Mad as hell

Mad as hell: the crisis of the 1970's and the rise of the populist right/Dominic Sandbrook 506 pages.

Someone in our blogging contest wrote about this book which got me interested...I'm sorry I can't remember who or what team now. I like history but the more recent stuff is what you never quite got to when you were in school. Of course now, this doesn't seem all that recent to many of you but the 70's were my childhood and I remember Jimmy Carter as president (maybe Gerald Ford a bit) so learning more about the times was something I could relate to. Turns out there are many social issues that seem to have roots in the 70's...equal rights, school busing, the rise in popularity of country music, energy crisis, trouble if the Middle East...ok, that started LONG before the 1970's but you get the picture. It seems like a lot of the feeling about the country being screwed up, the economy being screwed up and the speed of social change are familiar topics today. Does this make me feel better about stuff today? Maybe so...it has all happened before and not really that long ago. The big question for me is are we making any real progress? Or is it a case of letting history repeat itself. In the end, this book leaves me with more respect for the presidents of this era and hopefully, a slightly better understanding of the decade of my childhood.