Bøger af Terry Hamburg

At the turn of the twentieth century, a 1901 decree ordered the exhumation and relocation of over 150,000 graves in San Francisco- the only major metropolitan city in America to order a complete eviction of its dead. City of the Dead uncovers this fascinating and forgotten section of American history.

It is the journey not the destination that composes your life song. In the early baby boomer era, when skirts were low and consensus was high, this traditionally raised youngster travels through his childhood and coming-of-age testing the borders of a rigid status quo, from race relations to sexual relations...adventures that illuminate a nostalgic but controversial time. Later, Terry leaves graduate school to follow counterculture sirens on a wanderlust sabbatical including odysseys as a political activist, half-hearted hippie, drug-smuggler, new age dilettante, and stand-up comic...eventually finding his way back to the mainstream as an antiques dealer. In his memoirs, told from a wry and offbeat perspective, take a trip to places familiar and strange, conventional and improbable, as you revisit some of the memorable cultural events of the era. Even if you took a different path or come from another generation, you should see a lot of yourself here. The book comes with a baby boomer crossword puzzle--see the final page for download instructions.

One of the most entertaining and insightful ways to view cultural/political history is through the prism of "failure." Is this an irony in the fabled land of success? Perhaps, but only at first reflection. The difference between failure and success is a cocktail of time and circumstance combined with a touch of (in) competence or (mis) judgment. Throw in a dash of dumb luck. Both are, as the author suggests, the flip side of the same coin and as American as Johnny Apple Seed; the seed, however it turns out, presupposes liberty, daring, and initiative. Hamburg explores in some detail over 300 examples over the past half century +, divided into 18 categories from crime and products to movies and social movements. What emerges is a tapestry of a changing American temperament and how it is constantly shaped and reshaped by public and private institutions. On one level, the book is an adventure in pure nostalgia - regardless of your age, it's a time machine back to the personalities, ideas, and merchandise you lived with, consumed, rejected, marveled at and often forgot. For Millennials, some things will be very familiar; others will open your eyes to the cultural world of your parents and grandparents. Be prepared for surprises: phenomena you might have regarded as successes, the author examines as failures. There is an omnipresent element of unpredictability: some concepts and projects may seem doomed from the start but triumph, even if temporarily, while others tapped as sure bets met an untimely end. The author's point-by-point portrayal paints a larger picture of how each of these events unfolded in the caldron of American corporatism and individual liberty.