Shaky Ground

Echols upends many of our bedrock assumptions about American culture since the 1950s, particularly the notion that the '60s represented a total rupture and that the '70s marked the end of meaningful change. In far-ranging essays on hippies, gay/lesbian and women's liberation, disco and the racial politics of music, and musicians as diverse as Joni Mitchell and Lenny Kravitz, this maverick thinker maps an alternative history of American culture from the '50s through the '90s.

Upending many of our assumptions about American culture since the 1950s, this text particularly focuses on the notion that the '60s represented a total rupture and that the '70s marked the end of meaningful change. The essays map an alternative history of American culture from the '50s to the '90s.Alice Echols has never shied away from controversy. Long before it was fashionable, she wrote searing critiques of antiporn feminism. Her subsequent books about the 1960s are trenchant and provocative, and written with unflinching honesty. Now she maps an alternative history of contemporary American culture, taking on such subjects as hippies, gay/lesbian and women's liberation, disco and the racial politics of music, and artists as diverse as Joni Mitchell and Lenny Kravitz. Echols upends many of our bedrock assumptions about American culture since the 1950s, challenging in particular the notions that the '60s represented a total rupture with the past and that the '70s marked the end of meaningful change.