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1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties America
1973 marked the end of the 1960s and the birth of a new cultural sensibility. A year of shattering political crisis, 1973 was defined by defeat in Vietnam, Roe v. Wade, the oil crisis and the Watergate hearings. It was also a year of remarkable creative ferment. From landmark movies such as The Exorcist , Mean Streets, and American Graffiti to seminal books such as Fear of Flying and Gravity's Rainbow, from the proto-punk band the New York Dolls to the first ever reality TV show, The American Family , the cultural artifacts of the year reveal a nation in the middle of a serious identity crisis. 1973 Nervous Breakdown offers a fever chart of a year of uncertainty and change, a year in which post-war prosperity crumbled and modernism gave way to postmodernism in a lively and revelatory analysis of one of the most important periods in the second half of the 20th century.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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February 4, 2014
Philosopher Michel Foucault claimed that history trembles along "fault lines," identifiable by sudden shifts like the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance. Manhattan historian Andreas Killen finds one such line in 1973, the year America finally abandoned its romance with 1960s idealism and began a march toward grim practicality. Though the Vietnam War, which dominated the 1960s, finally ended that year, the promised age of national bodhidharma never materialized.
1973 saw many beginnings and ends. Operation Homecoming saw the mass repatriation of POWs, including two-time Presidential candidate John McCain, concluding the Vietnam conflict. Public broadcasting also launched An American Family, the first reality TV show, starring TV's first openly gay protagonist. The Symbionese Liberation Army, which achieved infamy the next year, began in 1973. But none of these social forces happened alone; Killen's 1973 reflects terrifying top-down entropy.
Though Killen addresses several topics--arts, sex, economics, Vietnam--Richard Nixon casts a long shadow. An intensely popular President, recently re-elected by an overwhelming majority, Nixon nevertheless spent 1973 undergoing a high-profile crack-up. He was reputedly addicted to amphetamines and sleeping pills, and once vanished from public view for eleven days, unmatched in the modern Presidency. Though Watergate began in 1972 and ended in 1974, Nixon's biggest dramas happened in 1973.
For all his prominence, though, Nixon-hating has a certain dead horse ineluctability. Killen sees in Nixon a manifestation of postwar America's deep death-wish. Drunk on Eisenhower-era prosperity, America gave rise to incompatible idealisms: hippie utopianism still captures popular imagination, but ultra-conservative counter-protesters always outnumbered change agents. The first Arab oil embargo punched holes in America's fantasy of bottomless prosperity, proving both simple answers unsatisfactory.
The conflict between progress and continuity assumed new bitterness in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision. Where once issues appeared resolvable through sign-waving and other political theatre, a Supreme Court decision, with no hope for higher appeal, gave former social issues new moral moral inevitability. Though the conservative pushback would lack leadership until Jerry Falwell (q.v.), 1973 would mark the sides in today's lingering, seemingly insoluble Culture War.
Killen spends an entire chapter detailing "Warholism," a neologism that strangely elevates Andy Warhol and his assembly line artistry to a quasi-religion. And Killen's description justifies that apotheosis. Although Warhol's Factory debuted well before 1973, and lasted long after, even Warhol got battered by that year. Edie Sedgwick's death publicized the seamier implications of fame merchantry. Many of Warhol's prominent creations collapsed that year, often in tragic or catastrophic ways.
Among the stranger overlaps Killen emphasizes, 1973 saw Warhol's New York Dolls' debut, complete with muscular, androgynous press photos and sexually forward-thinking attitudes. It also saw George Lucas' American Graffiti and Terrence Mallick's Badlands, two very different paeans to rockabilly America, hit cinemas. This presents an American pop culture obsessed with its future and its past, but without a present--a sweeping emblem of post-sixties directionlessness.
This retreat from "now" would characterize much of the post-1973 generation: glamorizing some lost past, the Classic Rock Radio ethos, or aggressive rejection of anything past, characterized by burgeoning urban alternative and underground subcultures. The former option had better mass traction, because corporations could monetize it, and politicians play off its prejudices. Nixon's grumpy anti-modernism submarined his administration, but achieved its apotheosis in the rabidly anti-1960s Reagan years.
Historians have their unique approaches, and Killen certainly brings his particular preoccupations to history. His pet phrase, "oedipal conflict," recurs throughout the book, often in situations that have little apparent Freudian implications, as when discussing Reverend Moon, or financial struggles within Hollywood dream factories. Killen's psychoanalytic approach yields surprising, frequently jarring interpretations of historic moments we've probably glossed over without really thinking about them.
Killen doesn't pretend to offer history as inarguable fact. He spotlights important themes and maps tangled connections showing how seemingly unrelated events represent sweeping patterns. The connections between Andy Warhol's Chairman Mao paintings and President Nixon putting Joe Namath on his "enemies list," aren't necessarily obvious. But the facts are less important than themes, and only an inquisitive historian like Killen can take what is implicit and make it obvious.
This book debuted in 2006, when President Bush was becoming wildly unpopular and a majority of Americans newly agreed Operation Iraqi Freedom had lasted too long. The parallels between Nixon and Bush are obvious. But as President Obama's NSA woes weaken his administration and even classical liberals have grown discouraged with political solutions, the conclusion looms large: 1973 is still with us. And if we don't meet that year's challenges, we'll face that year's woes
1973 saw many beginnings and ends. Operation Homecoming saw the mass repatriation of POWs, including two-time Presidential candidate John McCain, concluding the Vietnam conflict. Public broadcasting also launched An American Family, the first reality TV show, starring TV's first openly gay protagonist. The Symbionese Liberation Army, which achieved infamy the next year, began in 1973. But none of these social forces happened alone; Killen's 1973 reflects terrifying top-down entropy.
Though Killen addresses several topics--arts, sex, economics, Vietnam--Richard Nixon casts a long shadow. An intensely popular President, recently re-elected by an overwhelming majority, Nixon nevertheless spent 1973 undergoing a high-profile crack-up. He was reputedly addicted to amphetamines and sleeping pills, and once vanished from public view for eleven days, unmatched in the modern Presidency. Though Watergate began in 1972 and ended in 1974, Nixon's biggest dramas happened in 1973.
For all his prominence, though, Nixon-hating has a certain dead horse ineluctability. Killen sees in Nixon a manifestation of postwar America's deep death-wish. Drunk on Eisenhower-era prosperity, America gave rise to incompatible idealisms: hippie utopianism still captures popular imagination, but ultra-conservative counter-protesters always outnumbered change agents. The first Arab oil embargo punched holes in America's fantasy of bottomless prosperity, proving both simple answers unsatisfactory.
The conflict between progress and continuity assumed new bitterness in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision. Where once issues appeared resolvable through sign-waving and other political theatre, a Supreme Court decision, with no hope for higher appeal, gave former social issues new moral moral inevitability. Though the conservative pushback would lack leadership until Jerry Falwell (q.v.), 1973 would mark the sides in today's lingering, seemingly insoluble Culture War.
Killen spends an entire chapter detailing "Warholism," a neologism that strangely elevates Andy Warhol and his assembly line artistry to a quasi-religion. And Killen's description justifies that apotheosis. Although Warhol's Factory debuted well before 1973, and lasted long after, even Warhol got battered by that year. Edie Sedgwick's death publicized the seamier implications of fame merchantry. Many of Warhol's prominent creations collapsed that year, often in tragic or catastrophic ways.
Among the stranger overlaps Killen emphasizes, 1973 saw Warhol's New York Dolls' debut, complete with muscular, androgynous press photos and sexually forward-thinking attitudes. It also saw George Lucas' American Graffiti and Terrence Mallick's Badlands, two very different paeans to rockabilly America, hit cinemas. This presents an American pop culture obsessed with its future and its past, but without a present--a sweeping emblem of post-sixties directionlessness.
This retreat from "now" would characterize much of the post-1973 generation: glamorizing some lost past, the Classic Rock Radio ethos, or aggressive rejection of anything past, characterized by burgeoning urban alternative and underground subcultures. The former option had better mass traction, because corporations could monetize it, and politicians play off its prejudices. Nixon's grumpy anti-modernism submarined his administration, but achieved its apotheosis in the rabidly anti-1960s Reagan years.
Historians have their unique approaches, and Killen certainly brings his particular preoccupations to history. His pet phrase, "oedipal conflict," recurs throughout the book, often in situations that have little apparent Freudian implications, as when discussing Reverend Moon, or financial struggles within Hollywood dream factories. Killen's psychoanalytic approach yields surprising, frequently jarring interpretations of historic moments we've probably glossed over without really thinking about them.
Killen doesn't pretend to offer history as inarguable fact. He spotlights important themes and maps tangled connections showing how seemingly unrelated events represent sweeping patterns. The connections between Andy Warhol's Chairman Mao paintings and President Nixon putting Joe Namath on his "enemies list," aren't necessarily obvious. But the facts are less important than themes, and only an inquisitive historian like Killen can take what is implicit and make it obvious.
This book debuted in 2006, when President Bush was becoming wildly unpopular and a majority of Americans newly agreed Operation Iraqi Freedom had lasted too long. The parallels between Nixon and Bush are obvious. But as President Obama's NSA woes weaken his administration and even classical liberals have grown discouraged with political solutions, the conclusion looms large: 1973 is still with us. And if we don't meet that year's challenges, we'll face that year's woes
October 1, 2022
The defining characteristics of the 1970s were "Warholism" and "Orwellism," a rather clever play on words that made me wonder: "Why didn't I think of that?" It's a gay romp down memory lane, chronicling America’s collective nervous breakdown; which posits that all of society’s ills can be traced to 1973 [the book was written in 2003].
Among the scourges which began then are: reality television (the Loud family), the cult of celebrity (especially criminals who murder to become famous), brainwashing and cults (the Moonies), conspiracy theories on both the left and the right involving JFK and secret shadow governments run by "Manchurian Candidates").
The origin of of much of what became today's neocon paranoia originated in Orange County, California (which does not surprise me); as it is home to both Disneyland and Richard Nixon. It became headquarters to the military industrial complex defense industry (and was also the reason everyone who lived there was so reactionary and conservative). Their worldview, thanks to Richard Nixon, spread across the sunbelt region which itself experienced sufficient growth to challenge the Ivy League elites, and thus believed themselves to be “the real Americans.” [and ironically is geographically bookended by Disney World].
To them, Watergate was a stab in the back perpetrated by the CIA (still the bastion of Ivy League privilege) and liberal media elites. The Assassination of George Wallace added gasoline to conspiracy theories on both sides of the political spectrum. Many believing it was the work of the same Watergate burglars (E. Howard Hunt) who planted leftist literature in the assassin’s apartment. The Birch Society, the heirs to Wallace's American Party, distrusted Nixon and McGovern equally (one the agent of Peking, the other Hanoi).
It makes me think I might actually enjoy the book, Gravity’s Rainbow which I have not plucked up the courage to read [although I still think it might be easier to comprehend than James Joyce's Ulysses, after all, I really enjoyed The Crying of Lot 49 even if I did not catch any of the direct references to Irvine, CA. Guess I may have to re-read that one too].
Among the scourges which began then are: reality television (the Loud family), the cult of celebrity (especially criminals who murder to become famous), brainwashing and cults (the Moonies), conspiracy theories on both the left and the right involving JFK and secret shadow governments run by "Manchurian Candidates").
The origin of of much of what became today's neocon paranoia originated in Orange County, California (which does not surprise me); as it is home to both Disneyland and Richard Nixon. It became headquarters to the military industrial complex defense industry (and was also the reason everyone who lived there was so reactionary and conservative). Their worldview, thanks to Richard Nixon, spread across the sunbelt region which itself experienced sufficient growth to challenge the Ivy League elites, and thus believed themselves to be “the real Americans.” [and ironically is geographically bookended by Disney World].
To them, Watergate was a stab in the back perpetrated by the CIA (still the bastion of Ivy League privilege) and liberal media elites. The Assassination of George Wallace added gasoline to conspiracy theories on both sides of the political spectrum. Many believing it was the work of the same Watergate burglars (E. Howard Hunt) who planted leftist literature in the assassin’s apartment. The Birch Society, the heirs to Wallace's American Party, distrusted Nixon and McGovern equally (one the agent of Peking, the other Hanoi).
It makes me think I might actually enjoy the book, Gravity’s Rainbow which I have not plucked up the courage to read [although I still think it might be easier to comprehend than James Joyce's Ulysses, after all, I really enjoyed The Crying of Lot 49 even if I did not catch any of the direct references to Irvine, CA. Guess I may have to re-read that one too].
September 23, 2022
I was eleven years old living in suburban NY in 1973 and clearly remember the sense of dread and anxiety I felt when my parents turned on the news. I was probably more concerned with the break-up of the Beatles and Monkees, but the looming specter of Nixon could not be avoided. Reading "1973 Nervous Breakdown" brought back a flood of repressed memories as well as a bit of nostalgia. The author Andreas Killen does a good job connecting the dots while avoiding going too deep down any conspiratorial rabbit holes. I found it to be enjoyable and thought provoking, especially since I was there though not truly aware.
July 5, 2020
This was pretty solid! A bit dry, but that was to be expected.
I did not get much out of the architecture chapter. Maybe I was already tired, but it pretty mich put me to sleep. Loved the last chapter, “Conspiracy Nation”, and basically all of the chapters before the architecture one. The discussion of An American Family (or whatever the show was called) felt very relevant and I could easily make connections to it’s descendants today. “Fear of Flying”- who knew there were SO MANY plane hijackings during this period!! I also enjoyed asking my parents about events or references they may remember. First hand insight into history, gotta love it!
The author’s point was made, absolutely. I completely believe in how pivotal 1973 was to the U.S. as a nation, and repercussions of the events can be seen/felt throughout history to today! It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but 1973 is coming up on 50 years in the past! Unreal.
History junkies, this one is for you! It is not an easy read and will require focus, but it is worth it!
I did not get much out of the architecture chapter. Maybe I was already tired, but it pretty mich put me to sleep. Loved the last chapter, “Conspiracy Nation”, and basically all of the chapters before the architecture one. The discussion of An American Family (or whatever the show was called) felt very relevant and I could easily make connections to it’s descendants today. “Fear of Flying”- who knew there were SO MANY plane hijackings during this period!! I also enjoyed asking my parents about events or references they may remember. First hand insight into history, gotta love it!
The author’s point was made, absolutely. I completely believe in how pivotal 1973 was to the U.S. as a nation, and repercussions of the events can be seen/felt throughout history to today! It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but 1973 is coming up on 50 years in the past! Unreal.
History junkies, this one is for you! It is not an easy read and will require focus, but it is worth it!
July 1, 2017
What a trip! A great book about the events of 1973. From January to July, I was a 15 year old , then July to December 17. Hillen takes events such as surburbia, The televised An American Family (TV's first reality show) Watergate (I remember being bummed about being out of school for the summer and couldn't watch my soap operas), Andy Warhol , the mystery that is Patty Hearst, and finding metaphors in the terrifying film The Exorcist of wayward youth. If you grew up in this era, let the memories unfold!
September 29, 2025
I was 14 years old for the bulk of 1973, and reading this book it became obvious to me how little I paid attention to the news of the day. I knew about Watergate as some vaguely bad political scandal that was pre-empting most every daytime TV show for a while. I understood that the Vietnam War was over, and I think I even kinda knew that the U.S. had lost. And I knew about airplane hijackings mostly from hearing jokes about them on TV.
Hillen covers these events and much more in a cultural analysis of the United States in that single year which found the country in a miasma of gas shortages, returned POWs, celebrity becoming more important than ever, a reality TV show revealing the distance between the image of an American family and the truth of An American Family, nostalgia, paranoia, and much more. He ends the pre-Epilogue part of the book with a lingering look at Gravity's Rainbow, the book by Thomas Pynchon which appeared that year.
I was a little concerned that the Introduction seemed a little trite, but the actual book itself is thoughtful and thoroughly argued. The Epilogue is about the Symbionese Liberation Army which formed in 1973, and which became famous in 1974 for kidnapping Patty Hearst and turning her into a revolutionary - for a while. He uses this story to sum up many of the themes he'd covered in the rest of the book.
Hillen covers these events and much more in a cultural analysis of the United States in that single year which found the country in a miasma of gas shortages, returned POWs, celebrity becoming more important than ever, a reality TV show revealing the distance between the image of an American family and the truth of An American Family, nostalgia, paranoia, and much more. He ends the pre-Epilogue part of the book with a lingering look at Gravity's Rainbow, the book by Thomas Pynchon which appeared that year.
I was a little concerned that the Introduction seemed a little trite, but the actual book itself is thoughtful and thoroughly argued. The Epilogue is about the Symbionese Liberation Army which formed in 1973, and which became famous in 1974 for kidnapping Patty Hearst and turning her into a revolutionary - for a while. He uses this story to sum up many of the themes he'd covered in the rest of the book.
June 12, 2012
The last couple of cultural histories I've read that dealt with the '70s have all cited this book. A future classic? Time will tell but I was prompted to flip through it again this week. Killen's general thesis (1973 was "Year One" in the contemporary American culture wars) is debatable (an argument can also be made for 1919 or 1968 certainly just to name a few) but after reading this book the reader will conclude one thing for sure: 1973 was a really fucked up year.
Killen's prose is never boring. Plenty of juicy topics like the proto-reality series, An American Family, Watergate, Andy Warhol and his Factory stars (and burn outs), Vietnam POW's, the Fifties "revival" and the golden age of both sykjacking and religious cults, to name a few, are covered in great detail. Perhaps the strongest point in this book though is Killen's convincing assertion that 1973 was a turning point in American culture from modernity to post-modernity.
Side note: Andreas Killen was my MA advisor and professor over at City College. His class on "Madness and Civilization" first gave me an idea on how to view history through the prism of a specific topic (psychology, mental illness) and has proven to be influential for me. I look forward to reading his future work.
Killen's prose is never boring. Plenty of juicy topics like the proto-reality series, An American Family, Watergate, Andy Warhol and his Factory stars (and burn outs), Vietnam POW's, the Fifties "revival" and the golden age of both sykjacking and religious cults, to name a few, are covered in great detail. Perhaps the strongest point in this book though is Killen's convincing assertion that 1973 was a turning point in American culture from modernity to post-modernity.
Side note: Andreas Killen was my MA advisor and professor over at City College. His class on "Madness and Civilization" first gave me an idea on how to view history through the prism of a specific topic (psychology, mental illness) and has proven to be influential for me. I look forward to reading his future work.
December 7, 2023
It probably merits a star rating closer to a 4.5 (there are some repetitions that could have been tightened up) but this is an excellent survey to help us understand why the current political situation is not "unprecedented," though it is more dangerous. We have no Howard Baker, no John Dean (yes, I know, he was deeply compromised), and no Walter Cronkite. If you're worried about the Q-Anon freaks, the Jan 6 insurrectionists, and the Instigator-in-Chief, this book won't make you feel any better, but it will help you understand their historical roots.
August 17, 2018
A great book, and one that probably everyone in America should read right now.
Also very accessible.
Here's where the title essay came from.
Also very accessible.
Here's where the title essay came from.
March 16, 2008
Don't bother. Couldn't get into it. 1973 was a much more exciting year than this book.
January 20, 2025
This isn't a pop history of the year - it's an intellectual history. And as such, it's a little full of itself.
The whole thing is bathed in psychological buzzwords, from patricide to castration, Oedipus syndrome to Stockholm syndrome, this trauma and that trauma and the other trauma. And far too much Warhol and the wonderfulness of New York City.
Also covered here are the birth of reality TV, the end of the Vietnam War, Watergate, 1950s nostalgia and the growth of conspiracy. There's some interesting stuff in here, but you have to be patient to get to it.
Also, some of the author's assertions are weird ("The Waltons" wasn't a sitcom; Wolfman Jack wasn't a "person of color").
Could've been good.
The whole thing is bathed in psychological buzzwords, from patricide to castration, Oedipus syndrome to Stockholm syndrome, this trauma and that trauma and the other trauma. And far too much Warhol and the wonderfulness of New York City.
Also covered here are the birth of reality TV, the end of the Vietnam War, Watergate, 1950s nostalgia and the growth of conspiracy. There's some interesting stuff in here, but you have to be patient to get to it.
Also, some of the author's assertions are weird ("The Waltons" wasn't a sitcom; Wolfman Jack wasn't a "person of color").
Could've been good.
September 15, 2024
Good, content type of book for the era
September 15, 2016
"'On TV POWs returning from Hanoi were shown passing the time by watching POWs returning from Hanoi on TV. ... We have entered an epoch in which nothing is real until it has been reproduced. ... Facts no longer enjoy any privilege over various renderings of them.'" (quoting Harold Rosenberg, 53)
"'I wanted to see what everyone was throwing up about.'" (female moviegoer quoted in Variety, 132)
"The collapse of older certitudes in the wake of the sixties left a vacuum into which Warholism opportunistically rushed. What replaced those certitudes was nostalgia, camp, and irony, the claustrophobic minutiae of life inside the media echo chamber, the compulsive sharing and unburdening of the soul that Tom Wolfe identified as the signature of the Me Decade." (138)
"A still more radical response to the problem of drugs could be found in the neighborhood's major health care institution, Lincoln Hospital, where some doctors and other personnel had succeeded in taking over a wing of the hospital. These health care activists, who were concentrated in the hospital's detox unit, sought to turn addicts from drugs to political action, using a Maoist-tinged pamphlet titled The Opium Trail: Heroin and Imperialism to awaken their patients to the notion that revolution represented the best for of therapy." (205-6)
"'I just want to ask you one favor. If I'm assassinated, I want you to have them play Dante's "Inferno" and have Lawrence Welk produce it.'" (Richard Nixon to H.R. Haldeman, 227)
"'I wanted to see what everyone was throwing up about.'" (female moviegoer quoted in Variety, 132)
"The collapse of older certitudes in the wake of the sixties left a vacuum into which Warholism opportunistically rushed. What replaced those certitudes was nostalgia, camp, and irony, the claustrophobic minutiae of life inside the media echo chamber, the compulsive sharing and unburdening of the soul that Tom Wolfe identified as the signature of the Me Decade." (138)
"A still more radical response to the problem of drugs could be found in the neighborhood's major health care institution, Lincoln Hospital, where some doctors and other personnel had succeeded in taking over a wing of the hospital. These health care activists, who were concentrated in the hospital's detox unit, sought to turn addicts from drugs to political action, using a Maoist-tinged pamphlet titled The Opium Trail: Heroin and Imperialism to awaken their patients to the notion that revolution represented the best for of therapy." (205-6)
"'I just want to ask you one favor. If I'm assassinated, I want you to have them play Dante's "Inferno" and have Lawrence Welk produce it.'" (Richard Nixon to H.R. Haldeman, 227)
April 1, 2017
This is a really good dive into a specific moment in American history, although it's never quite great. As specific as the focus appears at first, there's a lot of ground to cover. Nixon's impeachment, the end of the Vietnam War, return of the POWs, the oil crisis, the first reality show, etc., etc. And Roe v Wade, but for some reason I don't think that got anywhere near as much space as The Loud Family.
Does it all successfully tie to together as a theory of how America got from the 60s to the 80s and onward to today? Sort of. Actually, sometimes it feels bizarrely relevant to today, as if you could just change a few words and technological items and it would be a description of how we are all coping with this new need to broadcast ourselves and view everything in a detached, ironic way. And about 98% of the description of what a lunatic Nixon was, can be deftly repurposed into a description of a lunatic Trump is.
Does it all successfully tie to together as a theory of how America got from the 60s to the 80s and onward to today? Sort of. Actually, sometimes it feels bizarrely relevant to today, as if you could just change a few words and technological items and it would be a description of how we are all coping with this new need to broadcast ourselves and view everything in a detached, ironic way. And about 98% of the description of what a lunatic Nixon was, can be deftly repurposed into a description of a lunatic Trump is.
January 17, 2008
This book is a worthwhile immersion back into the many strains and tendencies that ran through American life and culture in the 60's and early 70's; in doing that it offers hints into the contemporary political scene. It connects many events in the political, economic, cultural life of that time. It seems to be a good entry into recent American history. The writing style is a little disorienting - in that many ideas and events are shown as being linked together but in a loose way (it felt like reading a Marshall McLuhan book in that no too sharp conclusions are drawn, but there are many half-ghosted ideas introduced that one can choose to explore in other ways and with other methods ) but it is a good starting point for one's own exploration of the ideas and events of that time.
Read
August 24, 2016Author Killen brings together an intriguing brew of events from 1973. He believes this is the year that the 1960s and its hopeful politics really ended. Each chapter presents a theme- air travel, family, nostalgia, youth, conspiracy, etc- and then focuses on events that show how each changed. The end of the Vietnam War and Watergate are clearly central to his ideas but less well known phenomena from the arts and politics are brought in as well: 'The Exorcist', Andy Warhol, the PBS show 'An American Family' which he claims is the first reality tv, hijackings, New York Dolls, gas lines, Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' and he finishes with an essay on Patty Hearst. All American of course. Strange concoction.
January 23, 2009
So I finally got around to finishing this.
I still love American History. The writing in this was not exactly captivating, but the stories were, and it was nice to finally read in depth about a period in time that had always intrigued me just because of how utterly ridiculous it seemed on the surface.
Oh Richard Nixon- What did you think you were going to get away with? Really?
Also I never really liked Warhol to much and this didn't change much. Sure he's really influential in the art world but he just seems like kind of a pretentious jerk to me, who immersed himself in a world he created.
Pretty good book- Should probably re-read it in one go
I still love American History. The writing in this was not exactly captivating, but the stories were, and it was nice to finally read in depth about a period in time that had always intrigued me just because of how utterly ridiculous it seemed on the surface.
Oh Richard Nixon- What did you think you were going to get away with? Really?
Also I never really liked Warhol to much and this didn't change much. Sure he's really influential in the art world but he just seems like kind of a pretentious jerk to me, who immersed himself in a world he created.
Pretty good book- Should probably re-read it in one go
Read
November 18, 2015A pretty cool book that covers the pop culture and politics of the early 70's. Being born in 1967, these are some of the first events that I remember being on the world news! Killen does a nice job of making sense of it all. Hell, If Garth Risk Hallberg doesn't have a copy of this- or something like it, I'll eat it. I will take that chance! See you at the outpatient clinic!
September 24, 2016
A somewhat rambling assortment of historical issues (not as much Watergate or Warhol as the subtitle would suggest) attempting to establish that 1973 was the year when Everything Changed (so you can put this up on the shelf next to those books which made the same claim for 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1971).
July 6, 2016
Reads more like a sociology text than a study of history. I took a course on Sociology 20 years ago and recognised some of the names in this book. But, while I love history, I was never that good at sociology. Much of what I read here was too complex for my understanding.
December 27, 2025
There were a few parts of this that I skimmed through just because those particular topics didn’t hold much interest for me, but overall I thought this was well written and it informative and highlighted what an insane year 1973 was.
September 20, 2007
Interesting and nostalgic for readers of a certain age. The cultural observations felt a little scattered and slightly forced.
Read
August 8, 2011Very interesting and analytic examination of a pivotal year in American history.
March 8, 2013
Interesting look at the early '70s. A glimpse at life in an era of post-sexual revolution, pre-Reaganomics, Warholian times.
May 27, 2013
Excellent refresher on the strange and wonderful year of 1973.
April 23, 2013
This book held my interest and delved into subjects outside of the obvious political and cultural changes at the time .
July 16, 2014
(entered this years after reading; read this before Goodreads)
Probably enjoyed it.
Aurora library.
Probably enjoyed it.
Aurora library.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews