The Fifties
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
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By:
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David Halberstam
About this listen
The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; U-2 pilot Gary Francis Powers; Grace Metalious, who wrote Peyton Place; and "Goody" Pincus, who led the team that invented "the pill".
A New York Times best seller
©2012 David Halberstam (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War; ironically, they were the chief advocates for the opposing strategies for winning---and surviving---that harrowing conflict. Both men came to power during World War II, reached their professional peaks during the Cold War's most frightening moments, and fought epic political battles that spanned decades.
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Two outstanding people in the US Government
- By Nina Donnard on 11-05-09
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
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Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right
- Opinionated Columns on American Life
- By: Michael Smerconish
- Narrated by: Michael Smerconish
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
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Opinionated talk show host and columnist Michael Smerconish has been chronicling local, state, and national events for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer for more than 15 years. He has sounded off on topics as diverse as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and what the color of your Christmas lights says about you. In this collection of 100 of his most memorable columns, Smerconish reflects on American political life with his characteristic feistiness.
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All about Smerc and who cares about the victims
- By Mark J. Rosen on 12-10-20
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1959
- The Year Everything Changed
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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Acclaimed national security columnist and noted cultural critic Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed AmericaWhile conventional accounts focus on the 60s as the era of pivotal change that swept the nation, Fred Kaplan argues that it was 1959 that ushered in the wave of tremendous cultural, political, and scientific shifts that would play out in the decades that followed.
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Facinating look at a neglected moment in history
- By James on 05-25-11
By: Fred Kaplan
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Rush Limbaugh
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- By: Zev Chafets
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Do you remember your first time? People tend to remember the moment they first heard The Rush Limbaugh Show on the radio. For Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive.
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Enjoyed it, despite poor narration
- By David on 06-02-10
By: Zev Chafets
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When Everything Changed
- The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
- By: Gail Collins
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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An enthralling blend of oral history and Gail Collins' keen research, this definitive look at 50 years of feminist progress shimmers with the amusing, down-to-earth liberal tone that is this New York Times columnist's trademark.
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The book I have been waiting for!
- By A Teacher on 09-10-10
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The Future Is History
- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
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The author is an international treasure
- By ThreeGems on 10-16-17
By: Masha Gessen
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The Invention of Russia
- From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- By: Arkady Ostrovsky
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
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The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.
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Sad Story of Russia's Abandonment of Liberalism
- By Amazon Customer on 10-03-16
By: Arkady Ostrovsky
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Highly recommend.
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Three Tigers, One Mountain
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There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.
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Not much new here if you are already familiar
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What listeners say about The Fifties
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Calvin Yoskowitz
- 03-13-19
Long, but extraordinary
the narrator and the length make never offer too much energy, but the level of which each topic is explored is truly incredible. Never over-analyzed, each chapter flows and teaches without judgement.
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2 people found this helpful
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- lon S.
- 02-03-22
Boomer53
A great comprehensive evolution of the contribution of the Fifties. Well told and just enough detail to keep it from boredom.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-28-24
coverage of many issues: social, economic, personal and political
liked most of it, setting 50s into long range historical perspective..It lacked consideration of countervailing trends: eg, beat movement, political humor; eg, Lenny Btuce, Mort Sahl, etc,, the importance of TV shows: Sid Caesar, Gleason, Berle, Paar,
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- Harold
- 09-06-21
Just outstanding
Engrossing social, political, and economic narrative popular history. Some is familiar, some not. Beautifully read. I highly recommend this one. A long narrative ride, well worth it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Judy
- 10-11-22
Nifty Fifties
Author Halberstam provides a comprehensive look at a wide range of topics from this most interesting of decades. The political coverage provides insight into events straddling the late 1940s and early 1960s where issues cannot be strictly confined to a single decade. This can be quite a slog, but worth the effort. The inclusion of significant cultural celebrities such as Elvis Presley and Lucille Ball is both entertaining and illuminating, and provides a break from the dense political discussions.
If there is a single glaring flaw in this lengthy treatise, I would say that Halberstam's focus on North America, almost exclusively the United States, provides a somewhat isolated view of a decade that, after all, did occur all around the globe.
Robertson Dean's narration is excellent.
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- Steven Webster
- 09-25-21
A turning point in many ways…
The book is long but worth every minute! The foundation for much of our current country, from Elvis to Cuba, is covered. Well worth a listen.
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2 people found this helpful
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- NK
- 01-15-19
The Fifties
The book is a great summary of various events that occurred during this time with some overlap into earlier and later times. The section on the integration process was very informative and I learned quite a bit about it through this book. As with these books it sparks your interest in topics discussed so that you can jump off into more detailed books of the events. Well worth the time to listen through. Mr. Robertson Dean has a pleasant voice and good tempo. Although 34 hours it was not a chore to get through this audiobook.
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- Matthew Cooper
- 06-10-23
Very nice
Well done narration of this surprising and broad history of the decade by David Halberstam
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- Tom Scheffer
- 09-10-21
One of the best books I've ever read!
I read this book my senior year in high school and loved it! I was thrilled to find it on audible. Prior to reading this book as a kid in the early 90s I thought the 50s were boring and the '60s were the cool decade. While I still think the 60s wete an incredible time period this book will totally open up your eyes to all that was going on in the 50s and illustrate how it was a prelude to the 60s with so many seeds being planted politcally, socially, culturally...
I remember when I finished "The Fifties", close to 30 years ago now, that I couldn't wait for the follow-up. But, it never came. not sure why Habersham never wrote the sixties.
I would encourage anybody who loves history to get this book and get lost in it. I guarantee you will love it!
My only slight criticism is the narrator talks extremely slow. I pumped it up to 1.4 speed and it sounds normal. So, problem solved easily enough.
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- John David
- 11-22-19
An Era's History in Short Stories
Loved this book & learned a lot from it. In his distinctive, reporting as literature, style, Halberstam captures the essence of the era. His chapters are a series of well-paced & well-linked short stories unto themselves that taken together tell a larger tale. Much of the history is familiar, of course, but Halberstam always manages to educate with previously unknown nuggets of knowledge & paints pictures of people, places & times that are powerfully real. The effect is not only a series of "Aha!" moments, but a bigger sense of understanding. From the Cold War, to McDonald's & Holiday Inns, to television, to integration, to sports & beyond, the narrative teaches as it entertains. The reading is virtually perfect. The Fifties feature amazing human achievements, horrible human depravity & more -- much more than I realized before listening to this fine work.
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