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. Inayos naman niya agad ang pantalon at nang akma na siyang kikilos upang sumakay sa motor ay bigla naman lumayo ang babae at iiwanan siya. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. It is indeed the book they claim (Antique *Medical* Instruments, not Antique *Dental* Instruments like the image), and the condition was as described. Playboy", historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that, in the process of becoming fabulously wealthy and famous, Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values.

The book provides plenty of biographical detail and it does a creditable job of making connections between the personal and the political. In Britain, Hefner is considered a fairly minor figure who irritated the conservative establishment by devising a magazine that enabled men to appreciate women in all their natural splendor. Choice Reviews , May 2009) ""Just past the round rotating bed, beyond the hot-tub grotto but before the pajama-draped walk-in, lies … what? Watts outlines the man and magazine's influence on the country's notions of personal liberation, sexual freedom, and material abundance.Watts evokes a time when Playboy was seen by its critics as a key symptom of decadence in American life, and is at his best when exploring his subject′s early years, showing how Hefner′s sexual and material ethic of self–fulfillment drove him to challenge the social conventions of postwar America. The Horatio-Alger-with-a-libido case he makes-where else but in America could a repressed midwestern boy rise, and fall into so many sacks, while creating and brand-managing a multimedia empire? Circulation peaked in the swinging ′70s (as did an ugly drug controversy); the ′80s were less kind, as the brand seemed dated. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Gorgeous young women in revealing poses; extravagant mansion parties packed with celebrities; a hot-tub grotto, elegant smoking jackets, and round rotating beds; the hedonistic pursuit of uninhibited sex—put these images together and a single name springs to mind: Hugh Hefner.

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. He proved instrumental–with his influential magazine, syndicated television shows, fashionable nightclubs, swanky resorts, and movie and musical projects–in making popular culture into a dominant force in many people′s lives.The author captures the transitions in American society, though he′s repetitive in details and themes, and rather tame, if tasteful, in depicting the sexual exploits that always surrounded Hefner and his empire. Watts convincingly argues that Hefner anticipated a number of distinct trends that transformed American society, including postwar consumerism, feminism (whose adherents, generally speaking, castigated Hef) and, of course, the′60s sexual revolution.

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. They have been reviewed in nearly every major newspaper and magazine in the United States, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post, USA Today, New Republic, Nation, Commentary, Atlantic, Harper’s, Economist, National Review, Reason, and many others. highly–readable and thought–provoking biography written by academic historian, Stephen Watts" ( Desire , November 2008) Hugh Hefner started Playboy magazine in 1953 using purchased photos of Marilyn Monroe, and including the article "Miss Gold Digger 1953" about women who "manipulate the legal system for alimony. In other words, it was Hugh Hefner who made Playboy, but it was the public who delivered the success. Publishers Weekly , July 28, 2008) Detailed assessment of the debatably enviable life of America′s bachelor.In light of more recent and disgusting revelations about Hefner's personal life in his old age, you get the feeling the publisher might not have been the visionary and saint that fills the pages of this biography. But the most memorable part by far was the set of pictures he bought from a local calendar printer of a scantily clad Marilyn Monroe. From his spectacular launch of Playboy magazine and the dizzying expansion of his leisure empire to his recent television hit The Girls Next Door, the publisher has attracted public attention and controversy for decades.

Critics sought to ban Playboy, with many accusing it of contributing to a moral degradation of society. Playboy, Hefner's ideal for living -- marked by his allegiances to Tarzan, Freud, Pepsi-Cola and jazz -- proves to be a kind of gloss on the Protestant work ethic. 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. Playboy, Hefner's ideal for living — marked by his allegiances to Tarzan, Freud, Pepsi-Cola and jazz — proves to be a kind of gloss on the Protestant work ethic. Watts, a history professor turned biographer, analyzes the life and times of Hugh Hefner in this fascinating biography.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. He proved instrumental with his influential magazine, syndicated television shows, fashionable nightclubs, swanky resorts, and movie and musical projects in making popular culture into a dominant force in many people′s lives.