Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, with a New Preface

by W.T. Lhamon Jr.

Book Overview

W. T. Lhamon 's Deliberate Speed is a cultural history of the 1950s in the United States that directly confronts the typical view of this decade as an arid wasteland. By surveying the artistic terrain of the period--examining works by figures as varied as Miles Davis, Ralph Ellison, Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg, Little Richard, Charlie Parker, Jackson Pollock, Thomas Pynchon, and Ludwig Wittgenstein--Lhamon demonstrates how many of the distinctive...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674008731
• ISBN13: 9780674008731
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This is a great book about 50's America and American Culture

Lhamon has a unique view of the American 1950's. Anyone who is interested in American culture would do well to check out this book. Even if you have not been specifically interested in the 50's before, if you have an interest in the literature, popular music, photography, and pop culture of the last half of the 20th century, you will find the seeds of change lovingly exposed here in "Deliberate Speed."

Revealing the myth that the 60's was the time of change

Lhamon effectively presents a detailed movement from the 50's to reflect the times of change - on all levels. Never before have I read such a concise, informative, and enlightening piece which details this era with an open mind and new perspective. I now have a reason to re-read Ellison. I am sure I will find nuances which previously escaped me. As a solid fiction reader, I found this non-fiction piece definitely worth the read.

Important.

The 1950s. Today conceived as a mish-mash of artificiality -- fake clothes, fake materials, fake faces, fake lives, fake lawns, fake barbecues, fake politics, fake economies -- and of staticism.Lhamon rips asunder the myth of the 1950s and explores how the decade instead provided a turbulent, dynamic foundation for the forces that have shaped present-day.Those who wish to understand the antecedents of contemporary America would do well to start here.