List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction / Mediated Immediacy: Living in the Now 1

Part I / Middle Class in the Maelstrom

1. Of Swingers and Organization Men: Loose Modernities 27

2. Experts Unbound: Intimate Professionals and the Value of Lifestyle 77

3. Book as Tool: Lifestyle Print Culture and the West Coast Publishing Boom 101

Part II / Caring Texts

4. Being One: From Knowledge to Consciousness in the Spaceship Society 129

5. Loving Each Other: From Phony to Real in the New Togetherness 165

6. Letting It All Hang Out: From Mind to Muscle in the Relaxed Body 207

Conclusion / Morning in America: Pulling in the Slack 243

Notes 251

Bibliography 263

Index 287

“[G]etting Loose is a persuasive and rich account of the rise of both a new class and the importance of lifestyle. The book is packed with fascinating and detailed examples that are difficult to do justice to in a review. . . . [T]his is key reading for anyone working on lifestyle and consumer culture.” — Joanne Hollows, European Journal of Cultural Studies

“Getting Loose gives us a valuable take on the place of self-help and self-making in the production and regulation of the mainstream cultural landscape of the 1970s, one that encourages us to ask those further questions, and that is all to the good.” — Nicholas Sammond, Journal of Consumer Culture

“Getting Loose is a fascinating guide to the mutation of political radicalism into feel good ideas of self-improvement.” — Tim Roberts, M/C Reviews

“[Getting Loose’s] wide scope and depth of analysis make it essential reading for anyone interested in the discourses of American selfhood.” — Ian Nicholson, Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences

“[O]ne of the greatest strengths of Getting Loose is its ability to animate the seemingly vague notion of ‘loosening’ in its attention to the specifics of these texts. Perhaps the greatest insight offered is the transformation of the counter-culturally inspired loose life-style into the commercialized mainstream. . . . Binkley’s insights are original and compelling.” — Elana Levine, The Journal of American History

“[T]his clearly written study explores the emergence in that decade of a new form of late-modern identity derived from the 1960s counterculture. . . . Recommended.” — W. Graebner, Choice

“Binkley’s work is a useful addition to recent scholarship that drags the countercultural out of flower-child stereotypes and into broader relevancy.” — Bess Williamson, Winterthur Portfolio

“With nearly 600 bibliographic entries, Getting Loose is among the most thorough studies of its kind.The book surveys the period in American society when 1960s counterculture developed into the consumer lifestyles we know today. But Binkley does more than simply mark the transition from yippie to yuppy. He shows how the emancipatory impulses of rebellion helped usher in the new world order of unrestrained global capital.” — Vince Carducci, Popmatters

“[G]etting Loose is a persuasive and rich account of the rise of both a new class and the importance of lifestyle. The book is packed with fascinating and detailed examples that are difficult to do justice to in a review. . . . [T]his is key reading for anyone working on lifestyle and consumer culture.” —Joanne Hollows, European Journal of Cultural Studies

“Getting Loose gives us a valuable take on the place of self-help and self-making in the production and regulation of the mainstream cultural landscape of the 1970s, one that encourages us to ask those further questions, and that is all to the good.” —Nicholas Sammond, Journal of Consumer Culture

“Getting Loose is a fascinating guide to the mutation of political radicalism into feel good ideas of self-improvement.” —Tim Roberts, M/C Reviews

“[Getting Loose’s] wide scope and depth of analysis make it essential reading for anyone interested in the discourses of American selfhood.” —Ian Nicholson, Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences

“[O]ne of the greatest strengths of Getting Loose is its ability to animate the seemingly vague notion of ‘loosening’ in its attention to the specifics of these texts. Perhaps the greatest insight offered is the transformation of the counter-culturally inspired loose life-style into the commercialized mainstream. . . . Binkley’s insights are original and compelling.” —Elana Levine, The Journal of American History

“[T]his clearly written study explores the emergence in that decade of a new form of late-modern identity derived from the 1960s counterculture. . . . Recommended.” —W. Graebner, Choice

“Binkley’s work is a useful addition to recent scholarship that drags the countercultural out of flower-child stereotypes and into broader relevancy.” —Bess Williamson, Winterthur Portfolio

“With nearly 600 bibliographic entries, Getting Loose is among the most thorough studies of its kind.The book surveys the period in American society when 1960s counterculture developed into the consumer lifestyles we know today. But Binkley does more than simply mark the transition from yippie to yuppy. He shows how the emancipatory impulses of rebellion helped usher in the new world order of unrestrained global capital.” —Vince Carducci, Popmatters

“Getting Loose is a work of historical sociology that both draws on and challenges central theoretical perspectives on consumption and consumer culture, identity, postmodernism and late modernity, post-Fordism, and contemporary moral culture through exceptionally creative analyses of 1970s lifestyle philosophies and practices.” — Don Slater, author of, Consumer Culture and Modernity

“Getting Loose is an important and quite interesting study of the discourses of the 1970s lifestyle movement. It casts a whole new light not only on that epoch but, more importantly, on its relationship to contemporary self, identity, and the economy, especially consumer culture. Sam Binkley moves comfortably and insightfully between the most abstract of social theories and the most prosaic of social phenomena, using the former to offer new insights into the latter. He presents a panoramic view of the movement from the 1970s era of the loosening of the self to the reality of the early twenty-first century, where ‘we’re all loose now.’” — George Ritzer, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, and founding editor,, Journal of Consumer Culture

Permission to Photocopy (coursepacks)

If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;

If the Copyright Clearance Center cannot grant permission, you may request permission from our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Permission to Reprint

If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Images/Art

Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.

Subsidiary Rights/Foreign Translations

If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.

Disability Requests

Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.

Rights & Permissions Contact Information

Email: permissions@dukeupress.edu

Email contact for coursepacks: asstpermissions@dukeupress.edu

Fax: 919-688-4574

Mail:
Duke University Press
Rights and Permissions
905 W. Main Street
Suite 18B
Durham, NC 27701

For all requests please include:

1. Author's name. If book has an editor that is different from the article author, include editor's name also.

2. Title of the journal article or book chapter and title of journal or title of book

3. Page numbers (if excerpting, provide specifics)

For coursepacks, please also note: The number of copies requested, the school and professor requesting

For reprints and subsidiary rights, please also note: Your volume title, publication date, publisher, print run, page count, rights sought