100 Days: How Four Events in 1969 Shaped America
A quartet of milestones that changed the nation,
with only 100 days between the first and the last
with only 100 days between the first and the last
Some events that have transformed the American experience are frozen in time.
These nation-changing, life-shifting milestones are forever etched across the span of our country’s collective memory – events such as Pearl Harbor, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and September 11, creating deep and lasting effects on our culture.
Such events are few and—almost always—far between. But one time, from the summer to autumn of 1969, four of the most profound events in American history occurred with only 100 days between the first and the last.
The four events could not be more varied if they were chosen deliberately: a magnificent national achievement, a bloody crime spree on a horrific scale, a celebration of youth and music that defined a generation, and a seemingly routine technical experiment that would be generally unknown for almost 20 years but would then have deep and permanent effects across the globe.
In a new book, 100 Days: How Four Events in 1969 Shaped America, cultural historian Harlan Lebo explores the first Moon landing, the murders orchestrated by Charles Manson, the Woodstock concert, and the birth of the Internet to tell the story of how each event has continued to shape the nation and how we perceive ourselves.
In 100 Days, Lebo explains the journey that led to each of these milestones and how they shaped the American experience, focusing on the particularly compelling issues that will encourage the reader to dig deeper.
About the Author
Harlan Lebo is an author and senior fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg. Lebo writes about cultural history, science, the humanities, society, and the impact of digital technology.
Lebo has written six books for Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Rowman & Littlefield, and private publication. Four of his books explore the creation of a trio of America’s finest films: The Godfather Legacy; Casablanca – Behind the Scenes; and two books on Citizen Kane: a coffee-table project for the film’s 50th anniversary in 1991, and a comprehensive book for the 75th anniversary titled Citizen Kane – A Filmmaker’s Journey, published in 2016. His book on 50 years of vision science at UCLA was published in 2017.
Lebo’s current book — 100 Days: How Four Events in 1969 Shaped America — was published by Rowman & Littlefield in June 2019.
More about Harlan Lebo is here.
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