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by Vwadek P. Marciniak (Author)
Politics, Humor, and the Counterculture discusses the post-war period (1945-1972) through the lenses of three artists: Ken Nordine, Lenny Bruce, and Firesign Theatre. Their humor cut through the hypocrisy of the Cold War and the prevailing culture and expanded our horizons. From the Beats to the peace and civil rights movements, these humorists illuminate America from their unique perspectives. Vwadek P. Marciniak highlights the poetic nature of humor as well as its insights on our political and social habits: addiction, conformity, marketing, and fear. The modern is giving way to the post-modern, the fixed to an existential attitude: humanism and humor.
Author Biography
The Author: Vwadek P. Marciniak received his master's degree in political philosophy from Columbia University and his doctorate in early modern intellectual history from the University of Missouri. Under the name of Dick Martin, he taught in the Humanities Department at Michigan State University (1966-1992) where he also aided in the creation of the Whole Works and Contemporary Humanities programs as well as a course on England during the Enlightenment. He is also the author of Towards a History of Consciousness: Space, Time, and Death (Peter Lang, 2006).
