Recommended reading for 60s-70s American setting?

[Scaevola]

I'm planning out a lengthy scenario / mini-campaign to run this fall, and thought it would be really fun to set it around the end of the 60s or early in the 70s. Has a sourcebook been released on this time period? Does anyone have any recommendations on definitive histories / memoirs / historical fiction about life in America during this period? I wanted to involve the 'Summer of Love' movement, but Amazon and Google are both yielding lukewarm results (their search results seem to focus on the music of the time, and not what life in general was like in America). Thanks in advance!

[MrHandy]

I've been running a play-by-post CoC game set in Philadelphia in July 1969 called Space Oddity. It's inspired in large part by Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, and it might give you some ideas. Even though it's been running for well over three years, it's been moving slowly and is still in the early stages.

[nclarke]

Some of us don't need a source book, we were part of the 60's.

[ElijahWhateley]

Most modern, young Americans don't really know much about the 60s/70s other than the music, and perhaps the "Summer of Love" and other iconic movements; day to day life then is a mystery to them. On the other hand, it isn't far back enough for there to be that much interest in the day to day life of the period. I'm sure there are some great books, but since I can't think of any, maybe looking at some period magazines and newspapers would help? Or just asking fellows of sufficient age, although people will give you very different answers based on their particular walks of life during the 60s, and nobody ever colors in the facts for the benefit of a gullible audience.

[bintz]

You could also take a look at a couple series:
* Mad Men as a start can give you a very good idea of the 60's in NY in the upper class.
* Pan Am is also set in the 60's and since they travel in each episode, that also helps imagine how it could have been (Mad Men is very accurate with dressing and such, Pan Am not that much)

[GBSteve]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter...e_of_the_1960s
http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade60.html

You can get a lot from Google and Wikipedia. The third of these links in particular gives a good overview of the 60s, the other two are more fact and link heavy. The Summer of Love was a tiny thing compared to other events.

[Nadeshiko]

Some suggestions. I suspect everything's out of print, so you'll have to go library crawling...

FIRE IN THE STREETS by Milton Viorst

THE SIXTIES by Todd Gitlin

KENT STATE by James A. Michener (Possibly the best and most unbiased account of the tragedy.)

THE HAIGHT-ASHBURY: A HISTORY by Charles Perry (I can't seem to locate my copy. I think this is the book I remember.)

'Desh

[Justin]

Not so much a general overview of life at the time, but Gary Lachman's 'Turn Off Your Mind' offers an examination of occult/esoteric aspects of 60s counterculture which should provide plenty of fuel for scenarios set in this period (also quite a bit of stuff on Lovecraft in the book):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dedalus-...3468621&sr=8-1

[MrNorrell]

I ran a campaign set in 1973, and a few works I found really useful and interesting were "1973 Nervous Breakdown" by Andreas Killen, "Strange Days Indeed: The 1970s: The Golden Age of Paranoia" by Francis Wheen, and "The Big Book of the '70s" comic.

I believe I have recommended "1973 Nervous Breakdown" before on Yog-Sothoth, but it is still a really good resource (even the title points to madness). Killen really focuses on the United States, though. "Strange Days Indeed," on the other hand, has a more global scope (and is especially strong on the UK) and Wheen offers an even more Cthulhuesque view of the '70s, exploring the rise of paranoia in the world. (here is a review I wrote on "Strange Days Indeed" that illustrates my thoughts; http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/131492409

"The Big Book of the '70s," from the Factiod Book comic series has a great, humorous overview of '70s daily life that someone who may not have lived at the time would find useful as well as entertaining; meat shortages in the US, the rise of things like McDonald's and Sesame Street, drug culture, social movements, and other pop culture. I drew on this one heavily for atmosphere.

For movies, I think that "A Serious Man," by the Cohen Brothers, set in suburban Minnesota in 1965, presented an extremely accurate portrayal of the period in terms of atmosphere and ethos and I would highly recommend taking a look at that one for a '60s campaign set in the US. The soundtrack was really good too. Of course, it is easy to see how both the movie and book versions of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" could be interpreted through the lens of the Cthulhu Mythos. In fact, authors Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene have written a book called "The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham," as Hunter S. Thompson, set in 1972, but I have yet to read that one. Seems like it could be useful source material, though.

In any case, I found the period to be a very evocative and rich setting for Call of Cthulhu, well worth the research.

Hope this helps!

[Mr_Lin]

James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy covers the period from late fifties to early seventies and is concerned with very dirty political dealings and the morally compromised figures responsible for them. I thought they read like self parody (especially middle book The Cold Six Thousand) and are a long way from Ellroy's best work, but I seem to be in a minority. You might find them of interest if your investigators are going to be ultra hard boiled types or if you want to include larger than life versions of real people in your campaign.

[Nadeshiko]

James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy covers the period from late fifties to early seventies and is concerned with very dirty political dealings and the morally compromised figures responsible for them. I thought they read like self parody (especially middle book The Cold Six Thousand) and are a long way from Ellroy's best work, but I seem to be in a minority. You might find them of interest if your investigators are going to be ultra hard boiled types or if you want to include larger than life versions of real people in your campaign.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet" books (perhaps good source/atmosphere material for 1950's Los Angeles scenarios), but managed only about four pages of the Underworld trilogy before I put the book down and stowed the whole set in a little-used section of my library. "Self-parody" didn't occur to me then, but the term aptly describes the narrative. I was terribly disappointed.

At the risk of derailing the discussion: James Lee Burke's "Dave Robicheaux" novels are filled with incredibly evocative descriptions of Louisiana and New Orleans, both pre- and post-Katrina and oil spill. His criminal characters are beyond memorable, and could be plugged into any scenario, any period, to wake up a group of players growing overly complacent.

'Desh

[joe adams]

Kurlansky's book "1968: The Year That Rocked the World" is awesome. It goes day by day through this year discussing the things that happened.

[skaye]

For the Seventies, I'd recommend Peter Carroll's It Seemed Like Nothing Happened.

70s Trends at http://www.classic70s.com/70s-trends.html will give you some ideas of fashion and other trends in the U.S. at least. Sadly, I'm old enough to remember quadrophonic sound, macrame, fondue, and disco (which brings up an important point - the early Seventies were different from the mid-Seventies which in turn were different from the late Seventies. Punk started in the Seventies but had a hard time getting airplay, as X sang about ("Please play the Flag"). Home decor ran to orange shag carpet and lots of wood paneling.

And now I need to drink very very heavily.

[Nadeshiko]

THE HAIGHT-ASHBURY: A HISTORY by Charles Perry (I can't seem to locate my copy. I think this is the book I remember.)

Addendum to my previous post. Yes, the Perry book is the one I'm remembering.

Regarding the Haight, imagine Nyarlathotep and Hastur in a mud wrestling match in the middle of Carcosa during a Mardi Gras festival cum armed insurrection. That was the Haight.

'Desh

[macmonkey1]

Ok so it's not a book, but the TV series 'Dark Skies' begins in the early sixties and runs through to the seventies.

The summer of love is covered, the bad trips from brown acid are explained. The Kennedy assassinations are solved. Jim Morrison makes an appearance, the Watts Tower is in there, racial tension, Vietnam protests. Soviet agents. It has everything and more. If you haven't seen this do so, NOW!

Blurb from the Amazon site:

Dark Skies is one of the most imaginative TV series of the 1990s - an unusual and often scary blend of fact, informed speculation and high drama. It is an alternative, dark look at history as seen through the prism of an insidious and hostile alien invasion. On the one side: the secret and powerful covert government Majestic-12, which has discovered that alien life had indeed visited earth, and is determined to keep the invasion a secret. On the other side is Dark Skies, the resistance movement that is mankind's only hope, and it's heroes John Leongard and Kimberly Sayers, two young people on the run from Majestic-12. Enjoy for the first time ever all 18 episodes plus the original Feature length Pilot Episode of this highly acclaimed series.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Skies-T.../dp/B003WL825O

Note: although I have listed Amazon for ease, could I suggest you buy if from a company that pays there taxes instead. Amazon Uk have failed to pay Corporation Tax for the last three years on profits of £7.6bn, thats's (£33m pounds our hospitals could really use). Just thought you should know.