The Fifties by David Halberstam Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Fifties
Book Review: A Wonderful Overview of an Underappreciated Decade
Summary: 5 Stars
I first encountered a healthy dose of David Halberstam's prose while in graduate school in the early 1970s when I read the "Best and the Brightest", and I have read a number of his books since. His approach is appealing here, doling out a dollop of contemporary history along with goodly portions of personal character investigation, celebrity coverage, and cultural commentary. Somehow, regardless of the particular subject, his unique and somewhat unorthodox approach seems to work quite well. Here he focuses on what he argues is a pivotal decade in explaining what it is we Americans have become in the half-century Since World War Two. It was in the depths of the seemingly placid fifties that many of the changes to modern society first appeared, from the introduction of mass-produced televisions to the Kefauver congressional hearings, from the gyrating pulses of rock & roll and the controversial and provocative antics of Elvis Presley to the painful and dramatic beginnings of the civil rights movement, it is all here portrayed lovingly, accurately, and with sustained good humor.Halberstam excels at mixing complex subjects with interesting personalities, showing how individuals in the act of being who they are influences the course of events, trends and the course of history. He masterfully guides us through the ways in which the country began to emerge from the shadowy constraints and privations of the wartime years to a new, brighter and more affluent material future with the burgeoning boom of the fifties, chronicling a plethora of ways in which this massive cultural change in circumstances and material means influenced the society itself. It was a time of superficial numbing conformity for many while a time of startling experimentation for others, like the Beats. And everywhere, things seemed to be rapidly changing, from tastes in food, music and entertainment to ways in which people became educated and found useful employment.
Underneath the surface of all this conformity and innovation was a pulsing impetus to change, a curious openness to novelty and difference, to a more abundant and material definition of the good life for the average American. Yet there was also some ugly and negative aspects to the subterranean impulse of American society in the fifties, from Joe McCarthy to the race riots in the South, from our hysterical preoccupation with the "red menace" to our own social intolerances, and the author places these in the context of a decade caught in the divergent currents of two quite oppositional streams of change; from a more monolithic mainstream conservativism to a more open-minded and pluralistic social liberalism on the one hand, and from a small-town and family-oriented orientation to a much more individualistic and urban scheme of existence.
This is a wonderful book, one providing an excellent panoramic perspective of a decade that saw the withering away of the old and more simple America of the first half century to one becoming more progressive, more affluent, and much more pluralistic and open to change. While those of us reading these things may not embrace the notion that most of this is necessarily for the betterment of society or the ultimate progress of mankind, it is hard to quibble with such an eloquent, articulate, and entertaining portrait of America in transition. I highly recommend this book, and hope it is even more widely read. Enjoy!
Book Review: A fascinating time dissected by a skilled author
Summary: 4 Stars
David Halberstram actually contributed a catchphrase to the vernacular, "the best and the brightest," which he used as the title of another book. Not surprisingly for a Pulitzer Prize winner, THE FIFTIES is gracefully written. Not surprising for a man of author Halberstram's reputation, the scholarship displayed is admirable, both in its breadth and in its depth. Any reader with a curiosity about this fascinating decade will finish the book far better informed than at the start. If there is one flaw, it's that the subject is plumbed so comprehensively that just reading this work can, at times, become overwhelming. When it comes to writing, Halberstram is the best and the brightest!Book Review: A great book, but one complaint
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific book - one of my favorites. I echo all the previous comments about Halberstam making history readable. I zipped through the 700+ pages in no time, and I'm sure I'll the book many times over.My only complaint is that he never steps back and views the times as a whole. The book is full of marvelous individual stories about what happened during the 50's, but it never decribes the overall mood of the times. It reminds me of the story about 7 blind men desribing an elephant. Each one investigates a different part (tail, leg, etc) and each winds up with a completely different description of what an elephant looks like, with no one being right. I wish Halberstam had added 2-3 chapters (maybe at the beginning, middle, and end of the decade) to step back and talk about the overall mood. If you didn't know anything about the 50's prior to reading this book, you'd never have any idea it was known as a time of conformity.
Book Review: A great historical work of the Fifties.
Summary: 5 Stars
A great historical work on the Fifties, from pop culture, to politics, to social issues and civil rights. Halberstam tells a great story--like any good journalist would.. He has perhaps many advantages: he was there to cover many of the stories in person. In most instances the reader receives a first hand account of many events.Book Review: A summation of post-WWII totalitarianism
Summary: 5 Stars
There is a great deal of fear in this book. I don't quite know what it is, but the uneasy permutations of everything cruel and sinister since the end of World War II burst forth like a CIA operation to take hold of an impoverished nation. It is a phenominal success. Everything of note is covered, from waste-of-time significance with McDonald's and other numb American industries, to the vicious, self-serving overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala-- everything detailed in this friendly book makes the reader more and more uncomfortible. It stresses the agony people suffered when they chose not to be a stereotype. It states what people were supposed to be, how they were supposed to act, whom they were supposed to emulate and, above all, what it is to be an American. Halberstam does not editorialize. Many people may read this book and come away with a bloated sense of nostalgia for the good old days, but, truth be told, he sets out to explain why the 1950s were the cruelest of decades. Everything was set up and dictated, the popularization of television brainwashes the frightened people on the brink of nuclear desolation, hammer hammer hammer it in because who knows when the darn Ruskies are gonna blow us all to hell? This is a book about fear. It is a book about understanding. It is a jaunt back to the recent past when things were normal and life wasn't worth living unless you were like everyone else. This still persists today. Prom queen/cheerleaders are elected to student council offices to represent the American norm and outsiders kill themselves in drunk driving 'accidents' and pathetic drug overdoses and slashed wrists. The 50s is a landmark. It shows where everything started going seriously wrong. It itemizes the end of the world, regulates all of us to statistics in a grand, laughing old crowd of hedonistic jingoists and keeps an eye on us to make sure we agree with the ruling party. Die, everyone with a different idology; long live freedom in a bleak, I-command-you world of desperate striving. Camelot is the here and now and live in myths because we are mythic and the black knight is roaming, roving out there waiting to infect your brain. These are the ideas inherent in this book. Do not forget to shudder once you close it for the final time.