America in the fifties /

Dunar (Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville) provides a very useful, well-written volume that will be of great general use to teachers and students of the modern US. It is part of the publisher's "America in the Twentieth Century" series, which is meant to tackle the main issues of each decade "in a fashion at once readable and scholarly in nature." Like the "Oxford History of the United States" series, the Syracuse series represents a resurgence of narrative tale-telling history that can attract minds and extend teachers' and students' knowledge. Following a chronological coverage of the Truman and Eisenhower years, Dunar focuses on chapters titled "The Tube and the Big Screen," "People of Plenty," and "The Nonconformist Fifties." Though the mid-fifties to mid-sixties may have been a more coherent 10-year period, Dunar respects the structure of even decade divisions while showing that the roots of the sixties were well sprouted before the end of the 1950s. Dunar gives details and context to events that usually get less attention in traditional textbook surveys. A useful compendium of what a person claiming to be knowledgeable about the fifties needs to know. Short bibliographies of recommended supplemental readings; no footnotes. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. J. H. Smith Wake Forest University