The Fifties by David Halberstam Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Fifties
Book Review: An entertaining pop-history of the US from Korea to Kennedy
Summary: 4 Stars
Halberstam's Fifties is a highly readable text which uses gossipy personal storytelling to cover a panorama of subjects from Korea and Eisenhower to the Pill and Elvis. The book is an easy read and can be readily broken down by chapters for the tepid browser. Halberstam is annoyingly left-wing in his opinions of personalities (I say this being no right-winger myself). He tends to simplify people into good guys and bad guys, but his knowledge is formidable and his subjects dynamically varient. What strikes a reader like me, born well after the Ike era, is the dynamic nature of that decade. He is particulary good on popular culture and domestic inovations whose effects rage strong today. The Fifties is a fun and informative book!Book Review: An incredible narrative for a truly compelling era
Summary: 5 Stars
This book brought to life one of the most interesting eras in American history. Mr Halberstam has a gift for describing a happening or character in a fashion that leaves little left unanswered. From assuming that the Fifties were an exact copy of TV's "Happy Days",this book opened my eyes to the actual occurrances that, at times, were anything but happy. The chapters on the Korean conflict and the Civil Rights movement in the South were particularly informative.After meeting the author at a discussion/booksigning for his book "Playing for Keeps" I thanked him for his particular ability to bring his readers close the subjects of his books. He has made me more apt to pick up a book rather than turn on my television..
Book Review: Can't be trusted
Summary: 1 Stars
I picked this book up, and read the first few pages, getting to the point where Halberstam mentions the perjury conviction of Alger Hiss. Now, as Herbert L. Packer once wrote in Ex-Communist Witnesses:Four Studies in Fact Finding, the trial proved Hiss's guilt as thoroughly as a legal proceeding can prove anything. And Allen Weinstein, in Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, found even more evidence of Hiss's guilt. For a historian to pretend, as Halberstam does, that there's some doubt about Hiss's guilt, and not give evidence, tells me that he's writing propoganda rather than history. When he adds in gratuitous gay-bashing (Whittaker Chambers was bisexual. What's that got to do with Hiss's guilt or innocence?), I drop the book in disgust. Your mileage may vary.
So read this book if you want, but remember the author is a liar, and don't use it as a reliable source. Check other sources about anything he says, including "The sky is blue," because he isn't honest.
Book Review: Contraceptives to Civil Rights to the Cold War
Summary: 5 Stars
David Halberstam has given us a splendid view of the 1950's from the perspective of the 50's and early 60's - the book is a well written and enjoyable work showing us what happened in this crucial decade.
Halberstam touches on seemingly hundreds of topics that made the news in these years, including some that have long lasting ramifications in American History, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott (initiated by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat despite the segregation law in the city); Margaret Sander, Gifford Pincus, and the race to create "The Pill", and the heating up of the Cold War, in both Moscow (the U-2 flights, for example) & Havana (the Castro overthrow of the Batista regime leading to a Communist stronghold in Latin America). He also touches on such important social events as the rise of Rock and Roll Music (perhaps the reader has heard of one Elvis Aaron Presley?) and film icons such as Marlon Brando and James Dean.
This book is a very valuable work, but be cognizant of the fact that it does not fit these events into an overall American history context - there is very little mention of events prior to 1945, and even less of events after 1960. It is a solid primer on the years 1950-1959, and will pique the readers' interest, thus paving the way to read more specialized studies in the future.
Book Review: Engrossing story about a misunderstood decade
Summary: 5 Stars
Halberstam is at his best in this volume, which is chocked full of famous and "not so famous" stories and anecdotes of the 50's. Beginning with the development of the H-bomb and our cold war fears, Halberstam guides the reader through a fascinating voyage that covers political, social, and economic history. With topics ranging from the development of McDonalds, television, Korea, Eisenhower, the beginnings of feminism, the beats, and so much more, this book opens eyes as to what the 50's were truly like. I highly recommend this book to all who want to look beyond the nostalgia and get to what really happened in what some have called the most interesting decade of the 20th century.