If the title of Dan­ny Goldberg’s new book seems famil­iar to you, it prob­a­bly is. Orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in hard­cov­er in 2003 under the title Dis­patch­es from the Cul­ture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spir­it, this paper­back ver­sion includes the full orig­i­nal book, plus a new intro­duc­tion and addi­tion­al chap­ters. Or the title may ring a bell for fans of 1990s rock music. ​“Smells Like Teen Spir­it” was the biggest song of the ​‘90s super-group Nir­vana, and its lead singer and song­writer, Kurt Cobain. Goldberg’s appro­pri­a­tion of Cobain’s phrase ​“teen spir­it” is no acci­dent. He uses it as ​“a metaphor for the polit­i­cal ener­gy of new gen­er­a­tions.” Gold­berg is a long­time music exec­u­tive (chair­man and CEO of Artemis Records) and polit­i­cal activist. He calls his new book ​“a rant in the form of a mem­oir.” In it, Gold­berg rants against the left’s, and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party’s, fail­ure to stay in touch with its broad pop­u­lar base by not using pop cul­ture to reach its base, result­ing in the ​“decline of pro­gres­sive polit­i­cal pow­er despite wide­spread sup­port for pro­gres­sive polit­i­cal goals.” Polit­i­cal junkies, music buffs, and those inter­est­ed in Amer­i­can cul­tur­al life from the ​‘60s for­ward will enjoy this well-writ­ten insider’s account. Index.