Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (117 page)

Bibliographical Essay

As footnotes in the text suggest, the literature concerning postwar United States history is vast. This brief bibliographical essay mentions only those books that proved most useful to me. It begins by identifying general interpretations of the era as well as sources concerned with various themes and topics: race relations, religion, the economy, and so on. The bibliography then follows the chronological organization of the chapters, referring to books (for articles, see footnotes) that deal with particular time periods and controversies, beginning with the Truman era and concluding with sources on the early 1970s.

General interpretations:
Among the best books that seek to make sense of this era are William Chafe,
The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II
(New York, 1991), an especially well written and well argued survey; John Blum,
Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974
(New York, 1991); John Diggins,
The Proud Decades: America in War and Peace, 1941–1960
(New York, 1988); Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, eds.,
The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order
, 1930–1980 (Princeton, 1989), a collection of articles focusing on labor and politics; Godfrey Hodgson,
America in Our Time
(Garden City, N.Y., 1976); William Leuchtenburg,
In the Shadow ofF.D.R.: From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan
(Ithaca, 1983); Leuchtenburg, A
Troubled Feast: American Society since
1945 (Boston, 1973); Alonzo Hamby,
Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush
(New York, 1992), a book of informed essays on major political figures; Marty Jezer,
The Dark Ages: Life in the United States, 1945–1960
(Boston, 1982), a critical account; William O'Neill,
American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945–1960
(New York, 1986), which presents a very different view from Jezer's; James Sundquist,
Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years
(Washington, 1968), a still useful analysis of public programs; Morris Janowitz,
The Last Half-Century: Societal Change and Politics in America
(Chicago, 1978), which is informative on social trends; Alan Wolfe,
America's Impasse: The Rise and Fall of the Politics of Growth
(New York, 1981); Wolfe, ed.,
America at Century's End
(Berkeley, 1991), an especially strong collection of topical essays on trends since World War II; and Frederick Siegel,
Troubled Journey: From Pearl Harbor to Ronald Reagan
(New York, 1984). Important books offering interpretive surveys of postwar foreign policies are John Gaddis,
Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy
(New York, 1982); Stephen Ambrose,
Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since
1938 (4th rev. ed., New York, 1988); and Daniel Yergin,
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
(New York, 1991).

Thematic Books:
Among these sources are Diane Ravitch,
The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980
(New York, 1983), a balanced treatment of a controversial subject; Charles Silberman,
Crisis in the Classroom: The Remaking of American Education
(New York, 1970); James Baughman,
The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking, and Broadcasting in America Since 1941
(Baltimore, 1992), a brief, careful account; Walter Dean Burnham,
Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics
(New York, 1970); Kathleen Hall Jamieson,
Packaging the Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising (zd
ed., New York, 1992); John Diggins,
The Rise and Fall of the American Left
(New York, 1992), which interprets twentieth-century trends; Thomas Edsall, with Mary Edsall,
Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics
(New York, 1992), which focuses on the years since 1960; Fred Greenstein, ed.,
Leadership in the Modern Presidency
(Cambridge, Mass., 1988), a collection of scholarly essays on presidents; Harvey Levenstein,
Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America
(New York, 1993); Charles Silberman,
Criminal Violence, Criminal Justice
(New York, 1978); and James Wilson,
Thinking About Crime
(rev. ed., New York, 1983).

Some topics have stimulated especially substantial coverage by historians and others. For up-to-date surveys of aspects of
race relations,
see Robert Weisbrot,
Freedom Bound: A History of America's Civil Rights Movement
(New York, 1990); and Harvard Sitkoff,
The Struggle for Black Equality
, 1954–1992 (New York, 1993). Other broadly framed books concerning race include Steven Lawson,
Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944–1969
(New York, 1976); Lawson,
In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics
, 1965–1982 (New York, 1985); August Meier and Elliot Rudwick, CORE: A
Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942–1968
(New York, 1973); Aldon Morris,
The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change
(New York, 1984); Reynolds Farley and Walter Allen,
The Color Line and the Quality of Life in America
(New York, 1987), a valuable survey of socio-economic data; Bart Landry,
The New Black Middle Class
(Berkeley, 1987); and Herbert Hill and James Jones, Jr., eds.,
Race in America: The Struggle for Equality
(Madison, 1993), a collection of scholarly articles focusing on labor, education, and the law. Also David Goldfield,
Black, White, and Southern: Race Relations and Southern Culture, 1940 to the Present
(Baton Rouge, 1990); Manning Marable,
Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America
, 1945–1990 (Jackson, 1991); Walter Jackson,
Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism
, 1938–1987 (Chapel Hill, 1990); and Nicholas Lemann,
The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
(New York, 1991), a well-written book on a key development of the postwar era. Valuable sources on race relations also include the Kerner Commission,
Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
(Washington, 1968); and Kenneth Clark and Talcott Parsons, eds.,
The Negro American
(Boston, 1966), a collection of thoughtful articles. Other, more focused books concerning race relations and civil rights are noted below in the chronologically organized part of this bibliography.

Ethnic relations:
A very intelligent starting point is Richard Polenberg,
One Nation Divisible: Class, Race and Ethnicity in the United States Since
1938 (New York, 1980). Also well done are Jonathan Rieder,
Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism
(Cambridge, Mass., 1985), which focuses on backlash after 1970; Reed Ueda,
Postwar Immigrant America: A Social History
(Boston, 1994), a brief interpretive survey; Ronald Takaki,
Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
(Boston, 1989); Roger Daniels,
Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States Since
1850 (Seattle, 1988); Mario Garcia,
Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity
, 1930–1960 (New Haven, 1989); David Reimers,
Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America
(New York, 1992); Terry Wilson,
Teaching American Indian History
(Washington, 1993), a useful historiographical guide; and Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan,
Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City
(Cambridge, Mass., 1963).

Religion:
A fine collection of essays is Michael Lacey, ed.,
Religion and Twentieth-Century Intellectual Life
(Washington, 1989). It complements a solid survey, Robert Wuthnow,
The Restructuring of American Religion
(Princeton, 1988); and James Davison Hunter,
Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America
(New York, 1991), which stresses the growing importance, especially since 1960, of divisive religious/moral world views in the postwar era. For more specialized accounts, see Paul Boyer,
When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture
(New York, 1992); and William McLoughlin,
Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age
(New York, 1960). A key primary source is Will Herberg,
Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology
(Garden City, N.Y., 1955).

Urban/suburban history:
Among the most helpful books in this area are Kenneth Jackson,
Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States
(New York, 1985), a broad historical survey; Arnold Hirsch,
Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960
(New York, 1983), an excellent monograph; Mark Gelfand, A
Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America
, 1933–1965 (New York, 1975); and two brief but interpretive surveys, Peter Muller,
Contemporary Sub/Urban America
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1981); and Jon Teaford,
The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality
(Baltimore, 1986). An influential critique of urban planning is Jane Jacobs,
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
(New York, 1961). Two brilliant books by Herbert Gans are
The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community
(New York, 1967); and
The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans
(New York, 1962).

Labor:
In addition to coverage in books mentioned above, see Robert Zieger,
American Workers, American Unions
, 1920–1985 (Baltimore, 1986), a fine brief survey. Other relevant sources are Melvyn Dubofsky,
The State and Labor in Modern America
(Chapel Hill, 1994); Christopher Tomlins,
The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, Law, and the Organized Labor Movement in America
, 1880–1960 (New York, 1985); Gary Gerstle,
Working-Class Americanism: The Politics of Labor in an Industrial City, 1914–1960
(New York, 1989), on Woonsocket, R.I.; David Halle,
America's Working Man: Work, Home, and Politics Among Blue-Collar Property-Owners
(Chicago, 1984); William Harris,
The Harder We Run: Black Workers Since the Civil War
(New York, 1982); and Juliet Schor,
The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure
(New York, 1991). See also sources below for women's history.

Economic and business trends:
A good starting point is Frank Levy,
Dollars and Dreams: The Changing American Income Distribution
(New York, 1987), a clear and well-written account of historical trends. Wolfe,
America's Impasse
, noted above, is valuable for its focus on the role of economic growth in American culture and politics. Three books emphasizing economic decline are Bennett Harrison and Barry Blue-stone,
The Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America
(New York, 1990), which is very critical of corporate decisions; David Calleo,
The Imperious Economy
(New York, 1983), which pays considerable attention to international events; and Paul Kennedy,
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000
(New York, 1987), a sweeping interpretation. More specialized sources are Bruce Schulman,
From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South
, 1938–1980 (New York, 1991); David Vogel,
Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of Business in America
(New York, 1989); Robert Collins,
The Business Response to Keynes
, 1929–1964 (New York, 1981); Herbert Stein,
The Fiscal Revolution in America
(Chicago, 1969); Cathie Martin,
Shifting the Burden: The Struggle over Growth and Corporate Taxation
(Chicago, 1991); John Witte,
The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax
(Madison, 1985); and James Wilson, ed.,
The Politics of Regulation
(New York, 1980). John Kenneth Galbraith,
The Affluent Society
(Boston, 1958), is an important contemporary source.

Poverty and welfare:
These subjects have evoked a great deal of writing. Helpful places to begin are Jeffrey Williamson and Peter Lindert,
American Inequality: A Macroeconomic History
(New York, 1980); Sheldon Danziger, Gary Sandefur, and Daniel Weinberg, eds.,
Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change
(Cambridge, Mass., 1994), an authoritative collection of essays by social scientists; Edward Berkowitz,
America's Welfare State from Roosevelt to Reagan
(Baltimore, 1991); and John Schwarz,
America's Hidden Success: A Reassessment of Twenty Years of Public Policy
(New York, 1983). See also James Patterson,
America's Struggle Against Poverty
, 1900–1994 (Cambridge, Mass., 1995); and Margaret Weir, Ann Orloff, and Theda Skocpol, eds.,
The Politics of Social Policy in the United States
(Princeton, 1988). A conservative interpretation of welfare programs is Charles Murray,
Losing Ground: American Social Policy
, 1950–1980 (New York, 1984). A view from the left is Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward,
Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare
(updated ed., New York, 1993). Sources—among many—that deal with inner-city poverty, mainly of African-Americans, include William Julius Wilson,
The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy
(Chicago, 1987); Michael Katz, ed.,
The "Underclass" Debate: Views from History
(Princeton, 1993); and Christopher Jencks,
Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
(Cambridge, Mass., 1992). Other useful books include Carol Stack,
All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community
(New York, 1974); Daniel Moynihan,
Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding: Community Action in the War on Poverty
(New York, 1969); and James Sundquist, ed.,
On Fighting Poverty
(Boston, 1969), a collection of essays by scholars. Michael Harrington,
The Other America: Poverty in the United States
(New York, 1962), did more than any other book to place the problem of poverty on the national agenda in the 1960s.