A key theme in Andreas Killen’s “1973 Nervous Breakdown” (Bloomsbury, 256 pages, $24.95) is the acceleration of America’s fascination with celebrity at the beginning of the 1970s and the idea, predicted by Andy Warhol, that anyone can become temporarily famous given the right circumstances. Mr. Killen, a professor at the City College of New York, is an apt example: Today, as demonstrated by the depressing list of book titles published annually, it doesn’t require extraordinary talent to become an author.