The Media Tourist

Exploring the elusive concept through attitude, style and pop culture

American Cool

By Joel Dinerstein & Frank H. Goodyear III

Hardcover, 196 pages (Prestel Publishing, $49.95)

Who’s cool? What’s cool? We’re not talking air temperature, but the concept, the iconic designation of attitude, style and pop-cultural transcendence. This collection of 100 chronically displayed images of “cool,” (now all on display in a special exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.), plus insightful essays, examines the ever-morphing concept of cool through a prism of personalities from early movie actors and actresses Veronica Lake, Humphrey Bogart and Greta Garbo, to contemporary stars including Johnny Depp, director Quentin Tarantino and late-night host Jon Stewart. Needless to say, it’s cool!

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine