When Stand-Up Grew Up: Comedy’s Midcentury Flowering

Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s , by Gerald Nachman. Pantheon, 659 pages, $29.95.

The history of stand-up comedy divides neatly into two eras: B.M.S. and A.M.S. Before Mort Sahl, comedians were mostlyingratiating Catskill tummlers . They’d rib the in-laws, flash the occasional stiletto and never touch the politics. Read More