Grand expectations : the United States, 1945-1974
/ James T. Patterson
- New York : Oxford University Press , 1996.
- xviii, 829 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.
- The Oxford history of the United States ; v. 10 .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 791-802) and index.
Patterson (history, Brown Univ.) successfully puts into context the events of a tumultuous 30-year period in U.S. history. Among the tools he uses to do this are an extensive bibliography and ample footnotes and statistics. His focus is on political events and his emphasis is evenly divided between foreign and domestic issues. The main recurring themes are civil rights (and what Patterson calls "rights consciousness") and the containment of communism. It was a period of prosperity that made this rights revolution possible, even though prosperity failed to enable the United States to impose its values throughout the world. More than a summarizer of headline stories, Patterson is judgmental about all characters and issues but is generally evenhanded in his assessments. His work explains the history of the times of the baby boomer generation and could become the definitive work on the era.