Abstract
Since the war, I think, no decade has left an impression as distinct and separate as did the twenties, thirties or the first half of the forties. The fifties remain in my mind as a blur of many things without obvious features in common apart from the fact that all were symptoms of or reactions to post-war recovery. This was the decade of Suez. Churchill’s senescence, Eden’s valetudinarian government, Soviet invasion of Hungary, Stalin’s death, Malenkov, Kruschev, de-Stalinization, Eisenhower’s Presidency, McCarthyism. There were Nuclear Disarmers, Cold Warriors, Angry Young Men, Kitchen Sink painters, Teddy Boys, U and Non-U. It was the decade of expense accounts, and quick fortunes being made by dubious means. These continued into the sixties.
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© 1978 Stephen Spender
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Spender, S. (1978). Background to the Fifties. In: The Thirties and After. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04237-1_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04237-1_16
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04239-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04237-1
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