I finish reading this book a few days ago and I thought people in this board (people interested in decades) would really like it.

Summary:

It's about a middle class Jewish family from Long Island, NY and how they lived through the post-war (1945-1990) period and how the times changed them. We have the dad (born 1919) who is a war vet, his wife (born 1922), and then their kids who are three daughters born 1943, 1945, and 1949 and a son born 1956.

Summary with some spoilers:

The story starts off in 1945 and already began to captivate me. What shocked me was that in the 1940s, people were already fretting about the collapse of the American family and loss of family values. The technological changes of the time was also at breakneck speed, even today's technological progress cannot compare. :o

Then we get into the 1950s and things start settling down a bit. Well, not really. The spectre of nuclear war was always on the horizon and made people fearful. McCarthyism was its peak in the early '50s. I think this is what created the conformist mentality in that era. Truman was kicked out for the terrible economy.

The late '50s/early '60s show the earliest hint of rebellion. The kids are teens now, and jump into some of the subcultures of the time like Beatniks. They start wearing tight sweaters and listening to rock 'n roll and going to concerts to dance with black people. They had some real balls!

Then we get into the absolute height of this book, which is the late '60s/early '70s. The anti-Vietnam war protests, the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution, the feminist movement, the Beatles and all the music, the psychidellic movement, and so much more. What a time it must've been to be alive! And what an awful time it must've been to be a parent ;D

The mid-late 1970s is when I felt most emotionally attached to this book, especially since the son came out as gay. The mid-late 1970s feel like when the ideals of 1960s were actually put into practice, and the results were not always clean. The divorce rate was sky high, and all the hippies were addicted to drugs. The 1973 oil crisis put a huge dent in economic confidence, and stagflation ensued. I always thought the 1970s were a lot of fun, but now I see why a lot of people think it's a dark decade. Nostalgia for the 1950s seemed huge back then.

The 1980s is the decade that surprised me the most. Personally, I always felt the 1980s was an overly commercialized and plastic decade, and a huge step backwards culturally. But now I have an appreciation for it as the decade that had to happen after the tumultuous 70s. You had Raegan , televangelist, 12 Step drug programs, the self-help movement, the parental pressure groups censoring music, cheery pop music, and cable television. It was a decade of optimism, healing and recovery, and I can see why people have positive memories associated with the decade. Also, compared to the previous decade, the 1980s felt very homely and familiar. I had underestimated how many things and ideas I take for granted actually started in the 1980s.


That's my summary of the book. I thought it was a great read! I think everyone here interested in decades should give it a read, especially those of who were too young to witness these decades. They're such an important part of our history. 8)

The mid-late 1970s feel like when the ideals of 1960s were actually put into practice, and the results were not always clean. 


Bingo! (I hope you don't mind that I quoted a bit of your spoiler). I have said for years that it seemed to me that  in the late 70s--the Jimmy Carter era one might say--for a brief time it seemed the ideals of the 60s actually came true.  There was no war at long last, there was a certain openness...BUT--here's the kicker---IT SEEMED LIKE NOBODY NOTICED. A lot of people were being hedonistic and going to discos and taking a lot of drugs and the MEANINGFULNESS or SPIRITUALITY that people had sought in the 60s, a VERY IMPORTANT PART of the 60s ethic, started to drain out of it. Then the 80s swooped in like a hungry predator in full force in 1981 on the dot and all that "liberation", so to speak, was gone and not only was all the "meaningfulness" gone, but things swung seriously to the right to boot!. But for a while, as I walked around in the late 70s, it felt very "free", it felt like the "revolution" everybody talked about in the 60s had somehow been won, and I wondered why nobody was paying any attention to it.

Bingo! (I hope you don't mind that I quoted a bit of your spoiler). I have said for years that it seemed to me that  in the late 70s--the Jimmy Carter era one might say--for a brief time it seemed the ideals of the 60s actually came true.  There was no war at long last, there was a certain openness...BUT--here's the kicker---IT SEEMED LIKE NOBODY NOTICED. A lot of people were being hedonistic and going to discos and taking a lot of drugs and the MEANINGFULNESS or SPIRITUALITY that people had sought in the 60s, a VERY IMPORTANT PART of the 60s ethic, started to drain out of it. Then the 80s swooped in like a hungry predator in full force in 1981 on the dot and all that "liberation", so to speak, was gone and not only was all the "meaningfulness" gone, but things swung seriously to the right to boot!. But for a while, as I walked around in the late 70s, it felt very "free", it felt like the "revolution" everybody talked about in the 60s had somehow been won, and I wondered why nobody was paying any attention to it.


Oh, not at all re: quoting the spoilers. I'm happy anyone read that far ;D

On spirituality, that's one aspect of the book I neglected to mention for the sake of brevity.


The kids got into a lot of yogic and Buddhist practices. It looked very in vogue in the '60s. Then the New Age stuff came in the '70s. It changed the trajectory of their lives a lot!

I actually blame the spirituality of the 60s for many things going awry. It's my personal belief but I think people do a lot of irrational things in the name of spirituality. If people had a more rational basis for their 1960s beliefs, then I could have seen the era being more positive and lasting longer. But I know in the 1960s, being an "empiricist" and an "objectivist" was really looked down on, and people looked inwards for answers. :o

I actually blame the spirituality of the 60s for many things going awry. It's my personal belief but I think people do a lot of irrational things in the name of spirituality. If people had a more rational basis for their 1960s beliefs, then I could have seen the era being more positive and lasting longer. But I know in the 1960s, being an "empiricist" and an "objectivist" was really looked down on, and people looked inwards for answers. :o


I only partly agree with you. I am one of those people who firmly believes the answers are within. It wasn't the spirituality of the 60s that was the problem, it was what some people did with it. If you are further interested in that, I highly recommend a book called "Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius" by Gary Lachman. Lachman (under the name Gary Valentine) was the original bass player in Blondie. He gave up music many years ago to write books on esoteric subjects and he's very good at it.