The Fifties

This vivid New York Times bestseller about 1950s America from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist is “an engrossing sail across a pivotal decade” (Time).

Joe McCarthy. Marilyn Monroe. The H-bomb. Ozzie and Harriet. Elvis. Civil rights. It's undeniable: The fifties were a defining decade for America, complete with sweeping cultural change and political upheaval. This decade is also the focus of David Halberstam's triumphant The Fifties, which stands as an enduring classic and was an instant New York Times bestseller upon its publication. More than a survey of the decade, it is a masterfully woven examination of far-reaching change, from the unexpected popularity of Holiday Inn to the marketing savvy behind McDonald's expansion.

A meditation on the staggering influence of image and rhetoric, The Fifties is vintage Halberstam, who was hailed by the Denver Post as “a lively, graceful writer who makes you . . . understand how much of our time was born in those years.”

“Fascinating. . . . The Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist leaves no stone of the ’50s unturned.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Outstanding. . . . As journalist David Halberstam shows . . . events and key personalities during the ’50s not only made the revolutionary ’60s happen, they were also as full of ground-breaking episodes as any decade in 20th-century American history.” —The Christian Science Monitor

This ebook features an extended biography of David Halberstam.