One also thinks of developments in science and technology from the Salk polio vaccine to transistors to the space program that helped make America a world leader. There was certainly a self-conscious yet reasoned examination of American society through social criticism in books like “The Lonely Crowd,” “The Status Seekers,” “The Affluent Society,” “White Collar,” “The Other America” and “The Feminine Mystique.”Īmerica’s cultural reputation was also enhanced through the integration of professional sports, with figures like Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain setting new records. Murrow’s “See It Now,” Jack Paar, “Playhouse 90” and “The Twilight Zone” deserve mention. Jazz continued to thrive and add to America’s renown through Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Benny Goodman.Įven television brought political conventions into people’s homes, while making and unmaking political careers through the Checkers speech and the Kennedy-Nixon debates. This period also saw the rise of folk music, creating international stars like Odetta, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. Certainly, for example, the development of musicals on Broadway and off (Rodgers and Hammerstein, “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story,” “Camelot,” “The Fantasticks”) was as significant as “Bonnie and Clyde.” Then there’s George Balanchine, Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, the building of Lincoln Center and the triumph of Van Cliburn.
David Oshinsky’s erudite review of “The Free World,” by Louis Menand (May 16), points to the bright spots in American life that are often overlooked in histories of the early Cold War.Īs comprehensive as both the book and the review may be, one wonders about the many significant factors that are omitted in Oshinsky’s review, yet also contributed to America’s cultural ascent.
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