First published in 1979, Joan Didion’s The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era—incorporating Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall—Didion navigates her own spiritual confusion through a lens that defines mass culture as we now understand it. Written with commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.