July 4, 2026, will mark the semiquincentennial—or 250^th anniversary of the founding—of the United States. It is a time of celebration, but also, nationally and internationally, a time of turmoil. This dichotomy demands reflection, a look back at other eras when commemoration rode alongside protest and discord. One such time was precisely fifty years ago in 1976, when the United States marked its 200^th birthday.

This Spring and Summer, Chicago and our distribution clients will publish a cohort of books exploring the Spirit of ’76 and beyond. Led by Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s from historian Marc Stein—the incoming president of the Organization of American Historians, a society that, fittingly, is convening this month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the “Birthplace of America” and American democracy—these seven reads for the long 1970s offer profound insight into the history, politics, and culture of that world-shaping time, helping us to better understand how we arrived at this moment, and where we are headed.

All of these 1970s books are available from our website. Use the code UCPNEW to take 30% off when you order directly from us.

From Chicago

Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

Marc Stein

“As the nation prepares to mark the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of its founding, it’s easy to forget that the two hundredth wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. . . . The simmering resentments of the Bicentennial reached their fullest expression, unsurprisingly, in Philadelphia, as the historian Stein recounts in Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s.”—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

“The United States marks its semiquincentennial in 2026, and Stein looks back at the differences and similarities to the US Bicentennial in 1976. . . . Stein shows that, outside the official planning and programming, the values and rhetoric of the Revolutionary era sparked a spirit of ’76 that pushed for LGBTQIA+ rights, women’s equality, and justice reforms unimaginable two centuries earlier. It also exposed a grimmer history, as white supremacists and anti-immigration activists surfaced to claim the celebration. A comprehensive and critical look at the Spirit of 1976.”—Library Journal

The Politics of Social Change: From the Sixties to the Present Through the Eyes of a Generation

Larry M. Bartels and Katherine J. Cramer

“How do the circumstances into which people are born and raised, and the political events underway as they come of age, shape their political attitudes decades later? Bartels and Cramer examine this by studying Americans in the high school Class of 1965. They analyze surveys conducted across these individuals’ lifespans along with fresh and in-depth interviews Bartels and Cramer themselves conducted recently, in respondents’ own homes all over the United States. The result is a fascinating exploration that sheds light, not least, on why many children of 1960s became, a half-century later, supporters of President Donald Trump. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how our place in history shapes our views, and how we, in turn, shape politics.”—Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University

“Bartels and Cramer are a dream team at the top of their game in both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Capitalizing on one of the most remarkable long-term survey research projects ever mounted, they have produced a rich and uniquely valuable perspective on more than six decades of social and political change. Seen through the eyes of America’s high school seniors of 1965, the sophisticated, twisting tale that Bartels and Cramer tell leads tragically to today’s angry, unequal, dispirited, and polarized America.” —Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and The Upswing

Done in a Day: Telex from the Fall of Saigon

Elisa Tamarkin

“With a historian’s precision and a novelist’s sense of the absurd, Tamarkin explores the last dispatches from Vietnam sent to the Chicago Daily News. Along the way she makes us hear the death rattles of a great literary topos, the war correspondent, and the demise of the news itself as we once took it for granted. The full-blown orgy of our exodus from Saigon emerges here, on the heels of persistent denial, as one of many unforgettable scenes. In the wry and existential tradition of Graham Greene, Tamarkin’s beautifully restrained voice, tender and disabused, is a literary achievement of the highest order.” —Alice Kaplan, author of Seeing Baya

“Just when you think that all that can be written about the Vietnam War has been written comes Elisa Tamarkin’s riveting Done in a Day. The book is like lightning, capturing the madness of that war’s many years into its final few hours. A brilliant book.” —Greg Grandin, author of The End of Myth

This Is a True War Story: My Improbable History with Vietnam

Robert K. Brigham

“Ahighly readable saga about an adoptee’s lifelong journey to find his birth father. From the time that he was seven years old, the author fantasized that his birth father was serving in Vietnam. Often wrenching, this is an inspiring story of undying hope and perseverance in the face of daunting odds. A must-read for those who have been fostered, orphaned, and/or adopted, or who have an interest in the dynamics of families. This is a phenomenal—at times almost unbelievable—story. Bravo!”—Jack McLean, Vietnam veteran and author of Found: A Veteran Story

“In This Is a True War Story, Brigham disassembles a life and a nation. One marvels at the craft of telling two equally consequential stories with so much particularity. The memoir genre has not created anything like this. All Americans shaped by war must read this.”—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

Films That Explode Like Grenades: Robert Kramer and the Search for a Radical Cinema

Whitney Strub

“In a signature accomplishment, ground-breaking historian Strub unpicks the many threads in the life and work of radical filmmaker Robert Kramer with keen curiosity and powerful investigative skills. The result is an unflinching portrait of the tumultuous era and the political cinema of the incandescent Left-wing artist whose shade haunts these pages.” —Alan Wald, author of Writing from the Left

“With the sharply interpretative eye of a film critic and the compulsively contextual voice of a historian, Whitney Stub has done the impossible: he has captured the many complexities of Robert Kramer, the most influential independent filmmaker to emerge from the American New Left, the auteur who captured the spirit of sixties radicalism in all its contradictory forms.”—Andrew Hartman, author of Karl Marx in America

From Reaktion Books

Death Trip: Iggy and the Stooges, 1972–74

Michael S. Begnal

“A kaleidoscopic study that crisscrosses and brilliantly illuminates the Stooges’ second act. Begnal brings together the methodology of a scholar with the enthusiasm and knowledge of a lifelong fan. Death Trip will enthrall, inform, and entertain diehard and casual devotees alike as it elucidates, through the story of Raw Power, the lost history of punk before the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.”—Peter Stanfield, author of The Yardbirds

“With scholarship rather than machismo, intelligence rather than bluster, Begnal gets to the heart of the Stooges’ lortuous and lonely road to Raw Power: one of the greatest albums ever made.”—Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock

From the University of British Columbia Press

Mao’s Final Legacies and the Sino–Vietnamese War, 1971–79

Chenyi Wang

“A groundbreaking reexamination of China’s foreign policy during Mao Zedong’s final years and the early post-Mao era, culminating in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. Drawing on meticulous research, this work challenges prevailing narratives by revealing the intricate interplay between Mao’s personal political ambitions, strategic decision making, and the shifting power dynamics among four communist regimes: the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and the Khmer Rouge.”—David Cheng Chang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

“A timely examination of the role of personality in a dictatorship.”—Christian F. Ostermann, Wilson Center

“Wang’s deeply researched book is a fascinating, well-crafted study of Mao Zedong’s foreign policy leadership. Challenging views that Mao’s policies were based on ideology or national security interests, Wang persuasively demonstrates that Mao’s own political and personal interests to remain in power dominated—to China’s and the world’s detriment.”—Kenton Clymer, Northern Illinois University