Reviews
"With unassuming virtuosity, James T. Patterson succeeds brilliantly at every turn in Grand Expectations.... His sentences always move swiftly from point to point; meaning is never muddied with partisan rhetoric or academic jargon; and a gift for apt quotation and telling example energizesevery page.... Many of the events that Patterson chronicles are not merely contemporary history, they represent our very lives. A word, a phrase, a place name can be enough to release floods of memory.... One can hardly imagine a better overview of American life during the Cold War, the struggle forcivil rights, and the debacle of Vietnam."--The Washington Post Book World, "James Patterson has provided a tour d'horizon which unusually is also a Tour de force....Grand Expectations is an exceptional achievement. There can be little doubt that the volume will become the standard single text on the period....An epic venture."--The Times Higher EducationSupplement, "Grand Expectations is, above all, the story of the maturing of a nation.... [It] is a careful work of history, a tour de force from the last murmurings of the New Deal through the last mutterings over Watergate."--The Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Patterson's overall achievement is compelling. He has pulled together recent findings in political, social, legal, and economic history while maintaining a strong narrative flow.... While dealing with such a vast array of events, Mr. Patterson consistently manages to produce subtle andsophisticated conclusions. Grand Expectations is a definitive history of post-war America."--The Economist, "James T. Patterson has accomplished a herculean task, bringing off ahistory of the United States and, more or less, the world during thenear-apocalyptic period 1945-1974.... He has written a grand book."--TheWashington Times, "Exceedingly well written narrative. A big book that reads well and explains much. I will assign it in my next class."--Peter Piccillo, Rhode Island College, "Scholars will embrace Grand Expectations for copious footnotes that establish its credentials; readers will glide past those distractions for a trip through postwar American in which change occurred not incrementally but cataclysmically....Patterson's work whispers behind its chronicle ofevents, 'This is the way it was; this is how it happened.'"--Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Mr. Patterson's overall achievement is compelling. He has pulled togetherrecent findings in political, social, legal, and economic history whilemaintaining a strong narrative flow.... While dealing with such a vast array ofevents, Mr. Patterson consistently manages to produce subtle and sophisticatedconclusions. Grand Expectations is a definitive history of post-warAmerica."--The Economist, a superb study of the United States from the Truman presidency, when Americans held unbounded expectations about themselves and their country to the cynicism and division when Nixon resigned ... stimulating and highly enjoyable, James Patterson has provided a tour d'horizon which unusually is also a Tour de force ... Grand Expectations is an exceptional achievement. There can be little doubt that the volume will become the standard single text on the period., "If adopted as the standard college text on this period, Grand Expectations will be bound to affect the reputations of the postwar Presidents. John F. Kennedy...will suffer most, as students innocent of the Kennedy charisma come of age knowing little more of thim that what Petterson tellsthem.... A fair, judicious, and yet decisive synthesis."--The Atlantic Monthly, "To pack so much so judiciously into a single volume is an impressiveachievement, which comports with a series (The Oxford History of the UnitedStates) that boasts such gems as James McPherson's Battle Cry ofFreedom."--Booklist (starred review), "A sweeping, meticulous synthesis of 30 years, from unique prosperity and influence to uncertainty and social fragmentation."--The New York Times Book Review (And Bear in Mind), "Atour de forcefrom the last murmurings of the New Deal through the last mutterings over Watergate."--The Wall Street Journal "Mr. Patterson's overall achievement is compelling."--The Economist "A spirited, sprawling narrative of American life."--The New York Times Book Review "One can hardly imagine a better overview of American life during the Cold War, the struggle for civil rights, and the debacle of Vietnam."--The Washington Post Book World "A magisterial history....A fair, judicious, and yet decisive synthesis."--Atlantic Monthly, "A tour de force from the last murmurings of the New Deal through the last mutterings over Watergate."--The Wall Street Journal "Mr. Patterson's overall achievement is compelling."--The Economist "A spirited, sprawling narrative of American life."--The New York Times Book Review "One can hardly imagine a better overview of American life during the Cold War, the struggle for civil rights, and the debacle of Vietnam."--The Washington Post Book World "A magisterial history....A fair, judicious, and yet decisive synthesis."--Atlantic Monthly, "Patterson successfully puts into context the events of a tumultuous30-year period in U.S. history.... His work explains the history of the times ofthe baby boomer generation and could become the definitive work on theera."--Library Journal, "A spirited, sprawling narrative of American life...from the death ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 to the resignation of President RichardNixon in 1974.... Grand Expectations covers its subject in meticulous detail....Covering enormous ground, Mr. Patterson weaves a narrative that includeseverything from the battle against polio an the meaning of Alfred Kinsey'ssexual studies to the rise of McCarthyism and the struggle for civilrights."--The New York Times Book Review, "A spirited, sprawling narrative of American life...from the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.... Grand Expectations covers its subject in meticulous detail.... Covering enormous ground, Mr. Patterson weaves a narrative thatincludes everything from the battle against polio an the meaning of Alfred Kinsey's sexual studies to the rise of McCarthyism and the struggle for civil rights."--The New York Times Book Review, "A sweeping, meticulous synthesis of 30 years, from unique prosperity andinfluence to uncertainty and social fragmentation."--The New York Times BookReview (And Bear in Mind), "Grand Expectations is, above all, the story of the maturing of anation.... [It] is a careful work of history, a tour de force from the lastmurmurings of the New Deal through the last mutterings over Watergate."--TheWall Street Journal, "With unassuming virtuosity, James T. Patterson succeeds brilliantly atevery turn in Grand Expectations.... His sentences always move swiftly frompoint to point; meaning is never muddied with partisan rhetoric or academicjargon; and a gift for apt quotation and telling example energizes everypage.... Many of the events that Patterson chronicles are not merelycontemporary history, they represent our very lives. A word, a phrase, a placename can be enough to release floods of memory.... One can hardly imagine abetter overview of American life during the Cold War, the struggle for civilrights, and the debacle of Vietnam."--The Washington Post Book World, "In a continuously challenging, stirring history of postwar America, BrownUniversity history professor Patterson charts Americans' ever-widening postwarexpectations about the capacity of the U.S. to create abundance andopportunity.... Bursting with shrewd analyses and fresh assessments of peopleand events (McCarthyism, the Beats, the growth of suburbia, Vietnam, etc.),Patterson's primarily political but also cultural and social history gores bothliberal and conservative sacred cows."--Publishers Weekly, "If adopted as the standard college text on this period, GrandExpectations will be bound to affect the reputations of the postwar Presidents.John F. Kennedy...will suffer most, as students innocent of the Kennedy charismacome of age knowing little more of thim that what Petterson tells them.... Afair, judicious, and yet decisive synthesis."--The Atlantic Monthly, "James T. Patterson has accomplished a herculean task, bringing off a history of the United States and, more or less, the world during the near-apocalyptic period 1945-1974.... He has written a grand book."--The Washington Times
Synopsis
Beginning in 1945, America rocketed through a quarter-century of extraordinary economic growth, experiencing an amazing boom that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. At one point, in the late 1940s, American workers produced 57 percent of the planet's steel, 62 percent of the oil, 80 percent of the automobiles. The U.S. then had three-fourths of the world's gold supplies. English Prime Minister Edward Heath later said that the United States in the post-Warera enjoyed "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." It was a boom that produced a national euphoria, a buoyant time of grand expectations and an unprecedented faith in our government, inour leaders, and in the American dream--an optimistic spirit which would be shaken by events in the '60s and '70s, and particularly by the Vietnam War.Now, in Grand Expectations, James T. Patterson has written a highly readable and balanced work that weaves the major political, cultural, and economic events of the period into a superb portrait of America from 1945 through Watergate. Here is an era teeming with memorable events--from the bloody campaigns in Koreaand the bitterness surrounding McCarthyism to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, to the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Nixon's resignation. Patterson excels at portraying the amazing growthafter World War II--the great building boom epitomized by Levittown (the largest such development in history) and the baby boom (which exploded literally nine months after V-J Day)--as well as the resultant buoyancy of spirit reflected in everything from streamlined toasters, to big, flashy cars, to the soaring, butterfly roof of TWA's airline terminal in New York. And he shows how this upbeat, can-do mood spurred grander and grander expectations as the era progressed.Ofcourse, not all Americans shared in this economic growth, and an important thread running through the book is an informed and gripping depiction of the civil rights movement--from the electrifying Brownv. Board of Education decision, to the violent confrontations in Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma, to the landmark civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965. Patterson also shows how the Vietnam War--which provoked LBJ's growing credibility gap, vast defense spending that dangerously unsettled the economy, and increasingly angry protests--and a growing rights revolution (including demands by women, Hispanics, the poor, Native Americans, and gays) triggered a backlash that widened hiddenrifts in our society, rifts that divided along racial, class, and generational lines. And by Nixon's resignation, we find a national mood in stark contrast to the grand expectations of ten years earlier, one inwhich faith in our leaders and in the attainability of the American dream was greatly shaken.The Oxford History of the United StatesThe Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series inAmerican historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and RichardHofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative., James T. Patterson skilfully weaves together political, social, cultural, and economic history to present a fascinating survey of postwar America., Beginning in 1945, America rocketed through a quarter-century of extraordinary economic growth, experiencing an amazing boom that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. At one point, in the late 1940s, American workers produced 57 percent of the planet's steel, 62 percent of the oil, 80 percent of the automobiles. The U.S. then had three-fourths of the world's gold supplies. English Prime Minister Edward Heath later said that the United States in the post-War era enjoyed "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." It was a boom that produced a national euphoria, a buoyant time of grand expectations and an unprecedented faith in our government, in our leaders, and in the American dream--an optimistic spirit which would be shaken by events in the '60s and '70s, and particularly by the Vietnam War. Now, in Grand Expectations, James T. Patterson has written a highly readable and balanced work that weaves the major political, cultural, and economic events of the period into a superb portrait of America from 1945 through Watergate. Here is an era teeming with memorable events--from the bloody campaigns in Korea and the bitterness surrounding McCarthyism to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, to the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Nixon's resignation. Patterson excels at portraying the amazing growth after World War II--the great building boom epitomized by Levittown (the largest such development in history) and the baby boom (which exploded literally nine months after V-J Day)--as well as the resultant buoyancy of spirit reflected in everything from streamlined toasters, to big, flashy cars, to the soaring, butterfly roof of TWA's airline terminal in New York. And he shows how this upbeat, can-do mood spurred grander and grander expectations as the era progressed. Of course, not all Americans shared in this economic growth, and an important thread running through the book is an informed and gripping depiction of the civil rights movement--from the electrifying Brown v. Board of Education decision, to the violent confrontations in Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma, to the landmark civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965. Patterson also shows how the Vietnam War--which provoked LBJ's growing credibility gap, vast defense spending that dangerously unsettled the economy, and increasingly angry protests--and a growing rights revolution (including demands by women, Hispanics, the poor, Native Americans, and gays) triggered a backlash that widened hidden rifts in our society, rifts that divided along racial, class, and generational lines. And by Nixon's resignation, we find a national mood in stark contrast to the grand expectations of ten years earlier, one in which faith in our leaders and in the attainability of the American dream was becoming shaken. Grand Expectations is the newest volume in the prestigious Oxford History of the United States. The earlier releases were highly acclaimed, and one, Battle Cry of Freedom, was both a New York Times bestseller and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Patterson's volume takes its rightful place beside these distinguished works. It is a brilliant summation of the years that created the America that we know today, a time of setbacks amid unmatched and lasting achievements., Beginning in 1945, America rocketed through a quarter-century of extraordinary economic growth, experiencing an amazing boom that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. At one point, in the late 1940s, American workers produced 57 percent of the planet's steel, 62 percent of the oil, 80 percent of the automobiles. The U.S. then had three-fourths of the world's gold supplies. English Prime Minister Edward Heath later said that the United States in the post-War era enjoyed "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." It was a boom that produced a national euphoria, a buoyant time of grand expectations and an unprecedented faith in our government, in our leaders, and in the American dream--an optimistic spirit which would be shaken by events in the '60s and '70s, and particularly by the Vietnam War. Now, in Grand Expectations , James T. Patterson has written a highly readable and balanced work that weaves the major political, cultural, and economic events of the period into a superb portrait of America from 1945 through Watergate. Here is an era teeming with memorable events--from the bloody campaigns in Korea and the bitterness surrounding McCarthyism to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, to the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Nixon's resignation. Patterson excels at portraying the amazing growth after World War II--the great building boom epitomized by Levittown (the largest such development in history) and the baby boom (which exploded literally nine months after V-J Day)--as well as the resultant buoyancy of spirit reflected in everything from streamlined toasters, to big, flashy cars, to the soaring, butterfly roof of TWA's airline terminal in New York. And he shows how this upbeat, can-do mood spurred grander and grander expectations as the era progressed. Of course, not all Americans shared in this economic growth, and an important thread running through the book is an informed and gripping depiction of the civil rights movement--from the electrifying Brown v. Board of Education decision, to the violent confrontations in Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma, to the landmark civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965. Patterson also shows how the Vietnam War--which provoked LBJ's growing credibility gap, vast defense spending that dangerously unsettled the economy, and increasingly angry protests--and a growing rights revolution (including demands by women, Hispanics, the poor, Native Americans, and gays) triggered a backlash that widened hidden rifts in our society, rifts that divided along racial, class, and generational lines. And by Nixon's resignation, we find a national mood in stark contrast to the grand expectations of ten years earlier, one in which faith in our leaders and in the attainability of the American dream was greatly shaken. The Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative.
