Mr. Halberstam's Best Book, A very Colorful Survey.

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	• The Fifties David Halberstam Ballantine Books, 1994 - 816 pages average customer review:based on 63 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Mr. Halberstam's Best Book, A very Colorful Survey.

Honestly, this book should be required reading for all of our high school students. It is far better than any traditional school texts we had covering this era. "The Fifties," is a finely written history of the decade that the author considers "seminal in determining what our nation is today."

The author combines a very engaging historical narrative with deep social commentary that illuminates the controversial & complex events & people which made the 1950's so important to the USA. From the unexpected victory of Harry Truman over Republican rival Thomas Dewey in the 1948 Presidential election, the Korean War, the firing of General Douglass MacArthur, Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, the Sputnik satellite launch 1957, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, & the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. To the rise of Senator Mccarthy, Khrushev, & Fidel Castro taking over Cuba in 1959.

Mr. Halberstam argues persuasively that despite, its tranquill facade, that the 1950's was a time of huge social upheavel. He goes about this by pointing out the laeders of the anti-establishment movement. Such as Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, & the Beatniks. The latters philosophy would come to full bloom in the "hippie" culture of the 1960's. The influence of Katherine Mccormick & Margeret Sanger led to strides in birth control & Feminism. While Television helped the Alpha entertainment careers of Steve Allen, Cid Caeser, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, & Milton Berle. TV also helped popularize the Meteoric popularity of Rock & Roll & its main icon Elvis Presley & the new fast food culture. Which saw the steady growth of the original California based McDonalds Hamburger chain after the McDonald brothers sold it to entrepeneur Ray Kroc.

Lastly, this was the decade that saw the huge rise in the interstate highway system that led to our car culture & enabled millions of Americans to travel around the country easier than ever before.

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The Fifties

David Halberstam is one of the best non-fiction writers of the 20th Century. He is very thorough.

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An Encyclopedic Look at the Fifties

Have you always thought that the Fifties were merely a quiescent interlude between World War II and the Sixties? Think again. In this sweeping look at the decade, David Halberstam examines the trends and events that made the Fifties a very interesting and eventful time.

The book opens with a look at what was going on in the country in the late Forties, in the years just after World War II. The late Franklin D. Roosevelt still cast a long shadow over America and its politics, and this enabled Harry Truman to win election in his own right in 1948 and left the Republicans wondering if they would ever regain the White House. There was also apprehension about Communist moles in the government. On the world stage, the Cold War was deepening: Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, the Soviets got their first atomic bomb in 1949, and that same year China fell to the Communists.

This tense world situation made Truman determined to stop the advance of Communism by intervening in Korea. The U.S. fought the Korean War for three years to a stalemate, and Eisenhower managed to obtain an armistice six months after he became the first Republican president in 20 years.

Halberstam takes a thorough look at many of the developments (and their consequences) of the nascent suburban and mass culture: greater reliance on automobiles, Levittowns, increasing affluence, conformity and individuality, television, restaurants such as McDonald's, motels such as Holiday Inn, the decline of thrift (and increased purchasing on credit), the greater importance of sports in society, rock and roll music, and the birth control pill.

Civil rights was a recurring theme during the decade, especially after 1954. Brown v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, Emmett Till was murdered, Rosa Parks made her stand, Martin Luther King became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement, and Central High School in Little Rock was integrated.

The Cold War became even more tense at the end of the Fifties, with the launch of Sputnik and the space race that followed it, the establishing of a Communist beachhead in Cuba, and the capture of a U.S. pilot who was flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union.

Yes, as other reviews have noted, the book is written from a liberal perspective, but if you can filter out the bias, there is much to be learned from this comprehensive look at a decade that gave us much of what we take for granted today.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the ten years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon, but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; U-2 pilot Gary Francis Powers; Grace Metalious, who wrote Peyton Place; and "Goody" Pincus, who led the team that invented the Pill.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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