Joan Didion's 1968 collection of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, offers a personal and insightful commentary on American life in the 1960s, particularly in California. The title comes from W. B. Yeats' poem “The Second Coming”. The essays cover a range of topics, including the Haight-Ashbury counterculture, the murders of John Wayne and Howard Hughes, and Didion's own experiences growing up female in California.