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A review by rogerb
Strange Days Indeed: The 1970s: The Golden Days of Paranoia by Francis Wheen
5.0
Bill put me onto this.
I loved this - almost all the episodes he describes occurred as I was - in any sense - becoming "aware", and he reports various things I hadn't already known about the Big Events of the 70s decade. Wheen is a more than capable writer and so the accounts are very well communicated too.
It lurches from the planet-defining to to the local history. Nixon, Ford, Mao, Chou, Idi Amin, Thorpe, Wilson, Heath, Thatcher - what a bloody family. Together with the second string whose names were so familiar at the time but somehow more recently forgotten. Good to see Marcia Forkbender rubbished!
The back cover blurb seemed to imply a laugh-a-line, but that is wrong. Sometimes yes, but often no - these people were running the planet I was living on (still do). As the closing chapter says, there's a strong sense of "Here we go again".
I loved this - almost all the episodes he describes occurred as I was - in any sense - becoming "aware", and he reports various things I hadn't already known about the Big Events of the 70s decade. Wheen is a more than capable writer and so the accounts are very well communicated too.
It lurches from the planet-defining to to the local history. Nixon, Ford, Mao, Chou, Idi Amin, Thorpe, Wilson, Heath, Thatcher - what a bloody family. Together with the second string whose names were so familiar at the time but somehow more recently forgotten. Good to see Marcia Forkbender rubbished!
The back cover blurb seemed to imply a laugh-a-line, but that is wrong. Sometimes yes, but often no - these people were running the planet I was living on (still do). As the closing chapter says, there's a strong sense of "Here we go again".