Meltdown Expected

"Historians correctly remind us that, in the 1960s, America experienced cultural and political turmoil that still resonates nearly six decades later. But in Meltdown Expected, Aaron J. Leonard proves the overlooked point that events during the last years of the 1970s were just as crucial, from Jonestown to Three Mile Island, from the rise of the Religious Right to the growing threat of violence both at home and abroad. I frankly cannot conceive of a more important book for readers who want to truly understand not only how we have gotten to where we are today, but why."
-- Jeff Guinn, * author of The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple *
"Aaron J. Leonard has produced a fascinating account of an era that is growing quickly away from contemporary public attention. He shows that the world we live in today had not yet taken definitive shape, that the fluidity of social movements still alive from the 1960s, in some ways still growing, had the capacity to enhance democracy but fell toward failure. The power on the other side proved too great. Still, the details offer important clues for what may yet become the dynamos of tomorrow's American promise."

-- Paul Buhle, * co-editor with Mari Jo Buhle of the Encyclopedia of the American Left *
"In Meltdown Expected, Aaron J. Leonard has crafted a highly readable survey of the upheavals, repressions, disasters, and political and economic transitions that marked the end of the 'Disco Decade' and the segue into the Reagan Era. He's achieved a rare feat here, presenting those days with a broad sense of disparate yet simultaneous - and momentous - events."
-- Scott Martelle, * author of 1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America *

"Leonard's book is the first to focus almost entirely on the last three years of the 1970s. Rather appropriately borrowing a lyric from the title song of the Clash's 1979 album London Calling, this text recounts several events from those years. As the title implies, much of the world was expecting some kind of meltdown by the time 1980 rolled around. Indeed, lots of folks were already experiencing a meltdown, their jobs being cut, the cost of living rising, and the world still spinning out of control. All the while that Leonard is describing these events, he is also building a foundation that does plenty to describe how we have arrived at where we are today in 2024."

-- Ron Jacobs * CounterPunch *