Review by New York Times Review
APPROACHING THE MIDPOINT of this goodhearted book, David Goldfield pauses to reflect on the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, who, to Brooklynites, "were less a baseball team than part of the family," whose players "lived scattered about the borough among their fans." It's a vanished world, one in which the Dodgers would soon move to "new houses, new roads, new schools, new infrastructures and new lives" in California. Evoking, and mourning, that world - sometimes with appealing personal stories - helps drive "The Gifted Generation," which Goldfield says is intended as "a compelling brief for government activism on behalf of all Americans." The phrase "gifted generation" refers to the boomers, although with expansive actuarial boundaries. The first wave, born in the 1940s, might have watched the Dodgers in Ebbets Field; they would lead very different lives from those born in the 1950s. Many of these men and women, now well past middle age, were "gifted" in the sense that they benefited from the gifts that were given to their parents, chief among them the G.I. Bill of Rights, an enormous jump-start that provided World War II veterans with the means to go to college, buy a house and join the growing, and comfortable, middle class. "Of the many gifts to the gifted generation," Goldfield writes, "this federal policy was among the finest. It fulfilled both the short-term economic needs of the nation and the long-term educational needs of a transforming economy." This is cheering stuff, a reminder that America, which was already a great nation, became a greater nation when government policies were able to help release the potential of its citizenry. These gifts, though, were by no means universally bestowed. African-Americans got shortchanged by agencies that administered the G.I. Bill; private colleges kept control of their admissions policies; and minorities continued to face exclusion and quotas. (Goldfield's pages are filled with freshly unearthed nuggets, like the fact that in 1951, American Airlines ordered its ticket agents to segregate passengers.) Nor were these gifts guaranteed to last: For instance, in terms of careers and incomes, children no longer do better than their parents, numbers that declined sharply between 1940 and 1980. In these early stages of the Donald Trump era, there's something almost oldfashioned in the notion that government can, and should, work to make life better. If that's an idea whose time has gone, Goldfield points his finger at President Ronald Reagan, who liked to say, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" (Bill Clinton, in his 1996 State of the Union speech, said in Reaganesque style that "the era of big government is over," though he added that "we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were leftto fend for themselves.") The aim of "The Gifted Generation" is to make a reader ask what has been lost, and why. Goldfield, the Robert Lee Bailey professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has a romantic view of three presidents who, apart from having been reared in rural America, could not have been less alike: Harry Truman, a New Deal Democrat, forced (after the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt) to come to terms with postwar America; Dwight D. Eisenhower, Truman's successor, a five-star general and middle-of-theroad Republican, who preserved the status quo; and Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texan, whose presidency promoted antipoverty programs as well as major advances in civil rights and health care, but who was consumed by the divisive Vietnam War. All three, Goldfield believes, moved the government "to extend the pursuit of happiness to a broader population," and all three "perceived that the nation could not be whole until everyone had the opportunity to succeed. They knew from personal experience that government was not only good but also necessary to address society's inequalities." If Reagan Republicans have tried to persuade voters that government was bound to make life more complicated through aggressive regulation, and more expensive through taxation, Goldfield lets Lyndon Johnson offer a rebuttal: "Does government subvert our freedom through the Social Security system?" Johnson asked in a 1964 Saturday Evening Post essay. "Does government undermine our freedom by bringing electricity to the farm, by controlling floods or by ending bank failures?" Having made this argument, and making it repeatedly, Goldfield also embarks on a familiar - perhaps too familiar - tour of landmarks of postwar America:the Kinsey report on women, which "created a storm of controversy"; the theories of Dr. Benjamin Spock, who encouraged parental laissez-faire; the life and times of Betty Friedan, whose influential "The Feminine Mystique" grew out of a questionnaire sent to her 1942 Smith College classmates. (Another nugget: At Smith, Friedan, née Bettye Goldstein, worked on a college play with Nancy Davis, the future Mrs. Reagan.) But did he need to say that Mary Tyler Moore's television program, which debuted in 1970, "reflected a major transformation of public perceptions of women in the popular culture"? If that material makes up another, less interesting book, Goldfield does return to the idea of benevolent governance with Vannevar Bush's argument that "science is a proper concern of government"; he notes that the National Institutes of Health "played a critical role in ensuring that the polio vaccine was ultimately safe and widely available." In a style that often relies on bold assertions, Goldfield is bound to assert some clunkers. For instance, while it's true that Truman, as a senator, attended some of Justice Louis Brandeis's celebrated "teas," and that both were suspicious of Wall Street, the claim that it was "perhaps" Tru- man's "closest friendship" is insupportable, even with the "perhaps" qualifier. When he writes that Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" was "the 20th-century version of 'Huckleberry Finn,' of 'lighting out for the territory,'" one can only wonder why his editor didn't stop him. Nonetheless, the book that Goldfield set out to write, and finally did write, makes its case. You do not have to be Bernie Sanders to be concerned that among the 21 wealthiest nations, the United States "is the only country in which sick days are not required by law." On the other hand, it's not useful to assert that life expectancy in the former East Germany is higher than in the United States. That's true enough, but a closer look at life expectancy statistics in the West suggests that they may not mean very much: for instance, residents of Monaco seem to live longer than anyone (89.4 years); the United States, at 80 years, surpasses Denmark, at 79.5 years. If the boomers' successor generations - from Gen Xers to millennials - have been affected by ebbs and flows of government activism, they've also been affected by enormous shifts in demographics, advances in technology and the growing wealth of nations far from North America. Still, Goldfield is right to point to the risks of government's increasingly recessive role, and to make one worry how it will play out by the time the millennials become grandparents. "The major difference between the time the gifted generation came of age and the present is that the federal government's role as the great umpire, the leveler, has diminished," he writes. That carries with it the suggestion that, without an umpire, a society may be forced to function without the rules that help to guarantee order, fairness and, as the Constitution put it so well, "the general welfare." JEFFREY FRANK'S latest book is "Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage." He is working on a book about Harry Truman - his era and his circle.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 16, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
The title of historian Goldfield's (America Aflame, 2011) latest refers to Americans born between 1940 and 1950, a generation that accrued the benefits (gifts) of a variety of government policies and programs instituted under presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson. According to Goldfield, all three saw the U.S. as a commonwealth in which the government must sometimes intervene to curb unbridled individualism and promote desirable social and economic goals. Of course, this contradicts the mantra of most Republicans: government is the problem, not the solution. Goldfield argues compellingly that wise and dedicated politicians can use the power of the federal government to change and dramatically improve our society. The G.I. Bill helped returning veterans pay for college. Prolabor policies gave industrial workers a chance to join the middle class. Civil-rights legislation opened up vast opportunities for African Americans and women. Goldfield glosses over some of the less salutary consequences of some policies, including the institutionalization of the poor as a protected class and budget-busting entitlements. Still, this work reminds us that government action can be widely beneficial.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Goldfield (America Aflame), professor of history at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, traces the arc of his own baby boomer generation in this solid survey of postwar America. The book's title is somewhat misleading; Goldfield is referring to the privilege of decent governance into which his cohort was born and in which it was raised. He argues that the "first boomers" (those born in the 1940s and early '50s) lived for their early years under a government that worked-and did so on everyone's behalf. This is a traditional history, mostly of public affairs, but it doesn't avoid major social and cultural developments, and it's replete with nicely wrought sketches of well- and lesser-known figures. The book's strengths are its measured tone, lively prose, and comprehensive coverage. Goldfield is not afraid to offer judgments on policies and public figures, writing for example that the Kennedy administration "projected an image based more on appearance than on substance," and, more controversially, that "liberal attacks on the 1965 Moynihan report were a mistake." Seeking evenhandedness, Goldfield is too easy on his own generation. He also omits extended discussion of many topics (such as problems faced by inner cities), and there's no overarching theme. But the book is among the better surveys to emerge of the past six decades. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The U.S. Census Bureau defines baby boomers as those born between 1946 and 1964. Goldfield (history, Univ. North Carolina, Charlotte; America Aflame) challenges this by offering a comprehensive account of the "gifted generation," those born from 1940 through 1952. The author presents a compelling case that these early boomers were beneficiaries of an expansive government and an era of optimism, presided over by Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Bipartisan congressional support led to progressive policies that advanced education, housing, medical care, and civil rights. Goldfield is especially adept at describing how Truman and Eisenhower depended on court appointments and executive orders to circumvent racist Southern Democrats, and how all three presidents governed in an era when supporting the public good was deemed more important than catering to special interests. Ultimately, a declining economy and partisan politics ushered in the "great regression," repressing opportunities for the later boomers and following generations. -VERDICT Drawing on two excellent accounts of presidential civil rights policies: Michael Gardner's Harry Truman and Civil Rights, and David Nichol's A Matter of Justice, Goldfield acknowledges that this is primarily a history of public policy, which includes exhaustive detail. A valuable resource for historians and informed readers.-Karl -Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
For two decades after World War II, government actually strived to provide basic needs and equal opportunity for all Americans.Goldfield (History/Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte; Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History, 2013, etc.) argues that American children born in the "baby boom" generation were uniquely gifted because of federal policies enacted by Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson. These presidents, writes the author, saw government as a beneficial force in American life and demonstrated leadership that "played a major role in moving the government to extend the pursuit of happiness to a broader population." They "believed in the commonwealth ideal of mutual responsibility" among citizens and between citizens and government. Each tried to protect and foster access to education, social services, housing, employment, and health care. Goldfield offers a biographical overview of each leader, emphasizing the family poverty that made them especially sympathetic to those in similar straits. Truman unsuccessfully proposed universal health care; Eisenhower quietly pursued civil rights for African-Americans; Johnson declared war on poverty and envisioned a Great Society. Often, their aims were thwarted by recalcitrant legislators and voters, responses that undermine Goldfield's argument about the efficacy of moral leadership and instead point out endemic racism, sexism, and greed. Although the subtitle is "When Government Was Good," a more accurate subtitle would be, "When Idealistic Leaders Advocated for the Common Good." They surely did not always succeed. The author amasses an overwhelming number of statistics, and he calls upon some voices from the gifted generation, particularly men and women he knew growing up in a multiethnic Brooklyn neighborhood and whose success he attributes to government gifts such as GI mortgages and affordable public colleges. Belief that federal government must work for all Americans eroded with Ronald Reagan and has reached a low point in Donald Trump and his supporters. Goldfield laments the cynicism that pervades politics: "We have lost sight of what good government can do." An American history that serves as a heartfelt plea for a revival of socially responsible leadership. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
