Forgotten Fifties : America's Decade from the Archives of LOOK Magazine

(Hardback)

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From the pages of Look, the magazine that defined the fifties, comes a photographic portrayal of the dynamic era that sparked a transformation in Americas political and cultural identity. From the Red Scare incited by Joseph McCarthy to the election of John F. Kennedy as president in 1960, the 1950s heralded some of the most striking and clashing aspects of twentieth-century America: the Korean War and I Love Lucy; the Bunny Hop and Brown v. Board of Education; bikinis and UFOs; Disneyland and the polio vaccine; Elvis and Allen Ginsberg; the Invisible Man and Roman Holiday; Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. The evocative images in this volumemany never before publishedchart a contradictory decade, transcending what we have come to know as the age of Ozzie and Harriet. Provocative and endearing, best-selling journalist James Conaways entertaining and highly readable year-by-year survey will resonate with a generation that came of age in the 1950s but also prove compelling to younger audiences who identify with that hopeful yet uneasy epoch.

Reviews

"From the pages and archives of LOOK magazine, a publication that defined the Fifties in images and words, comes this handsome photographic celebration of the complicated, often contradictory era that transformed America's identity through an unprecedented confluence of socio-economics, culture and politics at the end of World War II. With 200 color and black and white photos, it's a chronological museum of memories charting the ups and downs of a nation as it finds its way through the often mixed signals of Ozzie and Harriet and I Love Lucy, John F. Kennedy, James Dean, Disneyland, suburban prosperity, urban slums and other touchstones from an era that wasn't quite as simple as it might seem." -The Media Tourist

"Look Magazine, published between 1937 and 1971 it was known for its large-scale photographs, and was a historic record of the era. The Forgotten Fifties, includes rare images of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Jackie Kennedy, as well as iconic images of the time...[a] handsome photographic celebration of the complicated, often contradictory era...the book is a visual walk down memory lane." -Photo District News

"The Forgotten Fifties reminds us of the high quality of this long defunct publication, as well as an unusually divided decade, marked by financial prosperity for many, but a simmering anger among blacks, women and non-conformist young people that would explode in the 1960s. The book shows how the dominance of advertising-based TV during the 1950s made most of the programming bland and reflective primarily of the white populace that did so well during the post-World War II era. The beautifully designed 235-page book reflects the diversity of LOOK with pictures of TV stars like Milton Berle and Lucille Ball in action, along with haunting images of poor ghetto dwellers and "whites only" restaurants and bathrooms in the South." -CT Post Blog

..".photos taken for Look magazine let you travel back in time considering: Was life easier, harder, or the same for women in the 50s as compared to their modern sisters" -Readers Digest

"From the pages and archives of LOOK magazine, a publication that defined the Fifties...this handsome photographic celebration of the complicated, often contradictory era that transformed America's identity...an era that wasn't quite as simple as it might seem." -American Profile

Author Bio

James Conaway is the author of nine books of nonfiction, among them Memphis Afternoons and Napa: The Story of an American Eden, and several novels, including Nose and The Big Easy. Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University. His books include The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century.