1957

The Year That Launched the American Future

Eric Burns

In 1957, America turned its back on its earlier self and jumped headlong into the nation it has become today. From Sputnik and the beginning of the space race to Little Richard and the underappreciated influence of rock n’ roll in bringing blacks and whites closer together, to President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Act, which forever changed the landscape, 1957 represents the year when all of the energy and anxiety that had followed the end of World War II exploded. In compelling stories from politics, pop culture, business, and the media, Eric Burns captures the excitement of a headspinning year and the lingering fallout that continues to resonate seven decades later. For baby boomers seeking to relive their formative years or readers seeking a window into midcentury America, 1957 provides a highly readable tour through one of the most fascinating years in American history.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 304 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-5381-3995-0 • Hardback • November 2020 • $27.00 • (£20.95)

978-1-5381-4069-7 • eBook • November 2020 • $25.50 • (£19.95)

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century

1957

The Year That Launched the American Future

Hardback

Summary

In 1957, America turned its back on its earlier self and jumped headlong into the nation it has become today. From Sputnik and the beginning of the space race to Little Richard and the underappreciated influence of rock n’ roll in bringing blacks and whites closer together, to President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Act, which forever changed the landscape, 1957 represents the year when all of the energy and anxiety that had followed the end of World War II exploded. In compelling stories from politics, pop culture, business, and the media, Eric Burns captures the excitement of a headspinning year and the lingering fallout that continues to resonate seven decades later. For baby boomers seeking to relive their formative years or readers seeking a window into midcentury America, 1957 provides a highly readable tour through one of the most fascinating years in American history.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 304 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-5381-3995-0 • Hardback • November 2020 • $27.00 • (£20.95)

978-1-5381-4069-7 • eBook • November 2020 • $25.50 • (£19.95)

Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century

Author

Eric Burns is a former correspondent for NBC News and the Today show. For ten years, he was the host of Fox News Watch, and he won an Emmy for media criticism. He is the author of several books, including 1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar, Infamous Scribblers, The Spirits of America, and The Smoke of the Gods, the latter two of which were named "Best of the Best" by the American Library Association. He resides in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Sputnik

Part One
Chapter One: The Mad Bomber
Chapter Two: The Committee
Chapter Three: From Apalachin to Havana

Part Two
Chapter Four: Highways to Everywhere
Chapter Five: The Design of An Era
Chapter Six: The Vagina in the Grille
Chapter Seven: Highways to Nowhere

Part Three
Chapter Eight: Whites Against Blacks
Chapter Nine: Whites With Blacks

Part Four
Chapter Ten: Moving Stories
Chapter Eleven: The Man Who Believed in God
Chapter Twelve: The Woman Who Believed in Man
Chapter Thirteen: Gang Wars on Broadway
Chapter Fourteen: The Youngest Monster

Part Five
Chapter Fifteen: The Successes of Failure
Chapter Sixteen: Muttnik
Chapter Seventeen: Kaputnik

Epilogue: The Return of the Preacher Man

Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Notes
Index

Reviews

. . . the clear message of [1957] is that the center wasn’t holding. The Western escapism on TV (Gunsmoke) and re-litigation of World War II glories in theaters (The Bridge on the River Kwai) belied emerging ideological fault lines that would widen in the coming decades.Ingeniously, Burns connects chapters about Billy Graham’s 97-day run at New York stadiums with the publication of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, twin milestones for evangelicals and libertarians. . . . Burns’s casual look beneath the surface reveals a host of disintegrations and delayed reckonings, ones that have lasted to this day.

— AIR MAIL

A densely written, fact-packed account of a pivotal period in U.S. history.

— Washington Independent Review of Books

4.5/5 Stars. 1957 offers a candid view of an eventful year in a decade of ups and downs. From mad bombers to mad hatters, the book maintains a consistency of captivating chapters . . . The past is reanimated with a passionate fervor for the masses to enjoy.

— Manhattan Book Review

Eric Burns’ fast-paced cultural history spotlights 1957 – a pivotal year in Eisenhower’s America. Burns connects the dots to show how Sputnik, the Little Rock Nine, the McClellan Committee, Jack Kerouac, Billy Graham, Walter O’Malley, West Side Story, the ‘57 Chevy, rock & roll, and more helped shape modern America.

— Richard Aquila, Professor Emeritus of History, Penn State University, the Behrend College

Features

What the critics are saying about Eric Burns

Someone to Watch Over Me: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Tortured Father Who Shaped Her Life
“Burns’s work is captivating, suspenseful, and heartbreaking; this is how biographies should be written.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
________
1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar
“One of the best nonfiction books of 2015.”
Kirkus Reviews
________
The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco
“Best of the Best, 2007.”
American Library Association
________
The Spirits of America: A Social History of Alcohol
“Best of the Best, 2004.”
American Library Association
________
Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism
“[A] work of genuine historical research, colorful personality, intellectual sophistication, heft, and durable interest.”
James Wolcott, Vanity Fair
________
Broadcast Blues: Dispatches from the Twenty-Year War Between a
Television Reporter and His Medium
“Eric Burns is a man of wit, style, and integrity. So what was he doing in television news? Broadcast Blues tells his story hilariously, poignantly, deftly.”
Richard Schickel

1957

The Year That Launched the American Future

Eric Burns

1957

The Year That Launched the American Future

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