1959: The Year Everything Changed

Kaplan makes an excellent case the year 1959 was one, if not ‘the’, turning point for subsequent decades of USA history. The book is clearly an introduction to forces leading up to what happened in 1960 and rest of the decade. Among other things the USA dominant position in international affairs includes much of what happened in 1959. He writes history as literature including insights typically not found in more traditional historians such as Paul Johnson. Johnson’s “Modern Times” hypothesizes that relativity theory spread as a forceful idea effectively permuting subsequent socio-cultural and economic patterns of world history. Johnson’s book covers history from 1919 to 1979 compared to one year for Kaplan. ‘1959’ is essentially only concerned with historical experiences in the USA. The thesis of Kaplan’s book is stated in early pages as “A feeling took hold that the breakdown of barriers in space, speed and time made other barriers ripe for transgressing.” This is directly comparable to the first chapter in Johnson’s book “Modern Times” which articulates events confirming relativity dating from physical measurements made in the critical year 1919. “It was”, Johnson states, “as though the globe had been taken off its axis and cast adrift in a universe which no longer conformed to accustomed standards of measurements.” It was felt there were, therefore, few or perhaps no standards for measuring all human behavior any more. Reading Kaplan (2008) and Johnson (1992) together is not a bad idea though Kaplan is the more current and fluent of the two. Robert, another Kaplan, also writes (“The Coming Anarchy”) from a different piont of view about threats of nation-state disintegration he traces to tribalism and sectarianism. Both of these are consequences, and as well as influences, of events in 1959, 1919 and subsequent worldwide socio-politco-economic changes of every ilk. A common thread in all of these books is technology which, for the curious, leads to reading many other books being published distinctly establishing power of technology to influence everything in human life as well as the environment. While there is much to be gained by reading all three of these books selecting just “1959” supplies a broader discussion of all diverse and complex forces affecting the world today begun in a single year The most important element left out of these books is climate change. Tracing exact influences between climate and socio-politico-economic forces is more complex but are clearly definable vector forces as in corporate drive to capture large segments of earth’s surface for the mineral values. Explicit and elementary actions damaging localities as in eastern USA coal or Peruvian copper mines for example.

I've become fascinated with 'the roots' of the 60's and this was a good addition to my list of references. I don't completely 'get' Howl or Ginsberg, - nor am I a fan of Elvis - but have to be respectful of their influence on culture from then on - this was a great book in the sense that Kaplan is exacting and thorough...I think some of the literary 'breakthroughs' of that time were ignored and that Norman Mailer's influence was exaggerated, but that may be personal preference.

...I am amazed at the events that took place in 1959, but there are also so many similarities in the events that are taking place today! I am enjoying this book about what the country was going through when I was just six years old from an adult perspective. It makes me feel that we will be all right and get through what is happening today, just as our parents did fifty four years ago.I highly recommend reading this book as so much of our countries history has been forgotten and overlooked. The Audible version is very well done.

Very good book about a transitional time in our culture. Who knew? Makes a good gift.

I finished my premed studies, and spent the summer in Germany. I had never thought that it was a pivotal year, but Kaplan mentions so many. Birth control pills; Castro came to power; JFK announced his big campaign; microchip invented; "New Frontier", Motown, Malcolm X, radiotelescopes, Edsel, Toyota all new names; Guggenheim museum opens.So I think I'm now convinced. It WAS a pivotal year.

Given the wealth of things that actually occurred at the end of the 50's, it's too bad that the author spends so much time talking about how what happened in NYC was part of the events that chaged everything. Started out ok, but after awhile, I was tired of reading about the Village and the beatniks. Read David Halberstam's The Fifties. That's a great read about the 50's and how events changed the world.

Mr. Kaplan delved into & skillfully detailed the existing political & cultural forces that were hanging about post WWII& that came into florescence with the younger generation to produce a cultural revolution. Part of this paved the way for political & social reforms that took hold in the 80's & 90's. The core of the matter came out of the 40"s. Good reading.

Well written, fact filled page turner about the great divide in the 20th century . As the tide turns from the 50s into the 60s we see the very beginnings of what we are now living today. A must for baby boomers and history buffs of all ages .

very good

By now I should be used to the narrow American mindset. But in Fred Kaplan case it is especially irritating. Yes we know of their tendency to view the world as if theirs was the only country in it - their local sports event which they call "The World Series" is but a quaint example. However he,the author of "Daydream Believers"( about the Monkeys who formulated the Bush Administration's foreign policy), should have no excuse for that failing.The book's title grabbed me immediately. I was born in 1959 and have wondered why I happened to come into the world at such an uneventful time - unlike my wife whose birth was in '68 (What a year that was!). I have also always enjoy those "freeze frame" histories like "Birth of The Modern", "1492", "1968" and "1876".So, it was with a sense of anticipation that I ordered a book about the year when, apparently (and unbeknown to me in my crib), "everything changed".Kaplan can hold the reader's attention but he presents an account of only the social,technological, artistic and political events in America.Please note my muted praise. We are left to speculate what was happening elsewhere.Yes, there are references of Khruschev, Castro and Mikoyan but if any "non-Americans" are mentioned at all is within the context of how their actions were perceived by Americans.Perhaps I am being too harsh.This is a good book, it's just that the title promised more than the book delivers.

Tout cela s'en en effet passé en 1959, mais ces faits sont épars et, vus d'Europe, d'une très inégale importance. Par ailleurs et contrairement à ce que je supposais, je n'en dégage pas l'idée d'une "année charnière" pour les Etats-Unis comme 1963 (et non 1968, qui n'en fut qu'une conséquence) le fut en France. Bon ouvrage néanmoins pour se rafraîchir la mémoire quand on a connu cette époque.