Imagining the fifties : private sentiment and political culture in Menzies' Australia
"In Imagining the Fifties, John Murphy reveals a more complex history of a period that was often turbulent, and racked by economic and Cold War crises. For many, it was a time of contradictions and tensions. They hoped that prosperity and peace would deliver happiness through private commitments, but feared that all this might be snatched away by a return of economic depression and global war." "This book is a study of the sentiments and values of the middle-class constituency that kept the Menzies Government in power, and of the government policies that nurtured them. It examines their experiences and ideas about domesticity and marriage, sex and personal identity, citizenship, prosperity and the nation, and about the assimilation of migrants and Aborigines." "Murphy challenges the cliche that treats 'the 1950s' as a byword for all that is dull, conformist and backward looking. Weaving together untapped sources from policy debates to popular magazines, from opinion polls to novels, Imagining the Fifties is a vivid account of the era that shaped the baby boomers."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2000
UNSW Press ; Pluto Press, Sydney, Annandale, NSW, Australia, 2000
History
xii, 264 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780868406909, 0868406902
43634173
1. The pursuit of private happiness
2. Manhood
3. Womanhood
4. Intimacy
5. The Australian way of life
6. The rewards of the good citizen
7. 'A war-haunted world'
8. An unreliable boom
9. The Petrov election
10. The meanings of home
11. Immigration and assimilation
12. 'Dog licences' and indigenous citizens
13. 'Pledging the future'
14. The housewife and the man in the grey flannel suit