Dead Serious and Lighthearted

The Memorable Words of Modern America - Volume I (1957-1976)

Non-Fiction - Historical
524 Pages
Reviewed on 09/03/2018
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Author Biography

Mack W. Borgen is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a national award-winning author for his prior books, The Relevance of Reason (Volumes I and II) which were released in 2013. He is a native of Montana and was raised in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest. Upon graduating from the University of California (Berkeley) with Honors in Economics, he delivered the student commencement address before heading east to law school. He later served more than four years in the U.S. Army, and then lived and wrote in Europe for a brief period. Thereafter he returned to the West Coast where he began a long career simultaneously practicing law and writing about various economic, political, and social matters. Over the last five years, he has devoted much of his time to the writing the three volumes of Dead Serious and Lighthearted - The Memorable Words of Modern America --- books which the author hopes will help, in their own quiet way, lift the spirit of our country and help lessen the discord and rancor of our national conversation. Over the years he has also taught adjunct professor courses at Rutgers University (Camden, NJ) (The History of the Labor Movement), the University of Virginia (The History of the Supreme Court), and various law courses. He lives with his wife and son in Santa Barbara, California.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Edith Wairimu for Readers' Favorite

Dead Serious and Lighthearted: The Memorable Words of Modern America by Mack W. Borgen is the first in a series that presents, without bias, the words that portrayed the feeling of the American people at a specific point in time with some words even playing the role of shaping the nation. As Borgen notes, there is a direct correlation between the sense of community with the knowledge and understanding of the community’s history. His main goal is to foster a sense of national unity and togetherness by inspiring the knowledge of history. From movie lines, book titles, campaign slogans and chants, to fascinating words from memorable people, Dead Serious and Lighthearted Volume 1 teaches the history of modern America from 1957-1976 in a captivating way.

This keenly selected and presented collection of various spoken or written words provides a unique and fun way of learning America’s history. Mack W. Borgen permits the interpretation of the meaning of the words by observing impartiality in his writing. The words are also allowed to stand by themselves without unnecessary descriptions that are known to quickly bog down everyday readers. Another great aspect of Dead Serious and Lighthearted is that the book includes aspects of history from diverse fields and events such as social movements, literature, politics or entertainment. Mack W. Borgen does not restrict his scope such as to present only the words that shaped a specific sphere. The words contained span multiple societal foundations. With the persistent gaps that exist in the teaching of history, Dead Serious and Lighthearted will go a long way in bridging these variations through its ability to inform and captivate.