Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point

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Summary: It makes you ask questions
Review: If you are an American living in the United States you need to buy this book. It was written about the 20th century but applies now more than ever. It makes you ask yourself why you use technology to distance yourself from people when you should be getting closer. That may sound hippie-ish, but ask yourslef if you've ever said in your job "I only work here." to another person who had a problem. If you have, you need to realize that democracy doesn't come from goods. It starts from people. It'll knock your socks off. If you aren't American you'll probably want it to see what a sorry state we're in, but with "Californication" theories, you might not be too far off.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book
Review: Slater brings about some interesting takes on issues which, at the time the book was originally published, seemed earth-shattering. The really amazing thing is, though there is some dated quotes and observations, his views hold up after several decades. He looks outside of the liberal and conservative viewpoints ands finds somethings which could easily help our society.

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Summary: A Prescient Chronicle of the 1960s Culture Wars
Review: Today there is so much cultural revisionism and retooling of the facts surrounding the clash between the predominating mainstream material culture and the youthful counterculture that one often mutters in disgust at the kind of garish, superficial nonsense being promulgated by the popular media to the effect that the sixties generation was just about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Just fun and games, folks; nothing but fun and games. There is hardly a mention of the very serious, well-thought-through criticisms of materialism, racism, and greed that were so essential to the beginning of the conflict in the sixties. While no one who was there will deny each of these elements (the media's holy trinity of sex, drugs and rock & roll) contributed to the general cultural atmosphere of openness and emotional experimentation and intoxication, it can hardly be truthfully described so simply or in such reductionist terms. The sixties generation, and the counterculture they devised, was first and foremost an intellectual, philosophical, and even spiritual tirade against the manifestly bankrupt morals, ideas, and lifestyles of the dominant society. One of the predominating characteristics of the counterculture was its sense of moral outrage at the ethics, policies, and blatant racism in the public domain. Slater details how and why the two cultures clashed, and what the likely results would be. Unlike his younger admirers, Slater understood the power of the dominant culture, and just how perilous the position of the counterculture was growing to be. In this sense, he anticipated the kinds of events like the shootings at Kent State and in the Deep South that began the reaction and denouement of the counterculture. To read this book is to take a step back into the maelstrom that whirled around us in the sixties, and to see the nature of contemporary society in an even clearer light than is possible without it. Remember, like Theodore Roszak's book 'The Making of a Counterculture', this book was written and published even as the struggle between the mainstream society and the rebellious college students and activists was raging. There are few books that give one so clear and realistic a look at the nature of the relationship and conflict that almost tore this society apart thirty years ago; this is one of them.