"The Fifties" by David Halberstam

David Halberstam's "The Fifties" is a well written book that properly details the transformation that America made during the post World War II era. It also lays the groundwork for the turbulent, yet extremely fascinating time of the 1960's. It talks about how America grew into even more of an industrial powerhouse by outlining the success of entrepreneurs like Ray Kroc and Kemmons Wilson. Kroc was the man who developed McDonald's into a national hamburger chain instead of the small California burger joint that the McDonald's brothers had originally meant to be. Wilson on the other hand was the man who launched the Holiday Inn franchises. The back story of how Wilson decided to build his hotels and what drove him to this decision is a very interesting read. It seems to be a good lead in for the national highway system that was advocated for by the Eisenhower Administration.

Politically Halberstam does write from a left-wing perspective, showing sympathy for people like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Estes Keufaver. On the other hand he was quite critical of people like Joseph McCarthy and Douglas Macarthur. Halberstam shows you a fair amount of detail about the personal lives of many of the people of the era. In my view he goes into too much detail of the office politics of those who worked at Los Alamos, where the atomic and hydrogen bombs were developed, However, some of the more interesting details that were available in the book was how many people who became so successful during the 1950's were taskmasters.

For example Ray Kroc very much liked to control almost every aspect of a franchisee's life. He questioned how someone dressed and wouldn't let them have any facial hair. It was almost in a fascistic way. Halberstam highlighted that Kroc had a real dislike for sitting around with a lot of money. Like so many others he found the chase of the money to be far more worthwhile. The millionaire Croc like so many began to have a real hatred for people like FDR and "The New Dealers" of the era because he felt like programs such as Social Security made America inherently lazy. The hunt for communists and the dealings of the HUAC that gave rise to the political career of a California Quaker Richard M. Nixon is something that I detailed in a previous article on the Jarricos, a family involved in the movie industry who were blacklisted.

Halberstam also takes notice of the huge impact that television and the media had in forming the United States culture. Shows like I Love Lucy told us to light up with sponsors like Phillip Morris. Movies told us it was okay to rebel as we watched Marlon Brando become a mega star on the silver screen. The acceptance and prominence. of flamboyant, homosexual playwright/screenwriters like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote was something that was bound to come to the surface in the coming decade. Finally people could be accepted and honored for their work despite the misgivings of many foolish and uptight critics. The great debate over whether to show interracial couples and couples in leading roles is also discussed. There was fear out there as to whether Desi Arnaz should be cast as Lucy's husband because executives were afraid that people would not be able to understand him.

Literature, things like On the Road by Jack Kerouac are looked upon with affection. "The Beats" like Alan Ginsberg are something that Halberstam praises. The literature of the hippies of the era is something that Halberstam views as something that gives us a very lucent glance into the future of the 1960's. Halberstam does mention the use of drugs by most of these people quite thoroughly, but I don't think he touches enough on the negative effects of their drug use. He almost seems to romanticize the use of what was then pretty much accepted behavior of anything goes. As a matter of personal view the Beat Generation in many ways were just trying to live in a free society, but when your hunt for freedom makes your life untenable and others can no longer stand to be around you then there is a problem.

The overarching theme when it comes to the political attitudes of the nation is correctly labeled as a constant obsession with communism. We began to see the rise of the internationalist wing of both parties as old hat isolationist, conservatives such as Robert Taft were continually passed up for Presidential nominations. Halberstam talks about this transformation and many of the coups that were executed by both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. These coups were usually set up to protect powerful economic interests in places as far apart and different as Greece and Guatemala. Some of these coups and interventionist missions were far more planned out as opposed to others like Vietnam turned out to be in my view. While reading this you can debate whether people like Joseph McCarthy went far enough in his hunt for the Red Menace or who was making the right and wrong decisions strategically in the battle to keep South Korea free. Halberstam covers a lot of fascinating ground in his book and I would highly recommend it no matter what your personal outlook on history is.