Elvis was celebrity¿s perfect storm. Gifted, charismatic, and telegenic, he was a rebel rooted in conservative Southern working-class morals. By the late 1960s, the storm had largely passed. A surging popular culture had upended those morals, and what had once seemed rebellious looked more and more reactionary. Far from daring and racy, Elvis¿s movies seemed treacle; rather than trendsetting, his musical talent seemed better suited for well-worn country ballads. This book succinctly places Elvis¿s life within the larger shifts that redefined the cultural landscape during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, discovering in the mounting ironies of Elvis¿s waning success the seeds of the mythology we know today. Photos.