#370 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday June 6)
Good morning,
Today, after having gone through books of the decades over the past nine weeks, I thought I’d consider books written about each decade and its seminal events.
Every decade, some more than others, is evocative of a time or historical trend. The Thirties and the despair of Depression, the Forties of the war and post-war, existential in its threats of fascism, communism and a possibly dystopian future, the Fifties of the “beat generation,” the massive post-war economic expansion, Levittown, and an imagined suburban bliss, all under the cloud of thermonuclear annihilation. This all led to Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement and the failure of trusted institutions in the Sixties, the Seventies trying to echo back to the carefree Fifties and the excesses, and “greed is good” of the Eighties, the relative calm and American dominance of the Nineties and the September 11 attacks and their aftermath in the aughts.
Here are some book choices on the history of these periods:
THE FORTIES
It’s tough to choose any single book. The Forties were a period of dread and war, emerging into a period of prosperity and hope. On the one hand, the six volumes on World War II by Churchill tell that tale of the war as well as any. There is no shortage of other histories of the war, including Band of Brothers and D Day: June 4, 1944, by Stephen Ambrose, and The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan. To appreciate the twin scourges of National Socialism and Communist totalitarianism during the 20th century, I found the book Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, by Alan Bullock, compelling. And there are the sociological studies of Lewis Mumford and books on the emergence from the war. That said, I’d probably vote for In the Time of the Americans, by David Fromkin as one of the best. The 40s and 50s offered the hope that we could be near “the end of history” (echoed again in the 90s) and could manage the fate of the world for good. A great book of the leadership that navigated this period is The Wise men: Six Friends and the World They Made, by Walter Isaacson.
THE FIFTIES
History of the era, political and social: The Fifties, by David Halberstam. Its short chapters on multitudes of the iconic events and institutions of the decade—Levittown, Disney, McDonalds, etc. It is definitely a great summary of the decade that some will say was blissful ignorance in Ozzie and Harriett suburbs for some, an uneasy integration of society and the fear of nuclear annihilation. For a great biography of Eisenhower, try the two volumes by Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army and President-Elect and Eisenhower: President.
THE SIXTIES
Decades don’t just begin conveniently in a year ending in zero and running for ten years. The 60s were a decade of great turmoil that began, to me, with the assassination of President Kennedy and the arrival of the Beatles in 1963. It continued until 1972 and the end of the Vietnam War. Some might say the real end of the decade of dissolution ended with Watergate and the Nixon resignation in 1974. The women’s movement, Black Power and the world we live in today got its start in the 60s. There are so many books that can describe the 60s—books on the movies and Hollywood, books on politics and international relations.
The Oxford History of the United States volume from 1945-1974, Grand Expectations, by James T. Patterson, is a tome that will tell you all you want to know (and then some) about the era. sometimes think reading what people were thinking and saying is the best way to get a grasp of the era. The 60s: The Story of a Decade, a compilation of “best” stories from The New Yorker, is a great read. For a highbrow review of culture, try Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties. For a good narrative, 1968, by Michael Kaufman. Then there’s October 1964, by James Halberstam, the decade seen through the last year of the Yankees’ dynasty.
A great one-volume biography of JFK and of his generation is the recent JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917‒1956, by Fredeik Logevall. For a history of the Vietnam War and the people who led and misled it, try The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam. For Vietnam, The Things They Carried remains one of the most affecting books.
The 60s were an era of big men with big ideas, whose world view cast a great shadow. JFK, LBJ, MLK and Nixon were larger than life figures, great and flawed. For perhaps the best review of the 60s, albeit slanted toward the story of one man, consider the great biographies. The best treatment of these enigmatic leaders, in my opinion (but amidst a broad palette of commentary), is Joseph Caro’s multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. Steven E. Ambrose and Roger Morris wrote great multi-volume works on Richard Nixon. Richard Reeves and Evan Thomas did great one-volume perspectives, as well. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life, by Marshall Frady, and Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, by Taylor Branch, are good biographies of Dr. King.
Finally, the Kennedy assassination of 1963 changed our world and world view in countless ways. A cottage industry grew around various “theories” that sought to explain it in ways that gave credence to coincidence and created conspiracies where simple explanations were enough. The relentless quest for conspiracy theories to explain events through theoretical patterns and oddities was exhaustively and fascinatingly addressed by the book Case Closed, by Gerald Posner.
THE SEVENTIES
For two different books on the history of the 70’s, from two different perspectives and covering different subject matter, I have two: How We Got Here: The 70’s, by David Frum. Rock Me on the Water: 1974 The, Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics, by Ron Brownstein
Some would say that the 1970s were a decade of relative calm after the tumultuous 60s, Vietnam and the era of Nixon. It was anything but uneventful. The Vietnam War ended. Nixon resigned. Israel saved itself from a near-death experience. For a history of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, I think Restless Giant, by James T. Patterson is a great overview as a part of the Oxford History of America.
And of course, All the President’s Men, by Woodward and Bernstein, tells the story of the seminal event of the early 70s. Also good summaries of the Watergate escapade are The Final Days, by Woodward and Bernstein, and Blind Ambition, by John Dean. And don’t forget American Heiress, by Jeffrey Toobin, a great rendition of the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the SLA and the 70s.
I still think A Time to Heal, by Gerald Ford, encapsulates well the period after the end of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Its title embodies the era, the man, and the policies he pursued. I haven’t yet read the recent Jimmy Carter biography by Jonathan Alter, His Very Best. I’ve heard it’s excellent.
THE EIGHTIES
It’s hard to think of any single book that encapsulates the decade; instead there are many that cover a particular aspect of the decade. The Age of Reagan covers the era well. And The Band Played On provides a history of the health crisis of the latter 20th century. Back to Our Future: How the 80s Explain the World We Live in Now, by David Sirota, is a good overview of pop culture and the growth of the impact of movies, games, and music. The Challenger Disaster: Tragic Space Flight, by Carmen Bredeson is interesting in its commentary on the space race, politics, corporate behavior, and loss, all within the context of a singular event. My vote for a great overview might be one of the biographies or memoirs of the men at the center of foreign policy breakthroughs, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1989 and 1991, respectively—James Baker or Brent Scowcroft. I like The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, and A World Transformed by George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft.
THE NINETIES
In that context, the decade began with an optimistic, triumphalist view of the victory of democracy over oppression, while ending with a clear statement as to the limits of that world view and the impossibility of participating in world affairs without being deeply affected by, and suffering the consequences of, being the “sole superpower.” In between these seminal events were the “soft landing” for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, under the deft hands of George H.W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft, James Baker and others, and the boom years of the Clinton administration. For a good social history of the era: The Nineties: A Book, by Chuck Klosterman. But for some specific seminal events and trends, try The New New Thing, by Michael Lewis, about the rise of Silicon Valley, Columbine, by Dave Cullen, about one of the first headline-grabbing arguments for gun control, and The Run of His Life, The People v. O.J. Simpson, by Jeffrey Toobin. The Clinton Era is the subject of so many books. The Survivor, by John F. Harris, is one of the best. And then there is the masterful Our Man, the biography of Richard Holbrooke, by George Packer.
THE 2000s
Who would have thought, a half century since Watergate, that we would be looking to the same Bob Woodward to chronicle our era? Yet here we are. Woodward does a great job breaking down the events of the 2000s and 2010s, the era of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. For a great overview of the 2000 to 2008 era, Bush at War is a great place to start.
Once one gets past the 90s, we really are too close to the events themselves to really get a decent retrospective historical examination of the era and the events. But there’s a ton coming out all the time.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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