Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude (FOCI)

Rating:
Summary: Positively, absolutely, awful!
Review: Cool Rules has to be in the "Top Ten Worst Books Published In 2000" list. Whatever made the authors think they could write about this subject?!? This book is definitely un-cool!

Rating:
Summary: Shows how the concept of "cool" evolved
Review: In Cool Rules: Anatomy Of An Attitude, Dick Pountain and David Robins successfully collaborate to provide readers with insights into American popular culture from African history and jazz, through 60s cinema, to 90s loft living -- all in service to defining "cool". Cool Rules reveals the line between "hip" and "cool"; shows how the concept of "cool" evolved in different cultures, the influence of British attitudes and styles on American fads and reflections of the "cool"; and a great deal more. Always informative, occasionally iconoclastic, Cool Rules is highly recommended reading for students of cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, semiotics, and the evolution of American lifestyle fads and fancies.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: This book is important reading. I read a great deal,and
I have used ideas from this book in my college classrooms.
It is a kind of academic yet popular treatment of a subject deserving of a more lengthy study. COOL is very underrated as an attitude and way of life and that is why this book seems important to me. One reviewer said it was uncool. In a sense, yes, because it tries to be impartial rather than just being another youth culture "cool" book. I liked it so much that I bought the book AFTER I have read it from the library. The book is more of an introduction to the subject and it makes good points that young people in particular should know about.