Description
Book SynopsisIn these essays, a combination of personal remembrance and broad-stroke cultural history, Philip Beidler addresses the culture and politics of post-WWII America: the national blindness toward the Holocaust and a rising China, the canker of McCarthyism, ascendant cultures of hard smoking and heavy drinking, the worship of cars and film idols, and the chronic fear of an always-possible nuclear apocalypse.
Trade ReviewA significant contribution to American letters. . . . Reading
The Victory Album is like engaging a very interesting person in dialogue; by resting his arguments on so many items that are profoundly familiar to Americans, Beidler draws them into the conversation, making this very close to being an interactive book. Yet he never stops with the familiar, but uses it as a springboard to the insightful, taking the reader with him in a partnership of discovery.”
Jerome Klinkowitz, author of
Kurt Vonnegut’s America and
The American 1960's: Imaginative Acts in a Decade of Change| [
The Victory Album] comes off as some exemplary essay writing, which can be invaluable to a student like myself. No less invaluable is Beidler’s overall message about misconceptions.”
Anniston Star An exceptionally fine collection of essays, engagingly written, unfailingly interesting, and full of insights into mid-20th-century American culture.
The Victory Album is for a general educated audience and should be well received.” Fred Hobson, author of
Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood and
Mencken: A Life
