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Hardcover Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 Book

ISBN: 019507680X

ISBN13: 9780195076806

Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford History of the United States)

(Part of the Oxford History of the United States (#10) Series and The Oxford History of the United States (#8) Series)

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Format: Hardcover

Condition: Good*

*Best Available: (missing dust jacket)

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Book Overview

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.

Customer Reviews

6 customer ratings | 6 reviews

Rated 5 stars
Very good book of the period

Oxford history of the united states series is one of the best series i have ever read. Not one volume is under four stars and two battle cry of freedom and freedom from fear are five star reads but you have better devote a lot of time to read the series for they are long but well worth it

2Report

Rated 5 stars
Narrative History at its Best

This is a wonderful work of narrative history and a worthy sequel to David Kennedy's brilliant "Freedom from Fear," which covered America in the Great Depression and World War II. Like Kennedy, Patterson tells the tale chronologically, which is really the only way to narrate history. But also like Kennedy, he organizes the narrative around socio-culutural as well as political, economic, and diplomatic developments. And...

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Rated 5 stars
Oxford does it again!

Whenever you pick up an Oxford history of the United States you expect an attention to detail and excellent prose. This book does not disappoint. It covers the salient history during the time period and utilizes the top scholarship to do so. From urban history to social movements in the fifties and sixties this book covers everything. There is some repeating but that is to be expected when writing a book of this size. The...

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Rated 5 stars
A well-balanced overview of America's most troubled era

James Patterson has assembled the most comprehensive survey of contemporary American history. With the Cold War as the backdrop, he guides the reader through a tumultuous period that took in two wars and the Civil Rights movement. He amply describes the nature of these conflicts and the impact they had on American society. The leading figures are brought into focus, as well as the crucial events of the periods such as the...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
Grand Expectations Indeed

Patterson writes about a time in American history when We as Americans hade high hopes for what this country could do. Patterson makes you believe that you were part of tha tmonent in history from his explation of the ecomic boom after the war to the kennedy assination to the fall and failure of the grend expectations set forth by the society eith Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal

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