In 1974, three out of ten of our fellow Americans were as yet unborn, but Elvis was demonstrably alive. We were all in Archie Bunker's family, Nielsen-wise, and cheering on Charles Bronson in Death Wish. CD stood for Civil Defense, not a five-inch wafer of music. And just as Lennon and (Groucho) Marx informed our lives, so Lenin and (Karl) Marx held sway over the monolithic Soviet bloc. Few periods in popular culture have been as full of triumph and craziness, highlights and low lifes, novelties and nostalgia, as full of mind-spinning change as the past two decades.On the scene to record it all with a sharp but sympathetic eye: People magazine, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary. In its first thousand or so weeks, People published 100,000 photographs and 30 million words, many of them focused on the stars of film, television, music and the other plastic arts. Going beyond this celebrity world, the magazine also reported on ordinary people whose extraordinary experiences made them, if only briefly, household names.Here, then, is the best of the popular culture of those years - heroes and villains; winners and losers; the funny and the sad and the heartwarming - brought vividly to life in more than 400 photographs and evocative text. Revisit the decades year by year and rediscover (or see for the first time) who and what happened when. You may find yourself recalling what else was going on the year you graduated, fell in love, wed or divorced, had your first baby, quit your last job. Like the hit 45s of our youths, these pictures and words are sure to trigger cherished memories.You can even turn the book into a kind of parlor game: When did J.R. Ewing get his? Phil Donahue don a skirt? Tatum O'Neal cop an Oscar? Burt and Loni marry? Lady Diana Spencer become a Princess? Warren Beatty deep-six his black book? Those answers, and hundreds more, lie within. Enjoy your trip into the lively past. Read Less