Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

Grand Expectations is one of the best books on American History that I have read. A very worthy addition to the "Oxford History of the United States" series, it is a judicious account of the fascinating period from the end of WWII to Nixon's resignation in 1974. My only criticism is that the years 1969 -74 were not covered in the same depth and breadth as the earlier years.

Patterson not only deftly illuminates his main cultural theme - the "Grand Expectations" which the American people experienced during this period - but also the curious mixture of supreme self confidence coupled with a nagging insecurity about the "communist menace", and finally, the slow erosion of that confidence following the assassination of the Kennedy's & King, and the debacle of Viet Nam.

Patterson's integration of description and analysis is seamless, his depiction of the events and people is acute, and his notes are a goldmine of sources of further reading.

The book is recommended to anyone with an interest in this 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 Cuban Missile Crisis. He weaves in a wide variety of cultural issues such as religion, noting how it has influenced successive administrations. He ends the period with the downfall of Nixon, who appears throughout the book from his involvement in the House anti-American investigations, to his vice-presidency under Eisenhower to his subsequent presidency. It is a well-rounded account and a wonderful addition to the Oxford History of the United States.

What was most interesting to me was the powerful influence religion had on our society and the conflicts that arose during the Civil Rights movement and the Age of Aquarius. Patterson noted that Americans remained the most devoted church-goers throughout the troublesome 60's. The church became the rallying point of the Civil Rights movement, and also served as the bastion of white supremacy. Such contradictions made for volatile conflicts as each side felt it had the moral upper hand. The seemingly all-pervasive drug culture may have captured the public's imagination, but by and large America remained a nation of social conservatives.

Patterson provides good overviews of the Korean and Vietnam wars, tying them into the ideology of the Cold War. He shows the seamless pattern that ran through these conflicts, as well as other conflicts in which the US found itself embroiled in during its effort to defeat communism. The costly battles left millions of Asians dead and no clear victories, tarnishing the reputation we had achieved after WWII as the champion of democracy. He illustrates how each president from Truman to Nixon tried to avoid these conflicts, but somehow could never shake the "Losing China syndrome."

It is a well-documented book covering a tremendous amount of ground. Patterson steers clear of polemics, opting for a well-balanced assessment of the era. Naturally when one takes on such a broad subject, certain discrepencies do arise, but there are no glaring errors, and the book has a narrative grace that leads the reader effortlessly through the tumultuous events.

The first two volumes of the Oxford History of the United States synthesized recent scholarly research into readable, even exciting narratives, arranged chronologically to tell the story of their periods. For this volume, author Patterson has made the decision to organize his book thematically rather chronologically. In my opinion, this decision was nothing short of a disaster, because the structure ensures that no narrative momentum or continuity is established.

The book reads like a series of monographs. But they are not scholarly monographs, since the sources are exclusively secondary (even when prominent public figures are quoted and the original sources would be child's play to locate). The first two volumes of the series were scholarly works in the form of popular storytelling. What we have here is the opposite -- a rehash in the form of academic research. It doesn't help that Patterson's political discussions rarely go deeper than a Time magazine article.

Compared to Battle Cry of Freedom or The Glorious Cause, this book is a nearly total failure. Still, it's much better than most academic history in that it presents a fair amount of information without shaving the facts into evidence to support some narrow little argument, it totally avoids jargon, and there's no score-settling with academic enemies. So it gets two stars on the basis that it could have been worse -- it could have been like most of the stuff produced by our history departments.

I read Patterson's book in order to improve my general understanding of the period (1945 - 1974) that he describes. Even though I had lived through those years, I realized that my knowledge and understanding of what happened then were somewhat cursory at best. I finished the book somewhat disapppointed. For one thing, even though my knowledge of the era was limited, I easily noticed a number of surprising errors.

In one egregious example, Patterson devotes a page (p. 276) to describe how `On March 1, 1954, the United States tested the world's first hydrogen bomb..'. He goes on to tell us how fallout from this test sickened crewmen on a Japanese fishing boat, and led to a public outcry. However, as he could have learned from an ordinary World Almanac, the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb in 1952, not 1954. The test he describes is actually the notorious Castle Bravo test, which did in fact occur on March 1, 1954. (The use of lithium deuteride fuel in this test led to an unpredicted secondary reaction, which in turn led the bomb to yield 15 megatons rather than the expected 6, thus endangering the Japanese fishermen, etc.)

At another point (p. 669) he preposterously tells us that the phrase `acid test' dates from the mid 1960's and stems from the use of LSD during that time. He would have been well-advised to consult an ordinary dictionary before making this claim - unless, in fact, it is merely a very subtle joke on the reader.

I also noticed his somewhat uncritical description of an April, 1972 bombing attack as `killing an estimated 100,000 North Vietnamese troops' (p. 758). One can only speculate on how many NVA soldiers Patterson thought were wounded in this attack, which must have marked a turning point in the history of warfare.

What I found especially unsettling about this sort of thing was Patterson's claim (p. xii) - a claim I have no reason to doubt - that a number of eminent historians `read every word' of his manuscript. One wonders - didn't any of these historians remember hearing people say `acid test' before the age of LSD? (Subsequently, after whatever fact-checking the publisher found appropriate, the book appeared as Volume X in the Oxford History of the United States, and went on to win the 1997 Bancroft Prize in History.)

So why, given its obvious unreliability with respect to facts, have I given this book four stars instead of one or two. In the first case, I make allowances for the sprawling unmanageability of the period, and of recent times in general. In the second case, the writing is reasonably balanced and judicious - though Patterson seems to be a liberal, he is neither hysterical nor shrilly self-righteous. Thirdly, the author has made a valiant effort to include and integrate coverage of foreign and domestic politics, the economy, social trends, popular and high culture, and so on. Finally, the book is very readable, though not nearly up to the literary level of its predecessor volume in the series, David Kennedy's distinguished Freedom From Fear: The American people in Depression and War, 1929-1945.

I am a junior in high school and my history teacher chose this book as the text for a course in the history of the United States from WWII to Watergate. I found this book very enjoyable and easy to read. "Grand Expectations" dug deep into not only the historical facts, but the cultural vibes of our country and I learned much more than I ever had before about American life. A must-read for anyone fascinated with the second-half our tumultuous century.

This magnificent Oxford History of the United States volume joins earlier OUP volumes, James McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" and David Kennedy's "Freedom From Fear," as exemplary history.These reflect the uncommon standard of excellence that personified their editor, C. Vann Woodward.

Professor Patterson,the author of diverse, acclaimed books on this period, draws on an impressive panoply of sources from which he has crafted a judicious assessment of the period from Truman through Nixon.

I find that he strikes the proper timbre in examining this critical period of great American responsibilities and major domestic and international challenges.

One great strength is his sensitivity to economic and social shifts. Another strength is Patterson's keen insights into the personalities of Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, and Carter, with Ford mentioned in passing.

In 790 pages of narrative, some of my favorite examples of quirky history must be excluded. I particularly regret exclusion of the Ford-Kissinger Mayaquez fiasco, in which 41 marines lost their lives rescuing 38 "hostage"crew members who had been released before the rescue operation commenced.

One problem in writing contemporary history is that new, essential source materials are continually being made available. In a subsequent edition i would hope that Professor Patterson might incorporate insights from:

Fred Emery's "Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon," together with the excellent 3-video "Watergate" shown on The Discovery Channel;

John Lewis Gaddis's "We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History;" and

Jeremy Isaacs' & Taylor Downing's "Cold War: an Illustrated History, 1945-1991," which is a companion book to the superb, 24-episode CNN Cold War series.

I have read the entire oxford history of US and I must admit, this one didn't leave me too satisfied. I absolutely loved the whole series in it's entirety but the writing of this book was simply not up to the level of the others. I found myself wandering more and not getting into the storytelling like the other books. Let's face it, it was one of the most interesting times of our country but this book didn't do it justice. It would be fine if the other books in the series weren't so good but it should be at the same quality level.

What a period to cover, the pace and extent of change is incredible when you look at the critical events between 1945 and 1974. I have read each of the entries in this Oxford History of the United States series and Grand Expectations deals with a fascinating period. The author cannot be blamed for the fact that there is just so much to cover and, as a result, some areas receive less than required attention.

The U.S. was suddenly turbo-charged economically following WW2. Add to that the fact that the country felt it was their destiny to lead the world and you have a combination of runaway materialism and idealized hubris. The prosperity following the war was astonishing: the U.S. possessed 42% of the world's income in the late 1940's and produced half of the manufacturing output with only 7% of the world's population.

Young people were so optimistic that they took on significant debt to fund lifestyles unthinkable in their parent's generation (this actually horrified their parents). Opportunity was everywhere and Americans became famously mobile moving about the country chasing their dreams. In fact, 20% of the population moved every year between the 1940's and 1970's. I myself witnessed this trait when working for an American company in the early 1990's and observed colleagues moving between Los Angeles and New York for a $5,000 raise (I am Canadian and we are far more sedentary).

This era kicked off conspicuous consumption as "stuff" like frozen food, Polaroid cameras, electric clothes dryers, vinyl floors, Styrofoam containers, and televisions became available. Not to mention cars, cars, cars. In 1945, there were 69,500 cars sold, in 1949 sales jumped to 5.1 million. How people lived was influenced by this mobile society with suburban homes designed with the garages on the front rather than in back lane.

Patterson does a great job in the early part of this period covering Truman and Eisenhower. Truman deserves more credit than he receives as president and the author tries to correct that in the book. He exposed me to a different Eisenhower - one who was "more ambitious, crafty, and egotistical than most recognized". Patterson also credits Ike with being the first politician to truly grasp the important of television when most credit Kennedy. I was also surprised by the fact that Ike decreased significantly the armed forces in the 1950's when one expects an ex-General facing the Soviets would be ramping it up. But based on his faith in the nuclear deterrent he actually cut troop levels by 671,000 between 1953 and 1959.

Having read a few histories on the Korean War I found Patterson's work on the topic particularly good. The fluidity and savageness in the first year of the three year war is well covered as is the startlingly high four million civilian deaths the war produced. He does an equally fine job on Vietnam where U.S. troops killed sixteen of the enemy for every one of their casualties. However, body counts were not the way to win this conflict if there ever was one. In the end 11.7 million Americans served during the ten years of the conflict, 2.1 ended up in Vietnam, and 1.6 million saw combat. Of those who fought their average age was 19 compared with 27 in WW2 and the Korean War.

What fascinated me most was how the strong economy impacted society and behavior. Patterson writes, "The majority of Americans, their basic needs more secure, developed ever-larger expectations about life". This led to "rampant commercialization, mindless mass entertainment". Television and advertising exploded. T.S. Eliot wrote at the time that TV is a "medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome."

Patterson points out that the turbulent 1960's disrupted all convention and unsettled the historic societal structure. This disarray influenced almost every facet of daily life. People spoke of rights but seem to have confused that notion with material wants and personal entitlement. It produced a period where trust in institutions was lost, fear of revolution apparent, and nuclear annihilation possible.

Patterson touches on all of the issues from the period one would expect: race and civil rights, sex, Cold War spying, feminism, music, McCarthyism, movies, the pill, Operation Mongoose, the missile crisis, the labor movement, Berlin, the Great Society, Vietnam, and Watergate. But the timeframe and its events are just too broad to detail adequately. He seems to lose steam halfway through the 1960's. However, the book redeems itself in the overall effort, provides insights I had not come across before, and is entertaining and honest. It is both credible for academic research and enjoyable for pleasure reading.

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 coverage on the shifts in political viewpoints and the hope of the nation makes for fascinating reading. Patterson makes an interesting point with his ideas of the United States having Grand Expectations. His conclusions that go through what expectations fell short and what were filled puts the entire time period in a different and interesting perspective. This is a must read for any one interested in post world war 2 history or trying to understand how America arrived at where it is today.