The Way Things Never Were: The Truth About the "Good Old Days"

by Norman H. Finkelstein

It seems like kids are always hearing stories about America in the "good old days." But, in fact, the 1950s and 1960s were not as carefree as they sometimes seem. Through fascinating stories, advertisements, facts and photographs, Norman H. Finkelstein invites people of all generations to decide for themselves. The New York Times Book Review said this book is " useful for inquiring young researchers looking for odd angles and, ideally might even provoke talk between young readers and parents."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Norman H. Finkelstein is the author of eighteen nonfiction books, mainly for young readers. He recently retired as a school librarian for the Brookline (Massachusetts) Public Schools but continues into his 32nd year of teaching history in the Prozdor Department of Hebrew College. Among his writing honors are two National Jewish Book Awards, the Golden Kite Honor Book Award for Nonfiction and a "highly recommended" award from the Boston Author's Club.

His interest in history and biography developed early. "I was the only kid in the sixth grade who regularly read the New York Times," he said. His books reflect an eclectic view of his world. From his love of old-time radio came Sounds in the Air: The Golden Age of Radio and from his fascination with plastics came a social and cultural history called, simple enough, Plastics. He also served as the series editor for the Jewish Publication Society's JPS Guides.

He is married to Rosalind who he calls "my first-line editor". They have three grown children and three grandchildren. Finkelstein lives in Framingham, Massachusetts.

(source)

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of dry. But an interesting surface look at life in the 1950s-1960s. At least now I'll have some ammo when my mom talks about how much better things were when she was young.

[Kalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of date, but fairly interesting comparison of life in the 50s/60s to the 90s. Written for older elementary children, so don’t expect anything too in-depth or groundbreaking. I think it would be interesting to see an updated version.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have been meaning to read this for ages and found it in the library cafe for $2! Nice. I did enjoy it, although at times I found his arguments suspect. Sure, it's lovely that the government has passed some laws protecting our health and the environment, but that doesn't mean everything is sun-shiney and rosy now; there are far more things that have not been addressed that are poisoning us as we speak, and he doesn't address 'big business' and how inextricably linked we now are to giant corporations. I'd be curious to know if he researched things like the change in CEO salary disparity vs. the average worker, etc... And what about the fact that people are often paying 50% of income to housing, that the cost of goods has far outpaced salary increases, and that the poverty level is still based on '60's standards of 3x the very cheapest food budget one can get by on? Who spends 30% of their income on food now? Not when housing costs so much.

I will forgive him for saying that school lunches are now healthier because MARGARINE is available (the HORROR!) because this was written in 1999 when perhaps not everyone knew better. (You all know better, right? Butter is better.)

A bit short for the format, to be honest, and while the sidebar photographs with National Archive information were interesting, they rarely related directly to the text and explored ideas that were never fully fleshed out, which was irritating.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on reading the synopsis of this book, I had anticipated it would focus on addressing common misconceptions of the 1950s/60s and discuss WHY people have these misconceptions--to really dig into the psychology of it all. However, this book is merely a compare/contrast document regarding the lack of availability of resources in the 1950s/60s to the multitude of resources of the 1990s.

Frankly, this book is outdated. (It refers to President George H. W. Bush, just as President George Bush as George W. Bush had yet to be elected when this book was published.) Most of the information in this book I learned in high school.

I would not recommend reading this if you graduated after this book's release date in 1999--you will essentially be rereading your high school U.S. History textbook.

With this being said, I think the information in this book may have been very informative for when it was released in the late 90s, which is why I'm giving it a 2 and not a 1. However, I feel like there were times the writing was dry and that the author occasionally jumped around from topic to topic, which caused points to not be made.

Overall, I found it to be boring. I'm glad it was a short read.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out-dated in both information and style. However, it does show much progress that was made in 50 years of public health and civil rights that are often under attack still. Technological progress on the other hand has sped past the state that it was in 1999 so those sections seem quaint.

[Quinn Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sanitized, patriotic look at American progress since the 40s-60s. A book best suited for older kids. I was expecting something far more serious and in-depth.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book that tells the truth about the "good old days" of the 50s and 60s. The environment was worse, nuclear fallout from the testing was in our food, divorce rate was lower but there were a lot of unhappy women, jobs for women and minorities were limited. The list goes on.

But isn't it great if you can remember your childhood as the best time of your life-- even if you had to walk 5 miles in the snow to school?

[Miri Gifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I associated this too closely with the Stephanie Coontz book with almost the same title, so I think I was expecting too much from it; I actually already knew just about everything in here. For a K-12 student, though, it would be a good companion to their education, and it's interesting to get people's personal perspectives on what it was like to live at that time.

[Salsabrarian]

Compares how life was in the 1950s and 1960s to how things are now and points out that the “good old days†were probably not as good as people remembered. Life today is safer, cleaner, healthier and longer thanks to activism, new technologies, research and discoveries. Not terribly well-written--reads like a listing of events. But it’s interesting to see how far society has come.