Fifties | Agenda Bookshop Skip to content
A01=James R. Gaines
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
age of eisenhower
amity shlaes
Author_James R. Gaines
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGH
Category=DNBH
Category=HBJK
Category=HBTB
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
civil rights movement
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
environmentalism
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
feminism
feminist movement
Frank Kameny
frederik logevall
Gerda Lerner
great society
jfk
Jr.
Language_English
Martin Luther King
Medger Evers
nixonland
PA=Available
pioneers
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
reaganland
rick perlstein
roaring sixties
sexual freedom
softlaunch
the fifties
time magazine
William Hitchcok

Fifties

English

By (author): James R. Gaines

An “exciting and enlightening revisionist history” (Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author) that upends the myth of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and celebrates a few solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements, from historian James R. Gaines.

An “enchanting, beautifully written book about heroes and the dark times to which they refused to surrender” (Todd Gitlin, bestselling author of The Sixties). In a series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals—people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts—who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her “in between” sexuality. Through years of hard work and self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories. Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited her for the argument that made sex discrimination unconstitutional, but that was only one of her gifts to the 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a national gay rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book’s unlikeliest pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring’s Rachel Carson and MIT’s preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from their very different perspectives—she is in the living world, he in the theoretical one—converged on the then-heretical idea that our mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster. Their legacy is the environmental movement.

The Fifties is an “inspiration…[and] a reminder of the hard work and personal sacrifice that went into fighting for the constitutional rights of gay people, Blacks, and women, as well as for environmental protection” (The Washington Post). The book carries the powerful message that change begins not in mass movements and new legislation but in the lives of the decentered, often lonely individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with themselves. See more
€18.50
A01=James R. GainesAge Group_Uncategorizedage of eisenhoweramity shlaesAuthor_James R. Gainesautomatic-updateCategory1=Non-FictionCategory=BGHCategory=DNBHCategory=HBJKCategory=HBTBCategory=NHKCategory=NHTBcivil rights movementCOP=United StatesDelivery_Delivery within 10-20 working daysenvironmentalismeq_biography-true-storieseq_historyeq_isMigrated=2eq_non-fictionfeminismfeminist movementFrank Kamenyfrederik logevallGerda Lernergreat societyjfkJr.Language_EnglishMartin Luther KingMedger EversnixonlandPA=AvailablepioneersPrice_€10 to €20PS=Activereaganlandrick perlsteinroaring sixtiessexual freedomsoftlaunchthe fiftiestime magazineWilliam Hitchcok
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
Product Details
  • Weight: 259g
  • Dimensions: 140 x 213mm
  • Publication Date: 16 Mar 2023
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Language: English
  • ISBN13: 9781439101643

About James R. Gaines

James R. Gaines is the former managing editor of Time and the author of several books, including Evening in the Palace of Reason, a study of Johann Sebastian Bach and the early Enlightenment, and For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions. He lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue we'll assume that you are understand this. Learn more
Accept