“What happens when a group of men, incarcerated under bleak conditions, are left to govern themselves? In Walpole State Prison in 1973, ‘peace reigned’ for weeks—until the guards were sent back in.”
1970s
Posted inEditor's Pick
Acid Media
“How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
All You Touch and All You See: “Dark Side of the Moon” at 50
“A half-century ago, Pink Floyd unleashed a classic that still lingers on the Billboard charts and in college dorms to this day. But what’s the legacy of the blockbuster album?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Rod McKuen Was the Bestselling Poet in American History. What Happened?
“He sold 60 million books and 100 million records. Why was he forgotten?”
Posted inNonfiction
Nashville contra Jaws, 1975
In their time, “Jaws” and “Nashville” were regarded as Watergate films, and both were in production as the Watergate disaster played its final act.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
Can the Political Override the Personal?
“Harmful to Minors” author Judith Levine mines her past contradictions to sketch out the challenge of a being a young woman simultaneously burgeoning into her feminist and her sexual selves.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
New York in the 1970s Gave Us Hip Hop, Madonna, and the Chip on Trump’s Shoulder
“You bang your head against the wall to try to get some nice buildings up, and what happens? Everybody comes after you.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Gotham Gave Us Trump
New York’s tumultuous `70s and `80s taught Donald Trump about the power of the politics of fear — and very little about what makes cities work.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Before Becoming an Art Critic, Jerry Saltz Wanted to Draw 10,000 Dante-Inspired Altarpieces
On the project that almost drove Jerry Saltz into despair.