This book explores the lives of young Bulgarians in the Cold War era when the Communist Party saw dance hits like "The Twist" as a menace to youth and society. It investigates the Party's efforts to shape youth into "socialist personalities" and to create a socialist mass culture in the face of "Westernization."

On the basis of biographical interviews, the author takes a critical look at the popular view of youth enthusiasm for Western rock and lifestyles as resistance. Young Bulgarians scarcely challenged the socialist order. But at the same time, the Party failed to impose its notion...