Welcome!


Cynthia sadly passed away on April 22, 2022.

I hope you will enjoy browsing in my "library." I write nonfiction books for children and adults, as well as essays and articles. I'm also an editor. On my Books pages, you'll find books I've written for children and adults about everything from hoop skirts and hydrangeas to albatrosses and Acoma pottery. As you'll see, I love to write about anything and everything. Over the years, I’ve studied, researched, and written about: 
  • American cultural history
  • Natural science—plants, animals and our environment
  • Textile arts and clothing
  • Home decor and gardens 

In my shorter pieces, including articles and personal essays, I offer a fond look back at the 1950s, drawn from my experiences growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. 

As a developmental editor, I help other authors to develop nonfiction books for young people and adults on a wide range of topics, including craft books. If you are looking for someone to help you shape your own book or article, visit my Editorial Services page. --Cynthia

New!


"A fad is a form of energy, like thunder and lightning. . ."
—Richard A. Johnson

Picture
Fad Mania!
by Cynthia Overbeck Bix

Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN-10: 1467710342
ISBN-13: 978-1467710343 









"Don't expect this title to linger on the [library] shelf for long."--School Library Journal, August 2014
http://bookverdict.com/details.xqy?uri=Product2014-08-01-8537998.xml

Kirkus Reviews, July 2014:
A look back at some of the crazes—such an apt word—that swept the United States over the last century. To every time and season, there has been a fad or two. . . .What lifts Bix's work to a higher level is the way she sets the fads against realities that made escape into unbridled tomfoolery an act of sanity. . ."
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/cynthia-overbeck-bix/fad-mania/
  

http://www.amazon.com/Fad-Mania-History-American-Crazes/dp/1467710342/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404430015&sr=8-2&keywords=fad+mania

College students crammed into phone booths. Couples dancing until they drop. Daredevils swallowing one live goldfish after another. Streakers dashing naked down the street. Planking and flash mobs and robotic pets. These are just some of the crazy fads that have caught hold in the United States over the last century.

Where do these ideas come from and why do they catch people's imagination? Fads reflect the mood and spirit of a particular time, and they offer insight into a nation's culture. The 1950s, for example, was a time of economic prosperity and technological development. Americans expressed their delight in new inventions in many creative ways. One popular craze on college campuses was to stuff as many people as possible into a phone booth. On one campus, twenty-five people managed to squeeze into a single booth! In earlier decades, marked by the Depression and World War II, dance marathon frenzy caught on. Promoters lured couples with promises of fame and monetary prizes for those who could dance for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours. And great ideas never die. Almost one hundred years later, dance marathons came back. One creative variation, the flash mob dance, attracts spontaneous performances that range from flash mob wedding dances to "Gangnam Style" K-Pop flash mobs in cities all over the world.

Fad Mania! explores a century of American crazes, offering an entertaining and informative look at the major historical events of each decade and the fads that defined them. As you learn more about smiley buttons and Webkinz, you may just be able to predict this decade's next craze!