Post by Deleted on May 15, 2018 13:48:05 GMT 10
Gah, title character limit. The title of the book is Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle Class Family in Post-war America by Donald Katz.
It's a biography of one (real) family where the father returns from the war and starts a family. The book details the family's journey through the immediate post-war period in America, the conservative family-oriented 1950s, how the family structure gets a little wobbly in the 1960s as the grown kids start participating in the counterculture, sexual revolution, and psychedelic movement, and dealing with the 1970s hangover of trying to find their individual paths in life.
I'm currently in the part of the book set in 1948. It's very fascinating to me how even back then people thought the family unit was under threat, and the push there was for a strong family structure to make America great again. McCarthyism and the Red Scare also started around then which portends how conformist the 1950s are going to be. It's the late 1948 shift
Psychology and mental health was starting to be taken more seriously back then. But there was still a huge stigma attached to the whole idea. The parenting style back then was very authoritarian and unemotional - showing emotion to your child was seen as bad parenting.
Another thing I find interesting is that the family were early adopters of television - in 1947! Neighbours would always come over to watch with them, and the family was stuck all day watching TV. Other than that, I'm just quite fascinated with the record breaking speed with which technology and science developed in the post war era
I don't think we'll ever see progress that fast ever again, at least not in my lifetime.
I'd recommend everyone interested in decades give it a read. It's very enjoyable.
It's a biography of one (real) family where the father returns from the war and starts a family. The book details the family's journey through the immediate post-war period in America, the conservative family-oriented 1950s, how the family structure gets a little wobbly in the 1960s as the grown kids start participating in the counterculture, sexual revolution, and psychedelic movement, and dealing with the 1970s hangover of trying to find their individual paths in life.
I'm currently in the part of the book set in 1948. It's very fascinating to me how even back then people thought the family unit was under threat, and the push there was for a strong family structure to make America great again. McCarthyism and the Red Scare also started around then which portends how conformist the 1950s are going to be. It's the late 1948 shift
Psychology and mental health was starting to be taken more seriously back then. But there was still a huge stigma attached to the whole idea. The parenting style back then was very authoritarian and unemotional - showing emotion to your child was seen as bad parenting.
Another thing I find interesting is that the family were early adopters of television - in 1947! Neighbours would always come over to watch with them, and the family was stuck all day watching TV. Other than that, I'm just quite fascinated with the record breaking speed with which technology and science developed in the post war era
I don't think we'll ever see progress that fast ever again, at least not in my lifetime.I'd recommend everyone interested in decades give it a read. It's very enjoyable.
SharksFan99 likes this
