAN: The Complete History
By Les Daniels
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 0811829138


She's like Gloria Steinem with a 24-inch waist, hulking strength, and a magic lasso. Wonder Woman made it okay for feminists to be half-naked and sexy. Universally recognized as the most popular super-heroine of all time, Wonder Woman's impact on American culture went far deeper than Halloween costumes and lunchboxes, she was the original "girl power" icon. And now, at long last, her development as a pop culture phenomenon has been traced by Les Daniels in WONDER WOMAN: The Complete History. From her first comic book role in 1941 to Lynda Carter's defining portrayal on the television series, WONDER WOMAN: The Complete History will make you want to squeeze back into your Underroos.    

--- Reviewed by Lazarus Penultimate

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