Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974. - book reviews

Contemporary Review, Feb, 1997 by Edward Bradbury

We live in an era of enormous books and this latest volume in the 'Oxford History of the United States', weighing in at three pounds or 829 pages is no exception. Ably assisted by various grants, graduate students and ever obliging departmental staff, Professor Patterson has produced a ponderous tome which comes complete with various imprimaturs and nihil obstats from academic colleagues. In the past, reviews came after publication but now the academic style is to publish them along with the book itself. (They remind one of the list of subscribers printed in eighteenth century books. Because the Marquis of Tweedlededum subscribed for a copy one was expected to buy the book.)

Grand Expectations examines the thirty years after the end of the Second World War and the tremendous changes that occurred in American life: the rise to 'superpower' status, the growth of massive American foreign aid, tremendous changes in social relations, Kennedy's mishandling of the Cuban crisis and his disastrous war in Vietnam, the assassination and resignation of presidents, the election of the first Southern president since 1865 and what the author aptly calls the emergence of a loud and belligerent 'rights-conscious culture' in which various 'minorities' (including 'women' despite the fact that they are roughly half the population) fight to gain government hand-outs and media coverage of their assorted 'persecutions'.

All historians in modern America (and many now in Britain) face severe problems caused by the various restraints imposed on what they write. This means that relatively unimportant subjects can receive undue coverage thereby causing the number of pages to swell without adding substantially to historical knowledge. Also, a detached objectivity or views that do not agree with what may be called the 'median outlook' of popular culture have to be abandoned. Any view, if offensive to particular pressure groups at one's university or publishers, has to be ditched. (Liberated ladies are particularly strong in academia, publishing and the media.) These are the realities of modern academic life and of modern publishing and happy is the man who feels no need to transgress any of the rules.

The major touchstone for judging an American historian's balance is his treatment of President Nixon. (How pathetic does the Watergate farce seem when compared with the election 'irregularities' and sexual carryings-on of the Kennedy victory, the vote-rigging and sexual escapades of Lyndon Johnson or the charges of sex related offences, drug abuse and financial corruption levied against the Clintons.) Here this book is remarkably balanced and this is a judgement one would apply to the entire work. Professor Patterson points out how well the vast majority of Americans did between 1945 and 1974 in economic terms. This led most to think that the 'grand expectations' they held in 1945 could be realised. However, like most peoples, Americans were undermined by their own obsessions, the principal of which was a man's 'rights'. The 'rights culture' came to dominate America as the American economy slowed down. Someone had to pay for the vast Federal 'projects' aimed at changing human nature in response to pressure groups who demanded their 'rights'. This resulted in massive bureaucracies and even greater government borrowing. (Only the E.U. can surpass the American Federal bureaucracy for expenditure.)

Having said that, life did change drastically in the period covered by this book - in some cases for the better. However, some of the saddest facts in the book occur in the last footnote of the last chapter. Here the author points out that economic inequality, as measured by the shares of national income held by various groups, did actually decline slightly in the period covered by this book. In other words, the rich received a slightly smaller piece of the pie while the very poor received a slightly larger piece. Since 1974 however things have reverted to the Old pattern: in 1950 the wealthiest twenty per cent of Americans received 42.7 per cent of aggregate income and the poorest received 4.5. In 1990 the percentages were 44.3 and 4.6. To many, especially to us in Britain, this is simply a fact of life but to Americans, who have the most unhistoric view of their country as the fulfilment of a moral vision, this is nothing less than a sign of failure. Perhaps it is.

EDWARD BRADBURY