Hef's journey is complex and Steven Watts deserves applause assessing this in great detail without ever being judgemental. If we’re to believe this book, it’s the Truth about Hugh Hefner—and, by proxy, about American life since the 1950s.

They were also reviewed in scholarly journals such as the Journal of American History and American Quarterly. He emerged as one of the most influential advocates of a rapidly developing consumer culture, flooding Playboy readers with images of material abundance and a leisurely lifestyle.

Like many of us, Heff found that the demands of hard work, ambition and other social pressures meant that he could never actually meet the ideals that he turned away from. Heff's own life reveals an early life beset by a lack of self-satisfaction and a strong desire to be a good husband. Examining Playboy archives (Hef is something of a pack rat) and Hefner's own journals, Watts (History/Univ. He is the author of four books, including The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century and The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life.

We can all make up our own minds about this, but with numerous wives and "playmates" it is hard to say if absolute contentment is his. By the '60s, Hefner was engaged in controversy, via his "Playboy Philosophy," and expansion, as the famed Playboy Clubs helped him build a business empire that reflected his sybaritic lifestyle in his notorious mansion. Hefner resembles a chameleon in Watts's mostly sympathetic portrait, variously appearing as a prescient social critic, an early supporter of civil rights, a generous Gatsby figure and a cranky, obsessive sex addict. He shows Hefner's personal dichotomies-the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gatsby-like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well-publicized affairs with numerous Playmates, the fan of life's simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite.His series of biographies of major figures—Henry Ford, Dale Carnegie, Walt Disney, Hugh Hefner—has explored the shaping of a modern value-system devoted to consumerism, self-fulfillment, leisure, and personality.

I messaged the seller and they refunded me for the book and let me keep it as a courtesy for the mix up. This fascinating portrait illustrates four ways in which Hefner and Playboy stood at the center of several cultural upheavals that remade the postwar United States.In other words, it was Hugh Hefner who made Playboy, but it was the public who delivered the success. Although advocating women's sexual freedom and their liberation from traditional family constraints, the publisher became a whipping boy for feminists who viewed him as a prophet for a new kind of male domination.

But, time and again, anyone who opposed Hefner or his viewpoints - and there were many, many such people - is depicted as misguided, malicious, downright evil, or even mentally ill. It is easy to be pious or moralistic about Hefner, but it is astounding to chart the social impact that Playboy has had on our society, particularly attitudes towards sex. The man whose bestselling How to Win Friends and Influence People defined 20th-century American normalcy was a deeply subversive figure, according to this penetrating biography. Watts’ books have been translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Polish, and Romanian. He also has appeared in a variety of programs on CBS, NBC, CNBC, NPR, Fox, Fox News, C-Span, Bloomberg News, MSNBC, BBC, and Irish National Radio.

Voice actor Porter effortlessly captures the full swing of events that led America to surpass the Soviet Union in the race to be the first country to orbit moon. Watts outlines the man and magazine's influence on the country's notions of personal liberation, sexual freedom, and material abundance. Even when it's clear Hefner might have made a mistake, he's still shown as the victim, or that it was a misunderstanding. He shows Hefner′s personal dichotomies–the pleasure seeker and the workaholic, the consort of countless Playmates and the genuine romantic, the family man and the Gatsby–like host of lavish parties at his Chicago and Los Angeles mansions who enjoys well–publicized affairs with numerous Playmates, the fan of life′s simple pleasures who hobnobs with the Hollywood elite.