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The Fifties: An Underground History
A bold and original argument that upends the myth of the Fifties as a decade of conformity to celebrate the solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements, from historian James R. Gaines.
In a fascinating and beautifully written series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals—people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts—who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet the legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her “in between” sexuality. Through years of hard work and self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories. Ruth Bader Ginsberg credited her for the argument that made sex discrimination illegal, but that was only one of her gifts to 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a national gay-rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book’s unlikeliest pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring ’s Rachel Carson and MIT’s preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from their very different perspectives—she in the living world, he in the theoretical one—converged on the then-heretical idea that our mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster. Their legacy is the environmental movement.
The Fifties is a dazzling and provocative work of history that transforms our understanding of a seemingly staid decade and honors the pioneers of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmentalism. The book carries the powerful message that change actually begins not in mass movements and new legislation but in the lives of de-centered, often lonely individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with themselves.
In a fascinating and beautifully written series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals—people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts—who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet the legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her “in between” sexuality. Through years of hard work and self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories. Ruth Bader Ginsberg credited her for the argument that made sex discrimination illegal, but that was only one of her gifts to 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a national gay-rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book’s unlikeliest pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring ’s Rachel Carson and MIT’s preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from their very different perspectives—she in the living world, he in the theoretical one—converged on the then-heretical idea that our mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster. Their legacy is the environmental movement.
The Fifties is a dazzling and provocative work of history that transforms our understanding of a seemingly staid decade and honors the pioneers of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmentalism. The book carries the powerful message that change actually begins not in mass movements and new legislation but in the lives of de-centered, often lonely individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with themselves.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published February 8, 2022
46 people are currently reading
839 people want to read
About the author
James R. Gaines
20 books18 followersJames R. Gaines is an American journalist, author, and international publishing consultant who is best known as a magazine editor. He was the chief editor of Time, Life, and People magazines between 1987 and 1996 and subsequently the corporate editor of Time Inc.
Gaines is a graduate of the McBurney School in New York City and the University of Michigan. His career in magazine journalism started at the Saturday Review, followed by Newsweek and People, where he was named managing editor in 1987. He was both managing editor and publisher of Life, the first time that one person held both the chief editorial and publishing jobs at a Time-Life magazine. His reinvention of Life as a weekly news magazine for the first Persian Gulf War won widespread acclaim and led to his appointment to the editorship of Time, making him the first person ever to run three Time-Life magazines. All three won important journalistic awards during his tenure and undertook important extensions: a television show and books program at People, network specials and custom publishing at Life, and at Time a classroom edition called Time for Kids and Time Online. In his first assignment as a publishing consultant, he founded a brand extension in the men’s luxury category for American Express Publishing titled Travel & Leisure/Golf. Based in Paris, he has since advised publishers in Europe and the Middle East as well as the United States. He has four children, three of which reside with him in Paris.
Gaines is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Historical Association, the Society of Eighteenth Century Historians, the Overseas Press Club, and the International Federation of the Periodical Press.
Gaines is a graduate of the McBurney School in New York City and the University of Michigan. His career in magazine journalism started at the Saturday Review, followed by Newsweek and People, where he was named managing editor in 1987. He was both managing editor and publisher of Life, the first time that one person held both the chief editorial and publishing jobs at a Time-Life magazine. His reinvention of Life as a weekly news magazine for the first Persian Gulf War won widespread acclaim and led to his appointment to the editorship of Time, making him the first person ever to run three Time-Life magazines. All three won important journalistic awards during his tenure and undertook important extensions: a television show and books program at People, network specials and custom publishing at Life, and at Time a classroom edition called Time for Kids and Time Online. In his first assignment as a publishing consultant, he founded a brand extension in the men’s luxury category for American Express Publishing titled Travel & Leisure/Golf. Based in Paris, he has since advised publishers in Europe and the Middle East as well as the United States. He has four children, three of which reside with him in Paris.
Gaines is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Historical Association, the Society of Eighteenth Century Historians, the Overseas Press Club, and the International Federation of the Periodical Press.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
March 19, 2022
3.5 stars. Someone working in the publishing industry certainly has a knack for marketing because, like a number of nonfiction books I've read recently, The Fifties: An Underground History is not what it purports to be. The subtitle is misleading. Like other readers, I assumed James R. Gaines's book would shine a light on activists and rebels of the 1950s who heretofore have gone unnoticed and unsung. I thought I'd be getting social history about nonconformists.
Instead, The Fifties is really just an excuse for the author to cobble together mini biographies of seminal figures behind various fifties movements such as Harry Hay, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Rachel Carson. Gaines offers nothing new here for anyone familiar with these luminaries, and the book itself doesn't genuinely fasten itself the 1950s and its rigid ethos of conformity, consumerism, empire building, and white supremacy. Read this book if you want to but be aware of what you're truly getting.
Instead, The Fifties is really just an excuse for the author to cobble together mini biographies of seminal figures behind various fifties movements such as Harry Hay, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Rachel Carson. Gaines offers nothing new here for anyone familiar with these luminaries, and the book itself doesn't genuinely fasten itself the 1950s and its rigid ethos of conformity, consumerism, empire building, and white supremacy. Read this book if you want to but be aware of what you're truly getting.
October 31, 2021
This book covers the quiet rise of the gay, civil rights, women’s and environmental movement during the 1950sin the United States. Most people recognize these are really surfacing in the 1960s, but their origins began in the 1950s. The author covers primarily the life for four people who each had an influence on each of the topics. It is well written and an engaging read. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the early development of any or all of these topics.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and my nonfiction book review blog.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and my nonfiction book review blog.
March 26, 2022
I loved this book. I appreciated how it was both narrow in scope, in the sense that it focused on only four key movements (gay rights, Civil Rights, women's rights, and environmental justice) but somehow, at the same time, provided a broad understanding of how these movements had their origins in the fifties, a time most people perceive as filled with bland conformity. What Gaines does is present a compelling picture of how the explosive upheavals and changes of the sixties would not have been possible without the courage of people who set the stage. Their courage and their stories are a testament to what is the best of America.
October 11, 2022
This is not a book about the underground culture of the 1950s. It is a book about heroes, mostly people forgotten by history who experienced a dissonance in their lives and were moved to take action. You could call them society's misfits. They were marginalized and denied many of the benefits of American citizenship.
Homosexuality during the 50s was not only underground, it was fair game for police harassment, entrapment, and blackmail. Harry Hay, feeling wounded and estranged, organized a group to challenge the status quo. Pauli Murray, a young Black woman experiencing gender dysphoria, was determined to make her way in a racist, male world against implacable odds. African American army veteran Isaac Woodard, returning home to South Carolina from service during World War II, was greeted by violence too terrible to imagine. The civil rights struggle had barely begun. And finally, Rachel Carson, who loved nature, sounded the alarm against poisoning of the environment through human arrogance and the desire for profit. In some quarters she was ridiculed as a female hysteric. She carried on.
Much of the subject matter was grim. I revere the courage and grit displayed by these individuals.
Homosexuality during the 50s was not only underground, it was fair game for police harassment, entrapment, and blackmail. Harry Hay, feeling wounded and estranged, organized a group to challenge the status quo. Pauli Murray, a young Black woman experiencing gender dysphoria, was determined to make her way in a racist, male world against implacable odds. African American army veteran Isaac Woodard, returning home to South Carolina from service during World War II, was greeted by violence too terrible to imagine. The civil rights struggle had barely begun. And finally, Rachel Carson, who loved nature, sounded the alarm against poisoning of the environment through human arrogance and the desire for profit. In some quarters she was ridiculed as a female hysteric. She carried on.
Much of the subject matter was grim. I revere the courage and grit displayed by these individuals.
September 17, 2022
This short (a little over 200 pages) book is a very useful and powerful study of the "long history" of a number of movements that, to many, seeming burst out of thin air in the 1960's: the gay rights, feminist, black civil rights, and ecology movements. In tracing their roots back into the 1950's and 1940's, the author makes a strong case for the idea that the streams of social change begin as small rivulets that often go largely unnoticed. In examining the early manifestations of these four movements, Gaines shines the spotlight on a number of important individuals, some of them relatively well-known, others pretty obscure. The book's first section focuses on the work of Harry Hay and Frank Kameny to establish the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization. In the area of women's rights activism, the book highlights the work of Pauli Murray and Fanny Lou Hamer (who was also a key figure in the post-World War II civil rights movement). Gaines's take on the post-war civil rights movement is that it was largely driven by black World War II veterans, some of whom were not completely on board with the Gandhian non-violent approach to activism. The sad case of the blinding of veteran Isaac Woodard was a turning point in the movement, as his tragedy motivated Harry Truman to begin to push for changes at the federal level. Not surprisingly, veteran Medgar Evers is featured prominently in this part of the book. The final section of the book, which discusses the early ecology movement, focuses on the efforts of one well-known figure- Rachel Carson- and a man whom I had never heard of before- Norbert Wiener- who had a PhD from Harvard by the time he was 19 years old. This last section of the book was the most disturbing, as it recounted the experiments that the American government was doing in the 1950's to measure the effects of radiation on the human body. The subjects of the experiment, who were never told what they were being subjected to, included poor pregnant women, children with Downs Syndrome at a Massachusetts facility, an entire African-American neighborhood in St. Louis where radioactive mist was sprayed, and a number of patients at Rochester's Strong Hospital (where my children were born!). I was ashamed to admit to myself that I had never heard of these horrible experiments that the government carried out on its own citizens, and so soon after putting Germans and Japanese scientists on trial for similar activities during the recent war. The reason that I could not give this book a five-star rating is because of a ghastly factual error in the section on civil rights, where the author wrote that the killers of Emmett Till were never indicted. Holy cow, yes they were, and the tragedy was magnified when the all-white jury acquitted them! Paradoxically, the author accurately recounts that the killers confessed to the crime to a magazine writer because they knew that they were protected from "double jeopardy." How one would be protected from double jeopardy without first being put on trial is never explained. Nevertheless, this one, albeit pretty significant, error does not detract too much from the overall quality of the book. It belongs on the book shelf with other studies of the social history of the 1950's.
July 9, 2022
Loosely connected biographies drawn together to make compelling arguments about the significant progressive work that was happening in the 1950s to promote gay rights, anti-racism, feminism, and environmental justice.
The portraits are rendered thoughtfully, and, while grounded in the fifties, do tell compelling life stories. The author include is particularly interested in martyrs whose primary work took place in the long 50s.
While many events in the book were at least somewhat familiar to me, the characters and their specific contributions were new. The work compels me to go deeper and read some of the seminal work from the period, particularly by Pauli Murray, Rachel Carson and Norbert Weiner.
The portraits are rendered thoughtfully, and, while grounded in the fifties, do tell compelling life stories. The author include is particularly interested in martyrs whose primary work took place in the long 50s.
While many events in the book were at least somewhat familiar to me, the characters and their specific contributions were new. The work compels me to go deeper and read some of the seminal work from the period, particularly by Pauli Murray, Rachel Carson and Norbert Weiner.
June 21, 2022
A good but not great look at some of the seed of movements usually associated with the 60's. I learned some new information and that all you can ask for a book of this time.
This was just okay for me. The writing style was utilitarian at best and wasn't that engaging so while I learned things it just wasn't fun to read. A decent book for its type but definitely not one you recommend.
This was just okay for me. The writing style was utilitarian at best and wasn't that engaging so while I learned things it just wasn't fun to read. A decent book for its type but definitely not one you recommend.
March 16, 2022
3.5 stars. I really wanted this to dive deeper than it did. While I appreciated the topics it hit upon (Civil Rights, LGBTQ+ issues, climate change studies), I really would’ve liked MORE and maybe an analysis of why some of these topics were addressed in this decade.
June 23, 2022
A eye opener for seeing what people gone thru for Civil
Rights. Showed how people stood up against discrimination and how some people were injured for life or even losing their life. They fought for what they believed regardless of the outcome. They wanted change and I see
rights movement still going on today after all these years.
Rights. Showed how people stood up against discrimination and how some people were injured for life or even losing their life. They fought for what they believed regardless of the outcome. They wanted change and I see
rights movement still going on today after all these years.
February 25, 2022
Not a good book to understand the 1950's.
April 28, 2022
I don't know about "underground", really. But this was pretty good nonetheless.
February 26, 2022
I was intrigued by this book because having been born in the early 1960's, I have always been interested in the 1950's. I have read David Halberstam's book on this decade and enjoyed it but this book has me look at all I have learned in a new light. Gaines shines a spotlight on historical leaders who were marginalized in society yet through their courage, activism and persistence created and inspired social justice movements. Some of the unsung heroes highlighted in this book include: Harry Hay, Frank Kameny, Pauli Murray, Fannie Lou Hamer, Gerda Lerner, Rachel Carson and Norbert Weiner among others. This book is an important read to understand how change really happens in society. I found this book incredibly inspiring -- as an individual, we can have a tremendous impact in the world. I highly recommend this book.
January 22, 2023
A book no one needs.
February 12, 2025
THEY FOUGHT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE 1950S
We look upon the 1950s as a decade of conformity when little of consequence happened in the United States. But sweeping generalizations about any period in history are misleading at best, and none more so than about the Fifties. Because the period from the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 to the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in January 1961 was in fact a tumultuous time. The three-year “police action” in Korea, for starters, The Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ brinkmanship and the abiding threat of nuclear war with the USSR.
Most Americans ignored these events—if they were aware of them at all—because they saw no connection to their lives. Passivity reigned. But, as historian James R. Gaines shows in his revisionist history of The Fifties, there were men and women of surpassing courage who bucked the tide.
EIGHT EXCEPTIONALLY BRAVE INDIVIDUALS
Gaines takes us into the lives of eight exceptional people to show just how eventful the decade has proved to be in hindsight.
** Rachel Carson (1907-64) jump-started the environmental movement.
** Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), a genius mathematician who founded the field of cybernetics. “From their very different perspectives—[Rachel Carson] in the living world, he in the electrical, mechanical, and metaphysical one—they converged on the heretical, even subversive idea that the assertion of mastery over the natural world was based on an arrogant fantasy that carried the potential for disaster.”
** Medgar Evers (1925-63), martyred for fighting Jim Crow in the Bible Belt.
** Harry Hay (1912-2002) and Frank Kameny (1925-2011) led “the first sustained advocacy group for gay rights in American history.”
** Pauli (née Pauline) Murray (1910-85), a legal scholar, laid the groundwork for Thurgood Marshall’s precedent-setting civil rights victories and expanded legal protection for gender equality.
** Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-77), a “sharecropper, wife, mother, and activist in the Mississippi Delta,” was among a handful of activists who “saw that race, class, and gender were inseparable, mutually reinforcing sources of discrimination that could only be defeated on the basis of that understanding.”
** And Gerda Lerner (1920-2013), an Austrian-born Jewish historian, pioneered in the field of women’s history.
“In a time like the 1950s,” Gaines observes, “the courage to raise questions was itself isolating, and worse.” Yet these brave and stubborn individuals, and a handful of others who surface in his story, helped build the foundation on which our civilization stands today.
THE ROOTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE FIFTIES
The Fifties largely consists of short biographies of these eight extraordinary people. And Gaines writes beautifully, telling their stories with verve and great insight. They were all extraordinary in their own unique ways. Yet there were common threads in the subtext of their lives. Together they built the edifice on which social change took root, expanding the possibilities for lives of fulfillment for African Americans, women, and people who identify as LGBTQ. And, without exception, all eight possessed the inner strength to defy the massive pressure exerted on them to stop what they were doing (and Medgar Evers even paid the price for his stubbornness with his life). Gaines pays homage to these pathfinders in this brilliant revisionist history of the 1950s.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James R. Gaines is the author of four nonfiction books and editor of a fifth. The former managing editor of Time, Life, and People magazines, he is both a journalist and an historian. He has also held senior positions at several other prominent publications. Gaines was born in 1947 and educated at the University of Michigan.
We look upon the 1950s as a decade of conformity when little of consequence happened in the United States. But sweeping generalizations about any period in history are misleading at best, and none more so than about the Fifties. Because the period from the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 to the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in January 1961 was in fact a tumultuous time. The three-year “police action” in Korea, for starters, The Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ brinkmanship and the abiding threat of nuclear war with the USSR.
Most Americans ignored these events—if they were aware of them at all—because they saw no connection to their lives. Passivity reigned. But, as historian James R. Gaines shows in his revisionist history of The Fifties, there were men and women of surpassing courage who bucked the tide.
EIGHT EXCEPTIONALLY BRAVE INDIVIDUALS
Gaines takes us into the lives of eight exceptional people to show just how eventful the decade has proved to be in hindsight.
** Rachel Carson (1907-64) jump-started the environmental movement.
** Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), a genius mathematician who founded the field of cybernetics. “From their very different perspectives—[Rachel Carson] in the living world, he in the electrical, mechanical, and metaphysical one—they converged on the heretical, even subversive idea that the assertion of mastery over the natural world was based on an arrogant fantasy that carried the potential for disaster.”
** Medgar Evers (1925-63), martyred for fighting Jim Crow in the Bible Belt.
** Harry Hay (1912-2002) and Frank Kameny (1925-2011) led “the first sustained advocacy group for gay rights in American history.”
** Pauli (née Pauline) Murray (1910-85), a legal scholar, laid the groundwork for Thurgood Marshall’s precedent-setting civil rights victories and expanded legal protection for gender equality.
** Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-77), a “sharecropper, wife, mother, and activist in the Mississippi Delta,” was among a handful of activists who “saw that race, class, and gender were inseparable, mutually reinforcing sources of discrimination that could only be defeated on the basis of that understanding.”
** And Gerda Lerner (1920-2013), an Austrian-born Jewish historian, pioneered in the field of women’s history.
“In a time like the 1950s,” Gaines observes, “the courage to raise questions was itself isolating, and worse.” Yet these brave and stubborn individuals, and a handful of others who surface in his story, helped build the foundation on which our civilization stands today.
THE ROOTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE FIFTIES
The Fifties largely consists of short biographies of these eight extraordinary people. And Gaines writes beautifully, telling their stories with verve and great insight. They were all extraordinary in their own unique ways. Yet there were common threads in the subtext of their lives. Together they built the edifice on which social change took root, expanding the possibilities for lives of fulfillment for African Americans, women, and people who identify as LGBTQ. And, without exception, all eight possessed the inner strength to defy the massive pressure exerted on them to stop what they were doing (and Medgar Evers even paid the price for his stubbornness with his life). Gaines pays homage to these pathfinders in this brilliant revisionist history of the 1950s.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James R. Gaines is the author of four nonfiction books and editor of a fifth. The former managing editor of Time, Life, and People magazines, he is both a journalist and an historian. He has also held senior positions at several other prominent publications. Gaines was born in 1947 and educated at the University of Michigan.
February 25, 2023
Gaines profiles 1950s activists who fought lonely fights that were vindicated years later. He profiles Harry Hay, a gay rights activist from a time when the concept of gay rights was unthinkable. Pauli Murray, Gerda Kronstein and Fannie Lou Hamer were three feminists in the 1950s and early 60s. In very different ways they battled the rigid rules they grew up with. They struggled in a world where sexual inequality was taken for granted in even the most liberal settings.
His chapter on civil rights in the 1950s focuses on the role of black WW2 veterans in the civil rights movement. I haven't seen this story told before. They were trained in self-defense and, by and large they had no use for non-violence when confronted with violence.
For example, Robert Williams, a US Marine, had an amazingly odd life. He organized armed resistance to KKK invasions of his black neighborhood. In 1961,when he was charged with trumped up crimes, he fled with his family to Canada, then Cuba, North Vietnam and China. He returned to the US eight years later and taught Chinese studies at the University of Michigan. He died age 71 in his hometown.
Gaines' chapter on ecology focuses on two very different people.
Norbert Weiner was scientific prodigy who made important discoveries in multiple fields. His book, "Human Use of Human Beings" was one of the first sophisticated theories of why ecological thinking was crucial to the survival of mankind.
Rachel Carson was a nature journalist. She wrote two popular books on ocean life and then, towards the end of her life, published "Silent Spring" about the massive adverse effects of DDT. It was a best seller. It set off an alarm bell about the dangers of uncontrolled industrial chemicals.
Gaines is very good at painting these life stories. Rachel Carson lived with her mother most of her life. Medgar Evers worked selling life insurance to Delta sharecroppers. Norbert Weiner's wife, from a marriage arranged by his parents, was a German Nazi sympathizer who kept two copies on "Mein Kampf" in her night table.
There are some themes from the stories of these amazingly brave rebels. They were almost all pains in the ass. None of them would be described as warm and cuddly. It seems necessary to have a thick skin in order to survive that far out of step with your world.
Many of them were involved with the Communist Party in the 1930s and 40s. The Party attracted strong smart dissatisfied intellectuals. Most of them eventually became disillusioned, but there is no doubt that it was a significant influence of what became radical and then liberal activism.
The easy stereotype of the complacent 50s is false. Gaines does a wonderful job of exploring the much more complicated life that was simmering then and exploded in the 1960s and later.
His chapter on civil rights in the 1950s focuses on the role of black WW2 veterans in the civil rights movement. I haven't seen this story told before. They were trained in self-defense and, by and large they had no use for non-violence when confronted with violence.
For example, Robert Williams, a US Marine, had an amazingly odd life. He organized armed resistance to KKK invasions of his black neighborhood. In 1961,when he was charged with trumped up crimes, he fled with his family to Canada, then Cuba, North Vietnam and China. He returned to the US eight years later and taught Chinese studies at the University of Michigan. He died age 71 in his hometown.
Gaines' chapter on ecology focuses on two very different people.
Norbert Weiner was scientific prodigy who made important discoveries in multiple fields. His book, "Human Use of Human Beings" was one of the first sophisticated theories of why ecological thinking was crucial to the survival of mankind.
Rachel Carson was a nature journalist. She wrote two popular books on ocean life and then, towards the end of her life, published "Silent Spring" about the massive adverse effects of DDT. It was a best seller. It set off an alarm bell about the dangers of uncontrolled industrial chemicals.
Gaines is very good at painting these life stories. Rachel Carson lived with her mother most of her life. Medgar Evers worked selling life insurance to Delta sharecroppers. Norbert Weiner's wife, from a marriage arranged by his parents, was a German Nazi sympathizer who kept two copies on "Mein Kampf" in her night table.
There are some themes from the stories of these amazingly brave rebels. They were almost all pains in the ass. None of them would be described as warm and cuddly. It seems necessary to have a thick skin in order to survive that far out of step with your world.
Many of them were involved with the Communist Party in the 1930s and 40s. The Party attracted strong smart dissatisfied intellectuals. Most of them eventually became disillusioned, but there is no doubt that it was a significant influence of what became radical and then liberal activism.
The easy stereotype of the complacent 50s is false. Gaines does a wonderful job of exploring the much more complicated life that was simmering then and exploded in the 1960s and later.
September 2, 2025
Louis Menand does a much better job of covering this material. But James R. Gaines, in “The Fifties” includes some interesting tid bits worth reading if one wants to discover the ways in which the Fifties were not as conservative or conventional as it is usually portrayed. His desire is to spotlight the “underground” social movements that actually planted the seeds of rebellion that played a big role in shaping political activism one associates with later decades.
Pro
He includes a chapter of gay rights. I actually want to give home 5 stars for him never writing the word “queer”, which no gay person identified as in the ‘Fifties, and which too many contemporary advocates impose on historical figures. Most people assume Stonewall was the sole event that launched the gay rights movement, not realizing that very brave lesbians and gay men organized during the ‘50s and laid the groundwork for a Stonewall rebellion to happen.
The chapter on environmentalism meticulously edifies us to how the issue of conserving the earth’s resources and detoxing the air and land first became a concern,
The activists highlighted —Henry Hay, Pauli Murray, Rachel Carson, etc.—are worth getting to know. Later activists like Martin Luther King get the lion share of historical attention, though these folks were influential in their own right.
Cons
There are four chapters, each devoted to a separate social movement that was “underground” during this decade. The gay, black and environmental chapters concerned their specific issue. The women’s rights issue, however, is diluted and minimized by his preoccupation with side issues. That is, he criticizes the civil rights movement for is sexism and the women’s rights movement for not being adequately sensitive to race. Those are valid topics, but none of the other chapters were dominated with such criticisms and were focused on the issue at hand— homophobia, racism, pollution. Feminism was almost half devoted to race and got minimized in what was to be its own chapter.
The organization of the book is confusing. Is this a book about the Fifties or one about unheralded activists he wants to honor? He claims these movements were “underground”, which was certainly true of the gay and environmental causes, and to a certain extent women’s issues. But the Civil Rights movement was a huge happening in the ‘Fifties. It was on the news all the time. A topic worth writing about for sure, but “underground “ it was not. If Gaines simply said he was writing a book about historical figures worth getting their due, the promotion of this book would make better intellectual sense.
Pro
He includes a chapter of gay rights. I actually want to give home 5 stars for him never writing the word “queer”, which no gay person identified as in the ‘Fifties, and which too many contemporary advocates impose on historical figures. Most people assume Stonewall was the sole event that launched the gay rights movement, not realizing that very brave lesbians and gay men organized during the ‘50s and laid the groundwork for a Stonewall rebellion to happen.
The chapter on environmentalism meticulously edifies us to how the issue of conserving the earth’s resources and detoxing the air and land first became a concern,
The activists highlighted —Henry Hay, Pauli Murray, Rachel Carson, etc.—are worth getting to know. Later activists like Martin Luther King get the lion share of historical attention, though these folks were influential in their own right.
Cons
There are four chapters, each devoted to a separate social movement that was “underground” during this decade. The gay, black and environmental chapters concerned their specific issue. The women’s rights issue, however, is diluted and minimized by his preoccupation with side issues. That is, he criticizes the civil rights movement for is sexism and the women’s rights movement for not being adequately sensitive to race. Those are valid topics, but none of the other chapters were dominated with such criticisms and were focused on the issue at hand— homophobia, racism, pollution. Feminism was almost half devoted to race and got minimized in what was to be its own chapter.
The organization of the book is confusing. Is this a book about the Fifties or one about unheralded activists he wants to honor? He claims these movements were “underground”, which was certainly true of the gay and environmental causes, and to a certain extent women’s issues. But the Civil Rights movement was a huge happening in the ‘Fifties. It was on the news all the time. A topic worth writing about for sure, but “underground “ it was not. If Gaines simply said he was writing a book about historical figures worth getting their due, the promotion of this book would make better intellectual sense.
August 20, 2021
The Fifties: An Underground History by James R Gaines is an interesting read highlighting a few of the people who helped pave the way for what became the gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements.
The portraits of these people make for fascinating reading and the documentation for anyone wanting to read further is extensive. This not only gives credit where it has sometimes been scarce but serves as a great starting point for readers who want to know more.
I do have two relatively minor issues, one of which will likely be corrected before publication. First, I am afraid the hyperbole of the marketing copy will turn some people off. No one believes these movements formed ex nihilo in the 60s, of course there were people in the 50s, and before, who went against the status quo. That does not "upend the myth of the fifties," it simply shows who some of these people were.
My second issue, while likely corrected in the final version, makes me question just what Gaines' foundational knowledge is in some areas. He no doubt is well read and intelligent, but to attribute Bigger Thomas to Ralph Ellison would seem to show exactly where his blind spots are in his literary and cultural history. That goes a bit beyond a typo or incorrect dates, it is attributing a major character to the incorrect major author. This happened in the introduction which put the entire rest of the book under a cloud for me.
Those things aside I would still recommend this book to those interested in reading about early figures in social justice issues as well as those who like to read about something other than the dominant narrative about the middle of the last century.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
The portraits of these people make for fascinating reading and the documentation for anyone wanting to read further is extensive. This not only gives credit where it has sometimes been scarce but serves as a great starting point for readers who want to know more.
I do have two relatively minor issues, one of which will likely be corrected before publication. First, I am afraid the hyperbole of the marketing copy will turn some people off. No one believes these movements formed ex nihilo in the 60s, of course there were people in the 50s, and before, who went against the status quo. That does not "upend the myth of the fifties," it simply shows who some of these people were.
My second issue, while likely corrected in the final version, makes me question just what Gaines' foundational knowledge is in some areas. He no doubt is well read and intelligent, but to attribute Bigger Thomas to Ralph Ellison would seem to show exactly where his blind spots are in his literary and cultural history. That goes a bit beyond a typo or incorrect dates, it is attributing a major character to the incorrect major author. This happened in the introduction which put the entire rest of the book under a cloud for me.
Those things aside I would still recommend this book to those interested in reading about early figures in social justice issues as well as those who like to read about something other than the dominant narrative about the middle of the last century.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
July 3, 2022
Really found the parallels between two giants from totally different areas - N. Weiner, MIT wunderkind, cybernetics; and R. Carson, enviromentalist - quite fascinating and a brilliant insight by Gaines.
The stories of the brave, often not fully recognized, protesters against racism, sexism, destruction of nature, in the 40's and 50's are inspiring, and on the other hand, one has to worry about the future of our grandchildren, when we see that our country has just taken two steps back on all these fronts.
Rachel Carson, speaking to a 1962 graduation class:
"Man has long talked somewhat arrogantly about the conquest of nature ... It is our misfortune - it may be our final tragedy - that .. the price of conquest may be the destruction of man himself."
"I wish I could stand before you and say that my own generation had brought strength and meaning to man's relation to nature, that we had looked upon the majesty and beauty and terror of the earth we inhabit and learned wisdom and humility. Alas, this cannot be said, for it is we who have brought into being a fateful and destructive power ...
Your generation must come to terms with environment. Your generation must face realities instead of taking refuge in ignorance and evasion of truth, Yours is a grave and a sobering responsibility ... You go out into a world where mankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery - not of natter, bur of itself."
The stories of the brave, often not fully recognized, protesters against racism, sexism, destruction of nature, in the 40's and 50's are inspiring, and on the other hand, one has to worry about the future of our grandchildren, when we see that our country has just taken two steps back on all these fronts.
Rachel Carson, speaking to a 1962 graduation class:
"Man has long talked somewhat arrogantly about the conquest of nature ... It is our misfortune - it may be our final tragedy - that .. the price of conquest may be the destruction of man himself."
"I wish I could stand before you and say that my own generation had brought strength and meaning to man's relation to nature, that we had looked upon the majesty and beauty and terror of the earth we inhabit and learned wisdom and humility. Alas, this cannot be said, for it is we who have brought into being a fateful and destructive power ...
Your generation must come to terms with environment. Your generation must face realities instead of taking refuge in ignorance and evasion of truth, Yours is a grave and a sobering responsibility ... You go out into a world where mankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery - not of natter, bur of itself."
October 22, 2025
The Fifties: An Underground History. James R. Gaines. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 288 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy.
Too many people think of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and complacency, picturing sock hops, soda fountains, and poodle skirts, but, as I tried to impress upon my students each year, there was always turbulence under that placid surface. There was the rise of rock and roll and teenage rebellion which shocked older generations. Beatniks challenged middle-class norms. Artists shook up the art world. The Red Scare and the Lavender Scare sent shock waves through government and society. The civil rights and feminist movements started ramping up. There was a lot of angst, anger, confusion, and conflict. This book celebrates several individuals who were brave enough to stand - often alone - on their principles and lead fights that they believed needed fighting. In particular, Gaines selects gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmental movements. A couple of the people discussed are familiar names, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and Rachel Carson for example, but the others aren't nearly as well known, or as celebrated as they should be. There's Norbert Wiener, a mathematician and computer scientist who is considered the father of cybernetics, the forerunner of Artificial Intelligence. There's Harry Hay who first envisioned a national gay rights movement in the 1940s. There's Pauli Murray whose law school thesis provided much of the legal basis for Thurgood Marshall's arguments in Brown vs Board of Education and whose legal work made sexual discrimination unconstitutional. Gerda Lerner pioneered the concept of women's history as an academic field, despite being told by superiors and colleagues that there wasn't enough material to study. Isaac Woodard was a black WWII veteran who was blinded by a South Carolina sheriff because he dared to look him in the eye. These are all important stories that should be shared. This book should be widely read. Almost makes me wish that I was back in the classroom in order to share them. ... Almost.
Too many people think of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and complacency, picturing sock hops, soda fountains, and poodle skirts, but, as I tried to impress upon my students each year, there was always turbulence under that placid surface. There was the rise of rock and roll and teenage rebellion which shocked older generations. Beatniks challenged middle-class norms. Artists shook up the art world. The Red Scare and the Lavender Scare sent shock waves through government and society. The civil rights and feminist movements started ramping up. There was a lot of angst, anger, confusion, and conflict. This book celebrates several individuals who were brave enough to stand - often alone - on their principles and lead fights that they believed needed fighting. In particular, Gaines selects gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmental movements. A couple of the people discussed are familiar names, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and Rachel Carson for example, but the others aren't nearly as well known, or as celebrated as they should be. There's Norbert Wiener, a mathematician and computer scientist who is considered the father of cybernetics, the forerunner of Artificial Intelligence. There's Harry Hay who first envisioned a national gay rights movement in the 1940s. There's Pauli Murray whose law school thesis provided much of the legal basis for Thurgood Marshall's arguments in Brown vs Board of Education and whose legal work made sexual discrimination unconstitutional. Gerda Lerner pioneered the concept of women's history as an academic field, despite being told by superiors and colleagues that there wasn't enough material to study. Isaac Woodard was a black WWII veteran who was blinded by a South Carolina sheriff because he dared to look him in the eye. These are all important stories that should be shared. This book should be widely read. Almost makes me wish that I was back in the classroom in order to share them. ... Almost.
November 25, 2022
Short bios of people engaged during the 50's in work on progressive causes that came to greater prominence in the 60's (civil rights, ecology, etc.). Variable in my reading as to how novel/informative/interesting -- strongest ones I thought were on Frank Kameny in the "gay rights" chapter and Rachel Carson and Norbert Weiner (the cybernetics guy, apparently a child prodigy with emotionally abusive father) in the "ecology" chapter.
The hook is actually well-summarized by Walter Isaacson's blurb "An exciting and enlightening revisionist history of the 1950s, showing how the brave pioneers of that supposedly sleepy decade launched the 1960s revolutions that continue to this day." Whether you find the book as a whole "exciting" seemed to me to depend crucially on whether you previously thought that the 1950s were without exception "sleepy" and that there were no active feminists, civil rights protesters, etc. then.
That wasn't really my impression, so to me it was more a sample of profiles of progressive people than an overturning of the view of a decade, and the organizing principle of their inclusion wasn't that compelling. Sort of like reading "you may think the 70s were the 'me decade', but actually there were some unselfish people alive then; here are some examples".
The hook is actually well-summarized by Walter Isaacson's blurb "An exciting and enlightening revisionist history of the 1950s, showing how the brave pioneers of that supposedly sleepy decade launched the 1960s revolutions that continue to this day." Whether you find the book as a whole "exciting" seemed to me to depend crucially on whether you previously thought that the 1950s were without exception "sleepy" and that there were no active feminists, civil rights protesters, etc. then.
That wasn't really my impression, so to me it was more a sample of profiles of progressive people than an overturning of the view of a decade, and the organizing principle of their inclusion wasn't that compelling. Sort of like reading "you may think the 70s were the 'me decade', but actually there were some unselfish people alive then; here are some examples".
December 17, 2022
This book was very interesting but I thought uneven in conception. In its introduction and title it aims to set the course of the atomic age on its head. I’d argue that it works better when it leans further into the underground elements of the title rather than the definitive. I thought that the book’s main points were that large parts of the civil rights movement and social acceptance of human diversity started in the 50s and because of the 50s- a time when America became hugely influential worldwide and hugely successful, but also extremely fearful and wary of threats external and then internal.
This is established in the introduction. From there, each sketch of a movement- gay rights, civil rights, violent resistance within the civil rights movement, and ecology is well fleshed and delivered. Some contain more ‘novel’ information (to me at least!) and some hit the well worn paths of these stories. In each one you are constantly thinking ‘how underground is this?’ ‘Or why are we talking about 1964 again?’. It is not trying to catch the author out, and it doesn’t detract from the issues that are discussed, but for me it did distract from the composition and overall effect of the book
This is established in the introduction. From there, each sketch of a movement- gay rights, civil rights, violent resistance within the civil rights movement, and ecology is well fleshed and delivered. Some contain more ‘novel’ information (to me at least!) and some hit the well worn paths of these stories. In each one you are constantly thinking ‘how underground is this?’ ‘Or why are we talking about 1964 again?’. It is not trying to catch the author out, and it doesn’t detract from the issues that are discussed, but for me it did distract from the composition and overall effect of the book
September 22, 2022
James R. Gaines writes the following in the introduction of his book "The Fifties: An Underground History":
"There is a theory that change happens not by winning hearts and minds but by changing the law, which hearts and minds will follow."
The book presents a series of character portraits of people who, through their actions, became accidental radicals who sparked movements for change, both in the conformist 1950s and today. Harry Hay is one such person. Hay dreamed of a national gay rights movement in the 1940s when gay people were labeled subversives and mentally ill. Pauli Murray is another. She worked to make sex discrimination illegal, despite being a woman with a mixed-race heritage and indeterminate sexuality.
Gaines shows how today's areas of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and ecology in their present form came about because these "accidental radicals" wanted to change society for the better. History buffs should have "The Fifties: An Underground History" on their to-read lists.
"There is a theory that change happens not by winning hearts and minds but by changing the law, which hearts and minds will follow."
The book presents a series of character portraits of people who, through their actions, became accidental radicals who sparked movements for change, both in the conformist 1950s and today. Harry Hay is one such person. Hay dreamed of a national gay rights movement in the 1940s when gay people were labeled subversives and mentally ill. Pauli Murray is another. She worked to make sex discrimination illegal, despite being a woman with a mixed-race heritage and indeterminate sexuality.
Gaines shows how today's areas of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and ecology in their present form came about because these "accidental radicals" wanted to change society for the better. History buffs should have "The Fifties: An Underground History" on their to-read lists.
October 20, 2021
Fascinating, and worthy of your attention: this here is a thematic history through a handful of life stories, not just the 1950s. These lives center on the changes and movements that would propel more changes, not merely a decade-by-decade set of stories, but stories of social change.
Note: the themes are large [gay rights, feminism, civil rights, ecology], but the "underground" label leaves out music, poetry, art... a quibble from a culture vulture.
Read in an ARC (prepublication bound galley) with ISBN: 978-1-9821-8701-9; thanks, Eagle Eye Books, Decatur, GA and publisher Simon & Schuster.
Recommended.
P.S. - Q: I've wondered, since his tenure editing Time Magazine, is this author Gaines related to Mad Magazine and E. C. Comics (Entertaining Comics) publisher William M. Gaines and his father, comics originator and founder of of E. C. (Educational Comics) M. C. Gaines? Just curious as a lifelong fan of the aforementioned. If anyone can answer I will edit this part of my review.
Note: the themes are large [gay rights, feminism, civil rights, ecology], but the "underground" label leaves out music, poetry, art... a quibble from a culture vulture.
Read in an ARC (prepublication bound galley) with ISBN: 978-1-9821-8701-9; thanks, Eagle Eye Books, Decatur, GA and publisher Simon & Schuster.
Recommended.
P.S. - Q: I've wondered, since his tenure editing Time Magazine, is this author Gaines related to Mad Magazine and E. C. Comics (Entertaining Comics) publisher William M. Gaines and his father, comics originator and founder of of E. C. (Educational Comics) M. C. Gaines? Just curious as a lifelong fan of the aforementioned. If anyone can answer I will edit this part of my review.
August 3, 2021
When I read that the author was the chief editor for Time and that this was four portraits my first thought was a flashback to the Time-Life book series on different topics sold thru infomercials. My concern was that it would feel too much like a scrapbook of anecdotes, that it wouldn't give the subjects sufficient depth. Luckily Gaines does better than that. It does still feel like four short-to-midlength books, but it's sourced very well and serves as a nice jumping off point for those who want to pick one and explore further (fifteen percent of the book is bibliography). Reviewed for Netgalley.
August 15, 2022
would have liked to see more connections between the movements of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, especially since these movements were had to have been at least related to each other in more direct ways than an overarching argument about the fifties.
Biographies sometimes ran into issues. For example, there is a rough shift from talking about the horrifying results of the US military partaking in biological warfare against its own population to talking about Rachel Carson having a take care of a child while writing books. Difficult tonal shift and sudden subject shift that didnt feel right to me. :(
Some really interesting info tho!!
Biographies sometimes ran into issues. For example, there is a rough shift from talking about the horrifying results of the US military partaking in biological warfare against its own population to talking about Rachel Carson having a take care of a child while writing books. Difficult tonal shift and sudden subject shift that didnt feel right to me. :(
Some really interesting info tho!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2023
basically a series of portraits of people who marked the history of the 1950's in the US.
I loved the chapter on Rachel Carson.
It's also frightening how rampant racism was in the US at the time. We hear it all the time, we see it in movies and read about it in books and yet it never ceases to shock me. The fact that lynching and segregation and all these horrors were taking place in a country that was supposed to represent a beacon of freedom. And at a time so close to our era, it truly is a shameful chapter in US history and they don't seem to have grasped the consequences of that, up to this day.
I loved the chapter on Rachel Carson.
It's also frightening how rampant racism was in the US at the time. We hear it all the time, we see it in movies and read about it in books and yet it never ceases to shock me. The fact that lynching and segregation and all these horrors were taking place in a country that was supposed to represent a beacon of freedom. And at a time so close to our era, it truly is a shameful chapter in US history and they don't seem to have grasped the consequences of that, up to this day.
September 23, 2021
Read if you: Want a moving and eye-opening introduction to people who paved the way for civil rights for LGBTQ+, African-Americans, women, and were at the forefront of the environmental movement.
Librarians/booksellers: Books on the pre-1960s civil rights and environmental movements are very rare; this is engaging and driven by compelling portraits.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Librarians/booksellers: Books on the pre-1960s civil rights and environmental movements are very rare; this is engaging and driven by compelling portraits.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 29, 2022
(Audiobook) An interesting take on those individuals who did much in the late 1940s and 1950s to set the stage for many of the major social movements of the 1960s. Particularly in the realm of gay rights, racial equality and women’s rights, various figures, known and not as well known played their part in laying the foundation, usually at great cost to advance their causes. Worth a read regardless of format.
June 17, 2022
After discussing the social events of the 1960s, Gaines started to wonder if the roots to movements like civil rights, ecological awareness, gay rights and feminism may have gone back further. This brief but powerful book looks at historical figures who pioneered ideas in those areas many years earlier. A thoughtful and informative account of people who were willing to challenge the world around him long before it was safe to do so.
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