I fell for it, I pre-ordered it. My copy arrived today, as I'm sure so many others did. It was on the front porch by 8:30 a.m. Damn, Amazon, did you send the trucks out at midnight, or what?No surprise, I love it. I won't set off on a full scale rave up over it. The old internets already aglow with them. I will say that what struck me most in actually seeing this much-hyped tome was an underlying innocence, on the part of the authors/photographers as well as the guys in the pictures. It's refreshing to see this stuff in its true context, and not taken as runway fashion or blog fodder.
The Ivy League culture of the mid 1960s has been much romanticized lately. Maybe with good reason. We like to imagine that young guys in the old days carried themselves with a brand of poise and style that the youth of today just don't understand, but judging by the pictures, these guys were just wearing what dudes wore in their day, trying to fit in and be part of something. For every moment of sartorial inspiration, there are flubs. Which is as it should be, since it is a piece of social anthropology with humans as its subject.
What's with the guy in a tweed jacket and madras shorts (page 24)?
