The turbulent 1960s, almost from its outset, produced a dizzying display ofcultural images and ideas that were as colorful as the psychedelic T-shirtsthat became part of its iconography. It was not, however, until Morris Dickstein’slandmark Gates of Eden (1977) that we began to grasp the impact of this raucousdecade in American history as a momentous cultural epoch in its own right, assignificant as Belle Époque Paris or Weimar Germany. From Ginsberg and Dylan toVonnegut and Heller, this “vital and important book” (Richard Poirier) brilliantlyre-creates not only the intellectual and political ferment of the decade but also itsdisillusionment. What results is an inestimable contribution to our understanding oftwentieth-century American culture.