Charles L. Ponce de Leon – Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism

Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism
How a Magazine Born in the 1960s Changed America
by Charles L. Ponce de Leon
304 pp., 5 halftones, notes, index
ISBN 978-1-4696-9439-9 $30.00 cloth
Publication date: April 28, 2026
For more information: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469694399/rolling-stone-and-the-rise-of-hip-capitalism/

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“Ponce de Leon brilliantly contextualizes the history of Rolling Stone while attending to the broader historical transformations that had swept up the magazine by the time of Reagan’s ascent. A brilliant examination of the 1960s and its legacies.”—Andrew Hartman, author of Karl Marx in America

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In its early years, Rolling Stone stood out on the magazine rack: an iconoclastic bimonthly aimed at young Americans, dedicated to music, culture, and politics. Magazine cofounder Jann Wenner’s vision of a magazine that blended politics with sophisticated coverage of rock music and related social and cultural trends was groundbreaking and a surprising commercial success, turning the brash young publisher into the era’s quintessential “hip capitalist.”

This is a history of Rolling Stone’s heyday, from its founding in 1967 to its twentieth anniversary, examining its coverage of notable social, cultural, and political developments and the contributions of its distinguished and often brilliant writers—from Greil Marcus and Hunter S. Thompson to William Greider and P. J. O’Rourke. It also reveals how, in response to shifts in its audience, the magazine industry, and the broader culture, Rolling Stone gradually changed, becoming more successful but also less innovative and influential. In the magazine’s prime, however, Wenner and company showed how a thoughtful, irreverent magazine could attract advertisers as well as readers and spread sixties-inspired values into the mainstream.

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“Rolling Stone is more than a music magazine; it is a historical artifact reflecting the times, Ponce de Leon argues in this history of the publication . . . . An engaging cultural history with relevant insight into late 20th-century American society.”—Library Journal, STARRED review

“A fascinating new book.”—Splice Today

“Every journalist should read Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism.”—Chronicles Magazine

“In this intellectual and political history of Rolling Stone, Charles Ponce de Leon gives us a clear-eyed picture into how the magazine helped shape America’s tumultuous 1960s, scuzzy 1970s, and yuppie 1980s. An entertaining and expansive treatment.”—Kevin Mattson, author of We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America

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Charles L. Ponce de Leon is the author of several books, including Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley and That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America.