Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Searching... Norwalk Library | Book | 973.92 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Beginning in 1945, America rocketed through a quarter-century of extraordinary economic growth, experiencing an amazing boom that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. At one point, in the late 1940s, American workers produced 57 percent of the planet's steel, 62 percent of the oil, 80 percent of the automobiles. The U.S. then had three-fourths of the world's gold supplies. English Prime Minister Edward Heath later said that the United States in the post-War era enjoyed "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." It was a boom that produced a national euphoria, a buoyant time of grand expectations and an unprecedented faith in our government, in our leaders, and in the American dream--an optimistic spirit which would be shaken by events in the '60s and '70s, and particularly by the Vietnam War.
Now, in Grand Expectations, James T. Patterson has written a magisterial work that weaves the major political, cultural, and economic events of the period into a superb portrait of America from 1945 through Watergate. Here is an era teeming with memorable events--from the bloody campaigns in Korea and the bitterness surrounding McCarthyism to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, to the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Nixon's resignation. Patterson excels at portraying the amazing growth after World War II--the great building boom epitomized by Levittown (the largest such development in history) and the baby boom (which exploded literally nine months after V-J Day)--as well as the resultant buoyancy of spirit reflected in everything from streamlined toasters, to big, flashy cars, to the soaring, butterfly roof of TWA's airline terminal in New York. And he shows how this upbeat, can-do mood spurred grander and grander expectations as the era progressed.
Of course, not all Americans shared in this economic growth, and an important thread running through the book is an informed and gripping depiction of the civil rights movement--from the electrifying Brown v. Board of Education decision, to the violent confrontations in Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma, to the landmark civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965. Patterson also shows how the Vietnam War--which provoked LBJ's growing credibility gap, vast defense spending that dangerously unsettled the economy, and increasingly angry protests--and a growing rights revolution (including demands by women, Hispanics, the poor, Native Americans, and gays) triggered a backlash that widened hidden rifts in our society, rifts that divided along racial, class, and generational lines. And by Nixon's resignation, we find a national mood in stark contrast to the grand expectations of ten years earlier, one in which faith in our leaders and in the attainability of the American dream was greatly shaken.
Grand Expectations is the newest volume in the prestigious Oxford History of the United States. The earlier releases were highly acclaimed, and one, Battle Cry of Freedom, was both a New York Times bestseller and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Patterson's volume takes its rightful place beside these distinguished works. It is a brilliant summation of the years that created the America that we know today, a time of unmatched achievements and devastating tragedies.
Reviews: (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a continuously challenging, stirring history of postwar America, Brown University history professor Patterson charts Americans' ever-widening postwar expectations about the capacity of the U.S. to create abundance and opportunity. Spurred by the civil rights movement's egalitarianism and idealism, many groupsincluding labor unions, feminists, Native and Hispanic Americans, farm organizations, the poor and the elderlyengaged in a ``rights evolution'' that peaked in the mid-1980s amid political backlash, economic stagnation and barriers of class and prejudice. A corollary theme is the souring of the widespread belief that the U.S. had the economic and military means to control the behavior of other nations. Bursting with shrewd analyses and fresh assessments of people and events (McCarthyism, the Beats, the growth of suburbia, Vietnam, etc.), Patterson's primarily political but also cultural and social history gores both liberal and conservative sacred cows. He blames John F. Kennedy's personal approach to foreign affairs for escalating tension with the Soviet Union. And he describes Nixon as ``a very humorless, tightly controlled man'' who set the FBI to destroy the Black Panthers and who ``put in 12- to 16-hour days, in part because he was unable to delegate authority.'' (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Nonjudgmental: whoever can keep that mantle on while writing a history of postwar America--buffeted as it is by partisan interpretations--promises success; to the extent that detached objectivity is approachable, Brown University professor Patterson comes very close here. Three conceptual arches support his narrative bridge between economics, politics, and foreign policy: the rise of rights consciousness, the potency of cold-war consensus on policy debates, and the long-term shift in the country's center of gravity from the Northeast to the South and West. All these aspects figured in the 1964 election; Johnson's victory opened the door to the events of 1965 (the Great Society, the liberalization of immigration rules, Vietnam, fissures in the civil rights movement) that reverberate to the raucous present. On either side of the caesura of 1965, Patterson is equally astute: he deflates the idolatry of Truman a bit; adds to Ike's improving reputation--at least in foreign affairs; and is balanced about Nixon, whose presidency, in retrospect, coincided with the faltering of the economic engine that propelled all the era's "grand expectations." To pack so much so judiciously into a single volume is an impressive achievement, which comports with a series (The Oxford History of the United States) that boasts such gems as James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom (1988) and Stanley Elkins' Age of Federalism (1993). --Gilbert Taylor
Choice Review
With this beautifully written study Patterson (Brown Univ.) has distinguished himself as one of the leading historians of post-WW II US history. Grand Expectations supplies a rich blend of political and social history as well as excellent narrative and insightful analysis. Patterson has treated all of the important events of the period, from the use of the atomic bomb in 1945 to the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. Among the highlights of the book are Patterson's accounts of what motivated the nation's postwar presidents. For example, he found President Kennedy's style of foreign policy determined in part by a need never to be viewed as appearing weak. The book devotes considerable attention to the Vietnam War and the consequences of US involvement. Those consequences, along with other societal factors, resulted in the upheavals of the 1960s and lead Patterson to conclude that the 1968 election was "pivotal" because it changed subsequent elections for decades. Patterson also does a terrific job of surveying and analyzing race relations throughout the period. All levels. A. Yarnell Montana State University
Library Journal Review
Patterson (history, Brown Univ.) successfully puts into context the events of a tumultuous 30-year period in U.S. history. Among the tools he uses to do this are an extensive bibliography and ample footnotes and statistics. His focus is on political events and his emphasis is evenly divided between foreign and domestic issues. The main recurring themes are civil rights (and what Patterson calls "rights consciousness") and the containment of communism. It was a period of prosperity that made this rights revolution possible, even though prosperity failed to enable the United States to impose its values throughout the world. More than a summarizer of headline stories, Patterson is judgmental about all characters and issues but is generally evenhanded in his assessments. His work explains the history of the times of the baby boomer generation and could become the definitive work on the era. Recommended for all collections.Gary Williams, Southeastern Ohio Regional Lib., Caldwell (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.