The Fifties
by David Halberstam

I consider this an essential book. I lived throught the 50s. I was 6 years old at the beginning of that decade. The 50s was one of the most important decades of the 20th century. So much came together then that is taken for granted now. Halberstam covers it well. Fast food didn't exist before the 50s. Rock and roll, suburbia, the pill, computers, situation comedies, Castro, space satellites all hapened in the 50s. The chain motels (think Holiday Inn), the civil rights movement (when blacks stopped moving to the back of the bus), the television game show, massive military expenditures, frozen foods, all took form in the 50s. It's a decade portrayed as mild mannered but the social change during that decade formed the rest of the 20th century. Halberstam captures all these threads.

The 50s was the beginning of many things. I have the feeling that we are seeing the beginning of the end of that remarkable chain of events.

You can get used copies at Alibris. You might even check out your local used book store. That's where I got mine.