This book has some interesting ideas, particularly that Bohemian aesthetic values can and should become a the basis of a positive cultural transformation. However the author's language is overly bombastic. He does not develop many of his brash assertions sufficiently for them to be persuasive, even to a sympathetic reader. D. Paul Schafer espouses some of the same core ideas in his Revolution or Renaissance with a more sober pen, but his treatment is pedantic and doesn't invoke the Bohemian driving force at all, even though it is both pertinent and cool. ( )

A rare gem. To quote a blurb by Joan Baez "well researched and well-written history of the artist as a societal mover from 1760 to the 1970's." How could a book not be fun with chapters on the Paris Commune, the SS state, and Haight Ashbury, and that touches upon Flappers, the Beats, and Hell's Angels. I happened to read it about the same time as Norman Spinrad's Child of Fortune. They both overlap with the concept of "the Wandervogel", a year off to travel between completing college and entering the workforce. I'd recommend that anyone of that age read both. The world needs a constant supply of Romantics. Corporations co-opt a new one every 30 seconds. ( )