Background to the Fifties

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.