The world changed in 1956, permanently.
So says Marcel Danesi in this exciting new history of youth culture and its impact on Western society. From the recording of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" in that year, through the hippie movement, punk, goth, hip-hop, and others, youth culture has radically reshaped our world. Race relations, gender roles, sexuality, and the aging process have all been transformed by the forces unleashed in 1956. In lively and accessible prose, Danesi offers a fresh interpretation of that history and a vindication of today's unfairly maligned youth culture. This authoritative examination of fifty years of social change provides a fascinating analysis of popular culture and the evolutionary tendencies it has instilled into the dynamic of social life.

MARCEL DANESI teaches on the history of puzzles at Victoria College of the University of Toronto. Danesi has written puzzles for Reader’s Digest, The Toronto Star, and also maintains a blog on puzzles for Psychology Today. He has also published several best-selling puzzle books, such as The Total Brain Workout and The Complete Brain Workout.

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"Marcel Danesi, like Dante's Virgil, is a wise and knowledgeable guide to the strange world of youth subcultures, the codes that animate them, and the impact of new technologies upon them. Informed by sympathy and understanding and drawing upon theories by psychologists, sociologists, and numerous culture theorists, he offers a superbly written study of the evolution of numerous youth cultures and their impact upon society and culture."— “Arthur Asa Berger, Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University