Book Review - The Fifties by David Halberstam

The Fifties. Ahhh, yes, the images that come to mind. Dwight David Eisenhower presiding over a nation both at peace and enjoying prosperity. Families hard at work and hard at play, pursuing the American Dream. Malt shops and sock hops. How those of us of a certain age (or older) long for those nostalgic days of tranquility and stability!

The Fifties is an exceptionally well written history of the decade that the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist author David Halberstam (The Best and the Brightest, October 1964, The Coldest Winter) considers "...seminal in determining what our nation is today." Halberstam (1934-2007) combines a highly readable historical narrative with insightful social commentary to trace the many complex and controversial people and events which made the sixth decade of the twentieth century so historically important for the United States.

From the unexpected triumph of President Harry Truman over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 election, to the coming to power of Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro at the end of the decade, The Fifties introduces readers to the great historical events of the 1950s, among them: the Korean War, and Truman's controversial firing of General Douglas MacArthur; the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his virulent anti-Communist crusade which came to be known as McCarthyism; Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, Richard Nixon, and the House Un-American Activities Committee; the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, led by Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the countless numbers of citizens whose actions demonstrated that racial segregation was at long last becoming acceptable; the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik (and the space age); and the beginnings of America's race for space with the USSR.

The Fifties also details the many social changes that occurred during the 1950s. Halberstam argues persuasively that, despite its outward tranquility and conservative veneer, the sixth decade of the twentieth century was a time of tremendous social upheaval. He traces the first stirrings of the anti-establishment movement, personified by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and the "Beats," much of whose philosophy and lifestyle came to fruition in the "hippie" culture of the 1960s. Feminism and birth control made giant strides, due to the crusade for social change led by birth control advocates Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick, and the pioneering scientific research of Gregory Pincus in the field of artificial contraception.

During the fifties, the American fast food culture was born, fathered by Dick and Mac McDonald, two small-time California entrepreneurs, and Ray Kroc, the visionary businessman who transformed the McDonalds' San Bernardino restaurant into a worldwide fast-food empire. Holiday Inns, founded during the fifties by Kemmons Wilson, gave Americans more mobility and the freedom to travel inexpensively throughout the country.

Entertainment in the fifties entered a "Golden Age." Television gave Americans such pioneering entertainers as: Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Sid Caesar, and Steve Allen. It also offered us the spectacle of Charles Van Doren and the TV quiz show scandals. The music industry saw rock and roll transformed by the singular actions and talents of the man who was in his time the apotheosis of culture shock: Elvis Presley.

I liked everything about The Fifties. It is a fat, sumptuous book, extraordinarily well written with Halberstam's trademark lively and entertaining narrative style. David Halberstam paints a detailed and colorful portrait of the middle decade of the 20th century. His analyses of the people and events of the 1950s, and his central argument that the fifties paved the way for both the social unrest of the 1960s and the cultural ferment ongoing in America ever since, are logical and persuasive. The Fifties is indeed a fascinating and highly entertaining book, one which I think is Halberstam's best.

NOTE: The subtitle of this review is excerpted from the Billy Joel song We Didn't Start the Fire, words and music by Billy Joel. Copyright © 1989, Maritime Music Co., and Columbia Records.