Audiobook23 hours
The Gifted Generation: When Government Was Good
Written by David Goldfield
Narrated by Mike Chamberlain
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
A sweeping and path-breaking history of the post-World War II decades, during which an activist federal government guided the country toward the first real flowering of the American Dream
In The Gifted Generation, historian David Goldfield examines the generation immediately after World War II and argues that the federal government was instrumental in the great economic, social, and environmental progress of the era. Following the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, the returning vets and their children took the unprecedented economic growth and federal activism to new heights. This generation was led by presidents who believed in the commonwealth ideal: the belief that federal legislation, by encouraging individual opportunity, would result in the betterment of the entire nation. In the years after the war, these presidents created an outpouring of federal legislation that changed how and where people lived, their access to higher education, and their stewardship of the environment. They also spearheaded historic efforts to level the playing field for minorities, women, and immigrants. But this dynamic did not last, and Goldfield shows how the shrinking of the federal government shut subsequent generations off from those gifts.
In The Gifted Generation, historian David Goldfield examines the generation immediately after World War II and argues that the federal government was instrumental in the great economic, social, and environmental progress of the era. Following the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, the returning vets and their children took the unprecedented economic growth and federal activism to new heights. This generation was led by presidents who believed in the commonwealth ideal: the belief that federal legislation, by encouraging individual opportunity, would result in the betterment of the entire nation. In the years after the war, these presidents created an outpouring of federal legislation that changed how and where people lived, their access to higher education, and their stewardship of the environment. They also spearheaded historic efforts to level the playing field for minorities, women, and immigrants. But this dynamic did not last, and Goldfield shows how the shrinking of the federal government shut subsequent generations off from those gifts.
Author
David Goldfield
David Goldfield is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of many works and textbooks on Southern history, including Still Fighting the Civil War, Southern Histories, Black, White and Southern, and Promised Land.
Related to The Gifted Generation
Related audiobooks
Free Enterprise: An American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Visions: The United States 1800-1860 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Nation Without Borders: The United States and Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Reform Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Promised Land: How the Rise of the Middle Class Transformed America, 1929-1968 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nixon's War at Home: The FBI, Leftist Guerrillas, and the Origins of Counterterrorism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Branding of Right-Wing Activism: The News Media and the Tea Party Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Indelible Ink: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ground War: Courts, Commissions, and the Fight over Partisan Gerrymanders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSandra Day O'Connor Explores SCOTUS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chevron Doctrine: Its Rise and Fall, and the Future of the Administrative State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5High Tension: FDR's Battle to Power America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerfecting the Union: National and State Authority in the US Constitution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Endurance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the Great Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Gifted Generation
Rating: 3.3333333333333335 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Did not finish, not because it was that bad (it wasn’t) but because I didn’t feel that I was learning anything from this history of the mid-20th century from the perspective of the (often non-WASP) US whites who benefited from an expansive, helpful government … and then oversaw its erosion into what it is now. I guess that’s appropriate, because it seems like most of us didn’t learn anything from that history, either.