Author(s): David Hajdu

Cultural Studies

In the years between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, American popular culture was first created in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, congressional hearings, and a McCarthyish panic over their unmonitored and uncensored content. Esteemed critic David Hajdu vividly evokes the rise, fall, and rise again of comics, in this engrossing history. Review: "* "Marvellous... a staggering well-reported account of the men and women who created the comic book, and the backlash of the 1950's that nearly destroyed it....Hajdu's important book dramatizes an early long forgotten skirmish in the culture wars that half a century later, continue to roil." Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly "To those who think rock 'n' roll created the postwar generation gap, David Hajdu says: Think again. - Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune"