Which popular books best captured the spirit of the decade in which they were published?

[n2doc]

Books of the Zeitgeist
— By Kevin Drum| Sat Apr. 2, 2011 10:23 AM PDT

One of Tyler Cowen's readers asks which books are the Great Gatsby of each decade since the 20s? I take this to mean books that both sold well and have come to represent their era. Sounds like fun. Here are Tyler's picks in bold, with alternates from me:

1930s: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck. That would be my choice too, though I might add Gone With the Wind as the biggest escapist novel of a decade that really needed its escapism.

more

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/04/books-zeitgeist

Thoughts, anyone?

[Love Bug]

1. Future Shock by Alvin Toffler immediately comes to my mind.

eom

[GodlessBiker]

2. "All the President's Men" in the 70s.

[n2doc]

4. I guess I was thinking of fiction only

Because otherwise the book of this century is Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.

[GodlessBiker]

7. Ah! Alrighty, then. Let me see....

[fadedrose]

3. 50's - Don't laugh...

I was a kid at the time, and UFO's were spotted all over the Northwest, Washington, D. C. and a bunch of other places - especially in the early 50's - so to me, except for the Doris Day - Rock Hudson movies, all based on books, I believe, and a couple of Marlon Brando movies, On the Waterfront, also based on a book? - It had to be The Day the Earth Stood Still, no doubt based on a book (or maybe a pamphlet).

That's when all the UFO groups started up as I recall.

Clactu boradis nickto? (sp-you have to forgive me, am not an alien)

As far as books go, that's when I started reading books - all I could find about UFO's, still have some - they're yellow and falling apart.

Sorry there, Rabblevox...

[Rabblevox]

9. sorry, gotta laugh. Did you notice you're in a BOOKS forum? /nt

[fadedrose]

10. Maybe THE EARTH STOOD STILL was a book too....

Do I have to research this or edit it?

[fadedrose]

13. Hey Rabblevox, I got the book you recommended...

but haven't read it yet. Ultimatum by Matthew Glass. If you forgive my book-movie mix up, I may just read it ;)

[Rabblevox]

14. You are forgiven, my son. Go thou and sin no more. (jk!) I hope you enjoy...

Ultimatum. It's got some rough edges, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. :)

[fadedrose]

15. How in the hell can you have a 72-yr old lady for a son -

Did one of us have surgery? Or waz we put into one of those freezer machines?

Tell me Papa, but whisper, so no one else finds out...

[Rabblevox]

16. oopsie! *blush* /nt

[FLyellowdog]

5. My Pet Goat.

[jwirr]

6. House Mouse, Senate Mouse.

[Rabblevox]

8. 50's: On The Road, by Kerouac, 60's:Stranger In A Strange Land by Heinlein...

70's: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Thompson, 80's Bonfire Of The Vanities, by Wolfe, 90's: Clear And Present Danger by Clancy,
00's: Empire Falls by Russo, 10's who knows yet? (though the RNC platform take an early lead) sorry, couldn't resist that one ;)

[ixion]

11. Anything written by Steinbeck in the 30's

Including The Grapes of Wrath, but also Of Mice and Men and (especially) In Dubious Battle. That one should be required reading, in my opinion.

[JDPriestly]

12. Several come to mind:

Sartre: Huis Clos (post-WWII)
Stendhal: Le Rouge et le Noir
Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities
Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind

There are so many more, many, many more.

But, I have to add, the greatest of all times:

Voltaire: Candide

Voltaire's Candide molded a generation of intellectuals, poets and formed the opinions of many ordinary, middle-class people. One of the most influential books of all time.

[no_hypocrisy]

17. "Elmer Gantry" -- The Twenties

[BlueIris]

18. '70s--"The World According to Garp."

I've never read anything that seemed so "in the moment" to me.

'80s--"Bright Lights, Big City." Which, to me, is the greatest Coming of Age novel of all time and possibly the best novel I've ever read. One of the only novels I can truly say Changed My Life.

'90s--I've got an odd one for this categorey...Michael Crighton's "Disclosure." Not a good book, in fact, it's one of the worst novels I've encountered, but it captures the paranoid fears of technology and the backlash against political correctness that defined the decade.

'00s--"Twilight." For conceptualizing the infantalization of America in the most impressively grotesque fashion. Represents not just our regressive, dysfucntional attitudes about female/male relationships, but our perversely transgenerational 'agreement' about it (Twihard teens and Twimom 40 somethings bonding over their literature...ick.)

[Goblinmonger]

19. LOVE "Bright Lights, Big City"

He came to a writer's conference at the University I attended right after the book came out. I have an autographed copy.

[Goblinmonger]

20. The Rabbit Tetralogy

Does a pretty good job of capturing the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

[AngryOldDem]

21. "The Great Gatsby"

Exposed the Roaring '20s for what they really were -- a sham.

[raccoon]

22. "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" for the 1950's.

I've never read the book nor seen the movie, but I've heard this book sort of represents that decade.



"The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," by Sloan Wilson, is a novel published in 1955 about the American search for purpose in a world dominated by business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Suit

[The Roux Comes First]

23. Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion for the '60's

But a good runner-up would be Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test if we can stand a little non with our fiction!