Published in
1992,
Jane and Michael Stern's book is a wealth of information about the second half of the 20th Century. With detailed and (usually) correct entries ranging from
Harley Earl and
Ed Gein to "
Deep Throat" and "
Twin Peaks", it is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to survey and understand the
Crazy Years. It's a sort of sequel/sister work to their
Encyclopedia of Bad Taste.
Where else can you find Crazy Eddie (the car salesman, not the Niven/Pournelle Motie philosopher) cheek-by-jowl with the Fuller Brush Man, Eval Knievel, the comet Kohoutek (bonus points for age if you remember the furor over Kohoutek!), the Forbidden Dance, and Zamfir?
"Pop culture is the closest thing America has to a national faith. However different we are, most of us share a common knowledge[...]It is America's modern mythology[.]"