Well Beings

My new book, Well Beings: How the Seventies Lost Its Mind and Taught Us to Find Ourselves is out now from Icon Books. It's a follow-up to The Bad Trip that in some ways carries on the story. It looks at some of the same figures and revisits them in the narcissistic seventies. That said, the book is also a stand-alone cultural history, one that charts the secret history of wellness, moving from its post-war origins to its emergence in the 1970s amid the human potential movement linked to the Esalen Institute and many others. It's been a great pleasure and a privilege to work on this project which such a talented and supportive team at Icon Books, Girton College, University of Cambridge and also at Watson, Little. Hats off, as always to Donald Winchester.  Anna Morrison has once again delivered with a superb cover. 

Well Beings has gained some great reviews thus far from the likes of the TLS, The Spectator and the FT. Extracts from these and the book's general blurb can be found below. Check out my Twitter/X (@EndOfSixties) for details of the promotional events I've been doing. Purchasing details can be found here. There will be a paperback edition out in 2025 and I'll be doing more events in support of it. 

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James Riley, author of the cult hit The Bad Trip: Dark Omens, New Worlds and the End of the Sixties, returns with another incisive and thought-provoking cultural history, turning his trenchant eye to the wellness industry that emerged in the 1970s.

Concepts such as wellness and self-care may feel like distinctly twenty-first century ideas, but they first gained traction as part of the New Age health movements that began to flourish in the wake of the 1960s. Riley dives into this strange and hypnotic world of panoramic coastal retreats and darkened floatation tanks, blending a page-turning narrative with illuminating explorations of the era's music, film, art and literature.

Well Beings delves deep into the mind of the seventies – its popular culture, its radical philosophies, its approach to health and its sense of social crisis. It tells the story of what was sought, what was found and how these explorations helped the 'Me Decade' find itself. In so doing, it questions what good health means today and reveals what the seventies can teach us about the strange art of being well.

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As James Riley points out in Well Beings, if the 1960s were about changing the world, the 1970s were about changing yourself. From ashrams to the wellness industry, from primal screaming to neoliberalism, Riley's fresh take on the 1970s lays bare the rampant culture of narcissism that characterised this decade. Wide-ranging and written with flair, this is an eye-opening account of 1970s culture.

Douglas Field

Riley weaves an attractively readable story from hot tubs to high theory, via Hollywood movies and British sitcoms. And he urges us to continue taking the pursuit of well-being seriously despite the many disconcerting deviations along the way. Highly entertaining and enlightening.

Alastair J. Reid

Having navigated us through the late 1960s' Bad Trip, James Riley now explores how the 1970s sought to make us Well Beings. Diving deep into the rich cultural resources of a much derided decade, Riley uncovers a complex history chartered towards self-discovery and a cure for our collective ills.

Matthew Worley, Professor of Modern History, University of Reading

James Riley 's new book is a cogent and provocative overview of the growth of the wellness movement in the 1970s that not only provides a comprehensive account of the cultural and political context for "wellness" but also pinpoints the origins of many of the attitudes that inform thinking about health and lifestyle today. Riley charts the malaises and ennui of a pivotal decade in a clear and witty narrative with a mordant sense of humour that will evoke moments of perhaps painful recognition in anyone who has sampled any of the plethora of philosophies and therapies whose development he describes. From gurus and encounter groups to flotation tanks and rebirthing, Riley's account is informed by an impressive breadth of research and provides real insight and understanding.

Judith Noble, Professor of Film and the Occult, Arts University Plymouth

In this fantastically witty book, James Riley reminds us about the history and roots of wellbeing as a movement with its commercial appeal, absurdities and curiosities.

Thomas Roulet, Professor of Organisational Sociology & Leadership, University of Cambridge

An engrossing, thought-provoking and entertaining study of the search for who we are and what makes us 'well' in body and mind.

The Spectator

In his expansive study, Riley draws out the many historical roots and consequences of the 1970s inward turn … Well Beings is a highly readable, alternative history

Manchester Review of Books

A roaming, eclectic tour of the 1970s via film, literature, and music … Riley deftly shows how far we have drifted from the socially grounded culture of wellness that was prominent in the '70s

The Camera

Riley is a well-read guide. The book deals with events, people, music and films from the 1970s, setting them in a longer-lived cultural context … Well Beings illuminates, in particular, the idea of 'spiritual privilege'.

The Times Literary Supplement

But what is wellness? And how can we understand its benefits while jettisoning the charlatans and pointless interventions? I found the answers – plus some fantastically weird anecdotes – in James Riley's engrossing and timely book … In Well Beings, he reanimates the mood of the 1970s with a range of contemporary cultural resources from books, philosophy, politics, even popular British sitcoms of the time.

Financial Times