A Book for the Nineties?

Abstract

This is a book that could not have been written twenty years ago; at a minimum, it would have been immediately dismissed. Its message would have been ignored or summarily rejected because it calls into question assumptions firmly held by many among the cohort of Americans whose intellectual and personal values were formed or re-formed during the sixties. The sexual revolution, according to John Burnham, was not something made by the babyboom generation, but rather a marketing ploy pulled off by Hugh Hefner and other agents of a vice-industrial complex. Rather than a fount of anticapitalism, in this book the working class figures as the source of a lowerorder parochialism whose distinctive outlook and behaviors have been promoted throughout society by the merchants of vice. The unconstrained language, drug taking, and widespread and sometimes heavy drinking that appeared together with promiscuous sexuality during the sixties as badges of awakened consciousness and personal liberation are here portrayed instead as products of manipulation. Even rock and roll plays a walk-on role in Burnham's scenario as a seducer of young middle-class respectables. The message is clear: those of us who indulged in one or more of these behaviors or, more important, began to think of them as normal and respectable, have been had. Why should such a thesis be more acceptable now than, say, twenty years ago? The principal reason Burnham's audience may now be ready for his argument is the aging process, with its muting of passions, fuzzing of absolutes, middleage massing of responsibilities, and lengthening of perspective. Even so, some will not listen. That would be a mistake, for Bad Habits presents a thoughtful, informed and sophisticated challenge by an author who appreciates the potential effect of his words. Historiographically, Bad Habits stands alone. Many historians have treated one of the minor vices, but no one has attempted to deal with all, or even a large subset. A glance at Burnham's notes will reveal why this is so. To offer a full account of one of these behaviors requires at least acquaintance with not