Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford History of the United States) |
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Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford History of the United States)
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by James T. Patterson
Sales Rank: 9804
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List Price: $27.95
$18.45
At Amazon
on 11-27-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 829 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA November 20, 1997
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0195117972
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195117974
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 2.2 inches
Weighs: 3.2 pounds
Product Review
Part of the multivolume Oxford History of the United States, Grand Expectations spotlights the United States at the center of the international stage during the post World War II years. The book opens on country very different from the U.S. of today--racial segregation was law and more than half the nation's farm dwellings had no electricity. With England, Germany, and Japan ravaged by war, the U.S. entered a period of prosperity that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. Though Patterson ends his book with the downfall of Nixon and the beginnings of a troubled economy, he concludes that the U.S. in 1974, "remained one of the most stable societies in the world."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
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 groups?including labor unions, feminists, Native and Hispanic Americans, farm organizations, the poor and the elderly?engaged 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."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
The fascinating difference in Brown history professor James T. Patterson's approach to the twenty years after the end of World War Two is in his daring to approach the subject thematically rather than chronologically, which gives both cause for celebration as well as some moments of frustration. While this excellent, literate, and quite readable book is intended for a general audience as an integral part of the so far impeccable Oxford History of the United States series of monographs, including such notable others as the outstanding recent "Freedom From Fear" by Stanford professor David Kennedy (see my review of it), it is not, in my view, a book for the uninitiated or novice history buff. This much said in way of qualification, I found it to be a wonderful and scholarly book, organized quite usefully and thematically along several critical historical issues unfolding during this time. First, it covers the rise of civil rights consciousness and the subsequent struggle for equality by American minorities; second, it describes in detail the historical phenomenon of the cold war and its concomitant policies and its consequences for Americans in graphic social, economic and political terms; and finally, it explains how the changing demographic composition of the country in both geographic and economic terms changed the nature of economic and political life in America. All of this is seen through the prism of a change of unequalled economic prosperity and growing disparities between the affluent and those the economic engine driving the country left behind. At the end of WWII, many in this country foresaw a time of burgeoning opportunities and unequalled economic, social, and political growth and movement toward the great American society. Moving from a society that was largely still rural, un-electrified, and agrarian, the post-war boom of the late forties and fifties saw a virtual cultural transformation in the country into one largely urban and suburban, affluent, and industrially employed. Indeed, the fifties represent a watershed period in American history, a time of unequalled wealth and new prosperity for a majority of its citizens. Yet the America of this period also had more discouraging and less wholesome aspects to it, and these are described and explained in a thoughtful, erudite, and comprehensive narrative that helps one to better understand how this period in American history made us what we are today. Trudging purposefully through a colorful panorama that makes the incredible journey all the way from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon, this culturally astute, insightful & memorable book covers the waterfront of a tumultuous, fractious, & endlessly exciting period of American history. It is truly a book belonging on every purported 20th century history buff's bookshelf. Enjoy!
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Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford History of the United States)
Available from Amazon
Price: $18.45
Updated on 11-27-2008.
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