It's hard to imagine that "the cool" could ever go out of style. After all, cool is style. Isn't it? And it may be harder to imagine a world where people no longer aspire to coolness. In this intriguing cultural history, nationally acclaimed author Ted Gioia shows why cool is not a timeless concept and how it has begun to lose meaning and fade into history. Gioia deftly argues that what became iconic in the 1950s with Miles Davis, James Dean, and others has been manipulated, stretched, and pushed to a breaking point; not just in our media, entertainment, and fashion industries, but also by corporations, political leaders, and social institutions. Tolling the death knell for the cool, this thought-provoking book reveals how and why a new cultural tone is emerging, one marked by sincerity, earnestness, and a quest for authenticity. Ted Gioia has published six highly acclaimed books. Gioia's The History of Jazz was selected as one of the twenty best books of the year in The Washington Post and was a notable book of the year in The New York Times . He is also the author of Delta Blues, Work Songs, and West Coast Jazz.

Can cool ever be uncool? -- The mystery of my parents' lifestyle -- How cool became so -- The progenitor of cool : Bix Beiderbecke -- The president of cool : Lester Young -- The prince of darkness : Miles Davis -- The signifying bunny, or the birth (and death) of the cool for kids -- Everybody acts like Miles Davis -- Live by the swoosh, die by the swoosh -- America loses its cool -- The sound of postcool music -- The postcool society -- The birth (and death) of the cool : a timeline.