People Celebrates the 70s [With Music]

Egads! Where does the time go?? As a baby boomer, I experienced the 70's but didn't realize it was sooo long ago til looking at the photos in this book which are delightful and enjoyable. It's a very interesting decade that not only included Cher and Charlie's Angels but Kent State, the fall of Saigon and Three Mile Island. The writing is typical People magazine style; i.e. not in-depth coverage but does gives an overall view of the 70's.

The fall of Vietnam, the disgrace and resignation of an American President, the rise of Disco and the Club Scene...these are the moments that categorize the 70's. Having been launched in the same decade, what better magazine to chronicle these heady, heavy and hillarious times than People magazine. Even though it has gotten a bum rap from historians reeling from Avacado overload and shag carpteting, it was also the decade which reminded us (via the women's liberation movement) that human rights could not exist without a fair and serious discussion of women's subordination and gender role conditioning, as well as the gay and lesbian movement's emergence into an equal player in the national civil rights coalition. Although my 1979 birth meant I was too young to remember the 1970's, I am still facinated by this time period. America underwent it's bicentential at a time when various left wing movements were still close enough in the national conciousness to charge those celebrations with a feeling of working for improvement. Somehow, I don't think the nation would have been as introspective earlier.In keeping with the Magazine's focus, the book is largely focused on trends and events (in that order) but it is still a good tool for those who want a glimpse of what life was like during the "Me decade".Winkler, the star of 70's megahit "Happy Days" provides a wonderful introduction to a book nobody, historian or otherwise should be without.