Do You like book The Fifties (1994)?
Halverstam, prolific and erudite, wrote a serious book coupled with a popular culture book in series through twenty-two volumes. The Fifties was his pop book published in '93 in between The Next Century and October, 1964. The Fifties, given its subtext, doesn't require the fiery drive or the coruscating words of his power / politics books, and instead takes us through an amble across a decade. Halberstam's goal is to illuminate an era that he grew up in, one where the world changed from bucolic to fast and modern, one where the seeds of the 1960's and hence our current culture were planted and grew. He has several themes that he carries forward (such as the indomitable and crushing power of advertising). The structure and style of the book is laid out by Halberstam's humanity – he uses vignettes of people small and large to tell the story of a decade, and we care about most of these people. He starts and stops themes as he goes, proceeding with the ten years of chronology, but in each case, he has chosen real people and their stories to weave a picture of the 1950's. It's a powerful motif, as he leaps from personal desire of the individual up into sociological meaning for the U.S. As usual in his books, the level of detail and research are extraordinary, and the author's surmises and elucidation of his characters motivations feel dead-on.The sections on the big themes – feminism, race, politics, rock and roll, consumerism, advertising the H bomb, and American hubris – are the most compelling, and only occasionally do we head off down side streets of little import: the story of Ricky Nelson's alienation from his Dad cannot compete with the power of the Emmet Till narrative. He does indeed show that the 60's were derivative and predictable from the events of the 50's (without convincing the reader that the 50's were more interesting). The significant failure of the book, however, is the finish. Halberstam ends with the epic battle between Nixon and Kennedy. In doing so, he fails to deliver the drama or the crisis that would draw the decade together. Rather, he ends with Dean Acheson's evaluation of the two candidates – “They … bore the hell out of me.” So somehow did this chapter.
—Scott
The 1950s is a seminal decade in the history of our nation. Some of the things that people believe about it are true, but by no means all. It was fun to read David Halberstam's book The Fifties, and it brought back a flood of memories. When I look back on the decade, what I remember most was my fear of thermonuclear war, which looked like a distinct possibility after Sputnik was launched in 1957 and Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 aircraft were downed by the Russians in 1959. I was in my middle school years at that point, and I read Time Magazine religiously from cover to cover. The news was not good: Nikita Khruschchev was a canny Soviet leader who was adept at making the Americans frightened until his downfall a few years later.My only complaint about Halberstam's book is its organization. The chapters were more or less random, interspersing cultural, economic, social, and political events. It could very well have gone on for another five hundred pages, bringing in additional topics such as Mad Magazine, Westerns, Film Noir, the Mafia, Suez, and the Congo. It had to stop somewhere, and, as I was reading on the Kindle, I was shocked that it stopped suddenly at the 80% mark, the rest of the book consisting of photos, a bibliography (a good one, too), and notes.At worst, the book is a great starting point; at its best, a reminder of what we have managed to survive in that anxious time.
—Jim
This is a comprehensive history of post-World War II America, covering political, economic, and social developments of the period. The book is very accessible to the general reader, and the author does a good job of showing how the 1950s represented both continuity and change in American life. My only complaint about the book is its organization; the chapters ranged from politics to economics to social life and then back to politics again. I think the book could have been arranged topically, and would have been a bit easier to read that way.I found the chapters on politics to be a particular strength of this book, particularly as the author described the foundations of movements that continue to impact contemporary American politics during this period. He does an excellent job of describing the various factions in the political parties of the day, and how they affected American foreign and domestic policy during the period.
—Diane
