When Margaret Mead first studied the Manus Islanders of New Guinea in 1928, they were a people living, quite literally, in the Stone Age. Then came World War II and the massive impact of the Air Age. A unique set of conditions made it possible for the Manus to construct a whole new world in 25 years. Mead chronicles these changes and advances a revolutionary theory of cultural change: that rapid change is better than slow change.