The Fifties

by David Halberstam

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679415599
• ISBN13: 9780679415596
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

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.

Excellent Overview of Postwar Years

This is a totally engrossing introduction to the events and concepts that launched us into the modern age. Imagine what life was like during the advent of space travel, television, and suburban life. Can you imagine what it would've been like to be one of the first people to eat a McDonald's burger or watch Richard Nixon on national teevee insist for the first time that he wasn't a crook? This book details these facets of life in a very entertaining but informative manner. To me, the most valuable sections of this book were the beginnings of the Vietnam War (which Halberstam's "Best and The Brightest" details) and the advent of the Civil Rights movement. Here, Halberstam has his best moments with very poignant and eloquent writing. I was deeply moved and disturbed by the account of the murder of Emmett Till and inspired by the courage of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the people involved in the Montgomery bus boycott. In the last pages of the book, the birth of Communist Cuba is also explained. Political bumbling and face-saving is as American and timeless as Apple Pie! As a Gen-Xer who has had to teach myself history due to a public education that always ended with Harper's Ferry, this book was helpful in filling in the holes between WWII and JFK's election. I heartily recommend it to everyone.

The calm before the storm

What is it about the 1950's that so many Americans cherish? Is it the homespun food of apple pie and burgers devoid of GM products, foreign influences and weight concerns? Or is it the large cars made possible by cheap gas? Maybe its the music; a lot of new and exciting stuff, but without the undertones of death, government corruption, street violence and broken families... Maybe it is all of this and more, for the 50's represent to many the last decade in which everything seemed to fit together and all was well in the USA. David Halberstam, journalist par excellence, examines this most pivotal of decades and reveals all that festered under the surface, waiting to blow in the following decades. This book examines the whos, whats and whys of various political, economic, social, and cultural events of the 1950s. The important things covered touch upon every US state, both political parties, and individuals from Washington D.C. to tenant black farmers in the deep South. Some of these topics include Elvis, McCarthyism, the rising civil rights movement, suburbanization, Iran, the rise of JFK, the spread of TV, and the dawning of the space race. One of the best points of this book is how the author connects events in the 1950s with history that would come later. One example; Halberstam looks at the Red-baiting of McCarthy and shows how the fallout over this one episode would set the tones of many public careers over the ensuing decades, such as future president Nixon. Another good example provided by the book; the US CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's first ever elected president because he wouldn't give the British a good enough deal on Iranian oil. This event would begin several decades of an American foreign policy that sold out democracy for corporate gains. And it would officially begin a relationship between the US and the Middle East that has brought sorrow to both. A third example is the deal between GM and the US government. GM bought most of America's rail tracks, ripped it up and turned the resulting metal into cars. Congress in turn built freeways to replace the lost mass transit system. In one bold stroke, GM and Congress sealed America's dependence on oil for the next several decades... All in all, a great book. This work interweves the politics, economics, and history of one decade together to show how key events, some public and others private, could decide the fate of a country.

Stunningly comprehensive portrait of America in the 1950s

This is a delightful and encyclopedic survey of the major events and personalities in the United States in the 1950s. The title is, therefore, a bit of a misnomer. The book is not about the decade on a global scale, but merely the fifties in America. Halberstam writes of the decade in a clear, fast-moving prose, and despite the books enormous bulk, is actually a remarkably fast read.Halberstam offers no explicit themes or theses, but if there is an overarching implicit theme, it is the Fifties not as a time of innocence as frequently assumed, but a time of viciousness, meanness, and loss of whatever remaining innocence American might possess. Indeed, the book ends with Eisenhower looking at Nixon and Kennedy, and exclaiming that he didn't like either of them.What THE FIFTIES primarily does is hold up a mirror to the fifties, and reflects the major events and especially the major figures of the decade. In fact, while specific events do receive attention, the book is essentially a succession of character sketches, and even the major events themselves are discussed through focusing on particular individuals. What is amazing is what a satisfactory job Halberstam does of writing about both unfamiliar and famous individuals. By and large, Halberstam deals with just about every major figure one would expect. If I had any complaints--and these would be minor--I would argue that some major art forms received almost no attention in the book. For instance, while he has a full chapter on the bestseller PEYTON PLACE and writes about pulp master Micky Spillane, there is no discussion of any major writers. Nor does he write about cinema in general (though James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Marilyn Monroe receive attention), or changes in art. Elvis Presley and Sam Phillips receive a chapter, but surprisingly little about the development of rock and roll is mentioned apart from that. I think there are two reasons for this. First, even though the text runs to around 730 excluding notes and index, a book of this scale can't deal with everything. Second, despite the books enormous scope, Halberstam isn't determined to write about every aspect of the fifties, but only on every aspect that was distinctive of the decade and made it unique in comparison to what came before and that led to what would come after. Implicit throughout the book is the question, "What made this decade unique and different?"By the end of the book, the reader will have read about Truman, Ike, Korea, Matt Ridgway, McCarthy, Elia Kazan, Orville Faubus, Holiday Inn, MacDonald's, Little Rock, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, the Kinsey report, the development of the Pill, Tennessee Williams, the Dulles brothers, Robert Taft, Adlai Stevenson, Jack Kerouac and the Beats, Oppenheimer and Teller and the Super, Hoover, MacArthur, Giap, Charles Van Doren and Herb Stempel, the CIA, Levittown, Francis Gary Powers, Werner von Braun, Kelly Johnson, Martin Luther King, Emmitt Till, John

This is a stunning book - comprehensive and thoughtful yet extremely readable

The scope of this book could turn readers away -- Beaver Cleaver to Elvis, John Foster Dulles to Betty Friedan, Rosa Parks to Ray Kroc, Jack Kerouac to Gary Powers. What keeps it from being daunting -- and it is daunting not just in scope, but in size (700+ pages)-- is its eminently readable style. Halberstam writes with a journalist's eye for what is critical and important, and his writing is precise and focused. This is, believe it or not, great beach reading. The chapters are never more than 15 pages long, he sprinkles the themes throughout -- a chapter here and another chapter there. And his scope is fascinating: music, politics, civil rights, war, McDonalds/GM/other industry, feminism, beat poets, advertising and the rise of things to spend your disposable income on. The last 400 pages zip by like reading Elmore Leonard. As one born after the decade (in 1961), I learned a fantastic amount that explains a lot of what I grew up with. My advice: go out, go out NOW, and buy a copy. I finished this and bought 4, to give to friends and to my dad who actually lived through the 50s and was piqued by the book. READ THIS BOOK