<div><div>1973 marked the end of the 1960s and the birth of a new cultural sensibility. A year of shattering political crisis, 1973 was defined by defeat in Vietnam, Roe v. Wade, the oil crisis and the Watergate hearings. It was also a year of remarkable creative ferment. From landmark movies such as <i>The Exorcist</i>, <i>Mean Streets,</i> and <i>American Graffiti </i>to seminal books such as <i>Fear of Flying </i>and <i>Gravity's Rainbow,</i> from the proto-punk band the New York Dolls to the first ever reality TV show, <i>The American Family</i>, the cultural artifacts of the year reveal a nation in the middle of a serious identity crisis. <i>1973 Nervous Breakdown</i> offers a fever chart of a year of uncertainty and change, a year in which post-war prosperity crumbled and modernism gave way to postmodernism in a lively and revelatory analysis of one of the most important periods in the second half of the 20th century. </div></div>