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Marilyn Monroe poses over a Manhattan subway grate, Sept. 16, 1954, during the filming of 'Seven Year Itch'. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images
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How Civilized: 8 Books for Culture Vultures
Our top picks chronicle key moments in pop culture, from the Beatles and James Bond to disco, drag queens and J. Crew / BY Nathalie Atkinson / March 24th, 2023
Cultural fluency is social currency. Level up your cocktail party conversation with these fiction and non-fiction picks that explore what has shaped our times, from prep style to the cradle of tech, with the origins of disco and drag queens in between.
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1Love and Let DieIf you’re going to draw sharp connections between James Bond and the Beatles, the two behemoths of 1960s British culture, and deconstruct their effect on pop culture and the British psyche, it really helps your case that the first 007 film and the Fab Four’s first record were released on the same day in 1962. British author Higgs explores the tensions between these two pop cultural phenomena and, as the jacket copy promises, “explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.”
If you’re going to draw sharp connections between James Bond and the Beatles, the two behemoths of 1960s British culture, and deconstruct their effect on pop culture and the British psyche, it really helps your case that the first 007 film and the Fab Four’s first record were released on the same day in 1962. British author Higgs explores the tensions between these two pop cultural phenomena and, as the jacket copy promises, “explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.”
2 The Kingdom of Prep Through more than 100 interviews with fashion insiders, Bullock (a former editor at Vogue and ELLE) looks at the rise and continuing fall of the American lifestyle brand J. Crew. It was born as a mail-order retailer 40 years ago, but only became a household name in 2008 when soon-to-be First Lady Michelle Obama wore (and name-checked) the brand on the Tonight Show. It’s astute cultural commentary on how the shifts in American style reflect changing identity.
Through more than 100 interviews with fashion insiders, Bullock (a former editor at Vogue and ELLE) looks at the rise and continuing fall of the American lifestyle brand J. Crew. It was born as a mail-order retailer 40 years ago, but only became a household name in 2008 when soon-to-be First Lady Michelle Obama wore (and name-checked) the brand on the Tonight Show. It’s astute cultural commentary on how the shifts in American style reflect changing identity.
3Superfan Now in her 40s, the Vancouver novelist and broadcast journalist looks back on her experience as a Chinese-Canadian woman searching for identity as she grew up on North American pop culture. The 11 essays form a reflective love letter to pivotal cultural phenomena like reality shows, Anne of Green Gables, boy bands and Les Miz, which blend pop cultural analysis with frank personal musings on grief, belonging and family.
Now in her 40s, the Vancouver novelist and broadcast journalist looks back on her experience as a Chinese-Canadian woman searching for identity as she grew up on North American pop culture. The 11 essays form a reflective love letter to pivotal cultural phenomena like reality shows, Anne of Green Gables, boy bands and Les Miz, which blend pop cultural analysis with frank personal musings on grief, belonging and family.
4The American Way This true and sprawling story of an unassuming New York man’s romp through cultural history has a Forrest Gump quality to it, and was prompted by bestselling Brooklyn memoirist Stapinski’s discovery of home movies featuring Marilyn Monroe. It led her to investigate the many tall tales of her grandfather, Jules Schulback, who captured the legendary subway-grate scene as Munroe was filming The Seven Year Itch. Stapinski and Siegler, a Connecticut graphic designer, unearth links to DC Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld (who helped her grandfather flee Nazi Germany), Broadway, Joe DiMaggio and the origin of Superman.
This true and sprawling story of an unassuming New York man’s romp through cultural history has a Forrest Gump quality to it, and was prompted by bestselling Brooklyn memoirist Stapinski’s discovery of home movies featuring Marilyn Monroe. It led her to investigate the many tall tales of her grandfather, Jules Schulback, who captured the legendary subway-grate scene as Munroe was filming The Seven Year Itch. Stapinski and Siegler, a Connecticut graphic designer, unearth links to DC Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld (who helped her grandfather flee Nazi Germany), Broadway, Joe DiMaggio and the origin of Superman.
5Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?Before RuPaul, there was Doris Fish. The Australian-born drag queen’s life is the lens through which the fascinating origins and evolution of drag come alive, from the history of female impersonators to Fish – a driving force behind the 1970s San Francisco drag scene during the onset of AIDS pandemic – and on to the conservative backlash. It’s an appreciative cultural history of the generations that paved the way for today’s drag queens, by Brooklyn-based arts journalist Seligman, a former editor at Salon and the New Yorker.
Before RuPaul, there was Doris Fish. The Australian-born drag queen’s life is the lens through which the fascinating origins and evolution of drag come alive, from the history of female impersonators to Fish – a driving force behind the 1970s San Francisco drag scene during the onset of AIDS pandemic – and on to the conservative backlash. It’s an appreciative cultural history of the generations that paved the way for today’s drag queens, by Brooklyn-based arts journalist Seligman, a former editor at Salon and the New Yorker.
6Culture The emphatic single-word title belies a hefty and sprawling survey of art, architecture, religion and philosophy. Subtitled “the story of us, from cave art to K-Pop,” the Harvard professor and literary scholar considers millennia of critical moments in human civilization, including creative cultural exchanges and imperialist invasions, to make the case that, after thousands of years of cross-pollination, culture is owned by none of us and all of us.
The emphatic single-word title belies a hefty and sprawling survey of art, architecture, religion and philosophy. Subtitled “the story of us, from cave art to K-Pop,” the Harvard professor and literary scholar considers millennia of critical moments in human civilization, including creative cultural exchanges and imperialist invasions, to make the case that, after thousands of years of cross-pollination, culture is owned by none of us and all of us.
7Palo Alto This comprehensive book unpacks the myth of the titular town in northern California’s Silicon Valley and the historical forces that shaped the region, including how its approach to capitalism – known as the Palo Alto System – led to the current iteration of tech giants that drive exploitative capitalism that the area epitomizes. Like its landmark literary predecessors, From Counterculture to Cyberculture and the essay, “The Californian Ideology,” it’s much more than an economic history, from a journalist born and raised there.
This comprehensive book unpacks the myth of the titular town in northern California’s Silicon Valley and the historical forces that shaped the region, including how its approach to capitalism – known as the Palo Alto System – led to the current iteration of tech giants that drive exploitative capitalism that the area epitomizes. Like its landmark literary predecessors, From Counterculture to Cyberculture and the essay, “The Californian Ideology,” it’s much more than an economic history, from a journalist born and raised there.
8When Rock Met Disco Disco began as a gay, Black and brown underground music scene in New York City, but by the end of the 1970s, it had become ubiquitous. American writer and filmmaker Blush, best known for American Hardcore (a history of the early 80s punk scene), traces disco music’s history (including the background on the social and political forces leading up to its explosion) and how the genre that rockers loved to hate enticed acts like the Rolling Stones, KISS and Rod Stewart to cross over and make money on disco hits. (Apr. 7)
Disco began as a gay, Black and brown underground music scene in New York City, but by the end of the 1970s, it had become ubiquitous. American writer and filmmaker Blush, best known for American Hardcore (a history of the early 80s punk scene), traces disco music’s history (including the background on the social and political forces leading up to its explosion) and how the genre that rockers loved to hate enticed acts like the Rolling Stones, KISS and Rod Stewart to cross over and make money on disco hits. (Apr. 7)