"Given its impressive sweep, scholarly rigor, and utter originality, Hillman's monograph is all the more commendable for opening up fresh areas of investigation."—Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, American Historical Review
"Dressing for the Culture Wars extends our understanding of the social impact of fashion by providing an extensive analysis of its role in recent political and social debates."—Diana Crane, Journal of American History
"A valuable addition to the reading list for any course on the history of the 1960s and 1970s. Given that so many of the issues and conflicts surrounding identity and self-presentation remain unresolved, Hillman's work is equally relevant to anyone teaching or researching contemporary political activists and organization."—Jo Paoletti, Pacific Historical Review
“In this engaging book, Luther Hillman shows that performative self-presentation played a critical part in the social change of the 1960s and 1970s. Activists debated the transgressive styles of hippies, Black Power militants, feminists, and drag queens. The visual politics of everyday dress shocked the mainstream, shaped the fashion industry, challenged the law, and triggered conservative backlash. Compelling, original, and smartly argued, this book rewrites the history of an era and reminds us that fashion is not frivolity.”—Joanne Meyerowitz, author of How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States
“Betty Luther Hillman has written a wonderfully engaging and thoroughly researched study of the politics of style and self-presentation during the tumultuous decades of the 1960s and 1970s. . . . Luther Hillman carefully grounds her social and cultural analysis in the historical, political, and economic context of [that time]. Given the popular interest in the fashion and politics of that era, her book will no doubt attract the interest of students as well as the general public.”—Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, author of Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism during the Vietnam Era
