By Aidan Keillor “So Great was the pent-up demand for houses, cars, washing machines, sofas, radios, sinks, and myriad other items large and small that had been unpurchased during the depression and unpurchasable during the war.” (H.W. Brands, American Dreams, p. 70) … Continue reading
Chasing the American Dream by David Ndreca [NOTE: Both the subject and the interviewer switch languages as per convenience, therefore, the transcript has been translated and appropriated.] “Immigrants dreamed the same dreams that immigrants always have–of opportunity in America for … Continue reading
Audio clip from phone interview with Joseph M. Micci Sr. “Oh, we were just watching the frontier and reinforcing the 38th parallel. They were assaulting once in a while and we would have to shoot at them and go back … Continue reading
By: Jordan Forry H.W. Brands devotes three chapters of his book, American Dreams, to the early Cold War era. As the primary purpose of his book appears to be to provide an overview of modern American history in narrative form, … Continue reading
By Kassidy Lesher “Poverty in the 1960’s is invisible and it is new, and both these factors make it more tenacious,” Michael Harrington proclaimed in his groundbreaking study, The Other America (1962), “It is more isolated and politically powerless than … Continue reading
By Patrick Meier My grandfather, Stephen Patrick Meier, participated in the creation of the deadliest weapon of its time. One could say that the Cold War was fought not with guns, but with science and political maneuvering. H.W. Brands focuses on … Continue reading
The Living Room Candidate website, courtesy of the Museum of the Moving Image, has collected televised presidential campaign advertisements from 1952 to the present day. They offer a great window for understanding some key trends in US history since 1945. … Continue reading
H.W. Brands labels his chapter on the 1950s as “The Golden Age of the Middle Class,” but even Brands seems unsure how much to believe in this label. Were the Fifties a “Golden Age,” or a new “Gilded Age,” or … Continue reading