Strange Days Indeed, By Francis Wheen
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A book devoted to detailing the excesses of the Seventies, "that era of polyester, platform shoes and power cuts", may sound as appealing as a bottle of Hirondelle, the ubiquitous plonk of that time.
In fact, the great Francis Wheen has produced a vastly enjoyable panorama that will make the young gasp in astonishment and the old gasp in startled recollection.
"Slice the Seventies where you will, the flavour is unmistakable – a pungent mélange of apocalyptic dread and conspiratorial fever," he declares, and makes good this promise with brilliant research and deliciously ironic prose. His narrative is populated by a gallery of grotesques ranging from Richard Nixon, who, on the brink of invading Cambodia, was preoccupied with the problem of finding room in the White House for a new pool table, and Uri Geller ("strikingly reluctant to display his gifts if magicians were present") to "His Excellency President for Life Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea...".
In a fine chapter on the violent radicals of the time, Wheen reminds us that our homegrown Angry Brigade took a very British approach to revolution. "More like the Slightly Cross Brigade" says one former member. Weirdly, the most lasting influence of the rather more serious Baader-Meinhof Group is on fashion. In 2001 Prada released a collection called Prada Meinhof.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments