"The future is now," Margaret Mead says as the coda of her series of three essays developed from the Man and Nature lectures at the American Museum of Natural History. The lesson the elders of western society must learn is to relocate the future in the present, to give power to the young and together work out man's destiny. The message will be impossible for some to swallow, but Mead, now approaching 70, is both optimistic and shares the enthusiasm of activist youth. In the first two essays she classifies cultures in terms of models for behavior. In "postfigurative" societies the three generation family is typical, and grandparents set the tone of the life style. "Cofigurative" societies are those in which there is some recognition and approval of change, and models can be drawn from contemporaries. We are now moving toward a "prefigurative" society—the NOW generation if you will—and Mead feels that this may be our only hope. As usual the distinguished anthropologist displays a stunning intuition illumined by anecdotes drawn from her lifelong fieldwork, but also, as usual with intuitionists, you find you want to ask more pointed questions as you read, pick a hole in an argument here or there and finally ask who are the teachers from whom the young are learning if they are to teach the old. Perhaps the real point is that the word "generation" has lost meaning and we must substitute a new term for groups only five or six years apart who act as the links between those who came before and those who come after.
Pub Date: Jan. 9, 1969
ISBN: 0370013328
Page Count: 99
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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