In the early 1960s, computers haunted the American popular imagination. Bleak tools of the cold war, they embodied the rigid organization and mechanical conformity that made the military-industrial complex possible. But by the 1990s—and the dawn of the Internet—computers started to represent a very different kind of world: a collaborative and digital utopia modeled on the communal ideals of the hippies who so vehemently rebelled against the cold war establishment in the first place. From Counterculture to Cyberculture is the first book to explore this extraordinary and ironic transformation. Fred Turner here traces the previously untold story of a highly influential group of San Francisco Bay–area entrepreneurs: Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth network. Between 1968 and 1998, via such familiar venues as the National Book Award–winning Whole Earth Catalog, the computer conferencing system known as WELL, and, ultimately, the launch of the wildly successful Wired magazine, Brand and his colleagues brokered a long-running collaboration between San Francisco flower power and the emerging technological hub of Silicon Valley. Thanks to their vision, counterculturalists and technologists alike joined together to reimagine computers as tools for personal liberation, the building of virtual and decidedly alternative communities, and the exploration of bold new social frontiers. Shedding new light on how our networked culture came to be, this fascinating book reminds us that the distance between the Grateful Dead and Google, between Ken Kesey and the computer itself, is not as great as we might think.
A “smart and fascinating” reassessment of postwar American culture and the politics of the 1960s from the author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture (Reason Magazine). We tend to think of the sixties as an explosion of creative energy and freedom that arose in direct revolt against the social restraint and authoritarian hierarchy of the early Cold War years. Yet, as Fred Turner reveals in The Democratic Surround, the decades that brought us the Korean War and communist witch hunts also witnessed an extraordinary turn toward explicitly democratic, open, and inclusive ideas of communication—and with them new, flexible models of social order. Surprisingly, he shows that it was this turn that brought us the revolutionary multimedia and wild-eyed individualism of the 1960s counterculture. In this prequel to his celebrated book From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Turner rewrites the history of postwar America, showing how in the 1940s and ‘50s American liberalism offered a far more radical social vision than we now remember. He tracks the influential mid-century entwining of Bauhaus aesthetics with American social science and psychology. From the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the New Bauhaus in Chicago and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Turner shows how some of the best-known artists and intellectuals of the forties developed new models of media, new theories of interpersonal and international collaboration, and new visions of an open, tolerant, and democratic self in direct contrast to the repression and conformity associated with the fascist and communist movements. He then shows how their work shaped some of the most significant media events of the Cold War, including Edward Steichen’s Family of Man exhibition, the multimedia performances of John Cage, and, ultimately, the psychedelic Be-Ins of the sixties. Turner demonstrates that by the end of the 1950s this vision of the democratic self and the media built to promote it would actually become part of the mainstream, even shaping American propaganda efforts in Europe. Overturning common misconceptions of these transformational years, The Democratic Surround shows just how much the artistic and social radicalism of the sixties owed to the liberal ideals of Cold War America, a democratic vision that still underlies our hopes for digital media today. “Brilliant . . . [an] excellent and thought-provoking book.” —Tropics of Meta
Using psychological trauma as its guiding metaphor, Echoes of Combat is the first book to explore the parallels between the healing of Vietnam veterans and Americans' collective recovery from the war. Drawing on such diverse sources as films, novels, television series, political speeches, monuments, medical texts, and inside accounts of the men's movement, Fred Turner shows how the healing narratives of individuals have allowed us to transform our recollections of our aggression in Vietnam into tales of national sacrifice.
It is approaching 100 years since the monkey trial - July 21, 1925. The trial was about our ancestors and the monkeys. The trial defaulted but monkeys seem to be the Winner and this trial conclusion still prevails with the evolution theory dominating out science text books. I dont know anybody that really believes in the theory of evolution ; but no convincing rebuttal has yet surfaced to force another conclusion. Come journey with me through ancient history, time of the Dinosaurs and the big beasts, current geology, profound anthropology, common sense and Gods book of everything the Holy Bible.
Western Historical Fiction Novel - (time frame) - Civil War Period of History - (event) - Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah Mormon Territory. Nanci Cameron escapes crossing the Huricane Cliffs and the Grande Canyon to THE MOUNTAIN in Northern Arizona.
A tender love story began to bloom in a beautiful ancient setting in spite of the arrogance, the deceit and the quest for power that beset their village. Could this love survive the events that foment a coming showdown at the TOWER? The great hunter, the fisherman, the town leader, the astrologer, the ancient one and young lovers all surged toward the village centerpiece leading their followers toward victory with preservation for their principles in mind. The conclusion of the final spectacle became a towering epic that forever changed our world. It added a word to our basic vocabulary - babble. Babel was a time, a place and a judgment that shaped our current world.
The unthinkable happens when nuclear brinksmanship spirals off into to Armageddon. Billions die as governments disintegrate, great cities are annihilated and deeply laid plans to seize unlimited power swing into action. Tom McArthur: Once a carefree individualist, he was coaxed into a position of influence and leadership by unexpected opportunity and kept there by his sense of honor. He finds himself far from home and family, separated by hundreds of miles of impossible terrain, gangs of armed bandits and a hostile government. Lynn, his wife: Beautiful and intelligent, strong willed and voluptuous, she resents Tom's abandonment of her and their children for a distant political career. Now, with nothing but her courage, wits and willpower to work with, she must fight to keep herself and her children alive. Lance: Young, handsome and lonely, trained as the ultimate warrior, he drove himself into poverty and alcohol with the memory of an unspeakable evil he was party to. Will he find love and redemption or destroy those around him? Who will live? Who will die? What will emerge when things fall apart?
Fred Dickinson's diary opens a window on youth and the world of Ontario lakeland cottages at the beginning of the 20th century. "The stories we hand down, the diaries we preserve become the fabric of our social history. Young Fred Dickinson's 1904 account of tenting and cottaging is a spirited first-hand sketch of a long-neglected part of our heritage. Larry Turner places the diary within social, historic and geographic contexts giving it wide appeal to history buffs of all ages ...." - Julie Johnston, award-winning author
From the moment Julie Andrews appears on the hills outside Salzburg to the final daring escape from the Nazis, The Sound of Music is embedded in the DNA of a generation. But what was it like to be part of all this? For seven children and young adults, the summer of 1964 was a magical one, spent in Salzburg, Austria with their parents or guardians, the film's stars and director, and last – but not least – each other. The Sound of Music Family Scrapbook tells their story, both during the filming and once the movie was released. It features a DVD of their own homemovie footage, and memorabilia they have cherished and preserved over the years, including letters home to their families in America, a page from the script with edits marked in the margin and a ticket to the world premiere. If you ever dreamed of marching round the fountains singing Do Re Mi, or dressing in a playsuit made from drapes, you will love this enchanting story of how seven boys and girls became a family – and how they have kept that closeness for over 45 years.
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