How 1954 Changed History

By: Michael Flamm, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Michael Flamm

Every year has its share of notable events, but some years seem to capture the essence of a decade in a handful of months. The year 1954 is one such year. It began in January with a celebrity marriage heard round the world and then progressed through a series of major political, social, and cultural milestones that would echo through the next several decades.

The years following World War II were a time of increased wealth and confidence, years that saw the rise of a solid, increasingly powerful middle class in America. With rising wages, major developments in consumer goods and entertainment, increasing opportunities for housing and education, amazing medical breakthroughs, the spread of interstate highways - it was a decade of optimism for many after the horrors of depression and war. But the 1950s were also years of increasing Cold War paranoia and unrest among the disenfranchised Americans that were not experiencing the same freedom and prosperity as their fellow citizens.

With the 10 lectures of How 1954 Changed History, you will travel back to a pivotal year in a decade that is often viewed in terms of the black-and-white simplicity of cheerful mid-century sitcoms. However, the issues of the decade were actually as vibrant and contradictory as any other period in American history. Professor Michael Flamm will take you through the battle against polio, the Red Scare that gripped the nation, the domestic impact of foreign conflicts, and the groundbreaking case of Brown v. Board of Education. As you look at these events and much more, you will see how the year 1954 showcases both some of the best and some of the worst times of 20th-century America.

©2019 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

Wonderful lectures.

Loved it! I am a child of the 50's and of history. Very well presented.

Excellent

Narration is crystal clear and compels attention.

Stories are of important events and matters and memorable, important people. Lots of interesting details.

Highly recommended.

Living life

I was born in 1951 so I was a child in 1954. I asked my mother (92) how she felt at the time about these events. She said she doesn’t remember them because she was too busy living life, 2 kids, a husband and a job, nurse. I’m sure a lot of people will say the same things about today- January 6, unsubstantiated stolen election, Ukraine, inflation, etc. Hopefully the people in charge today will be as responsible as the ruling class in 1954. They weren’t perfect but as history has shown for the most part they got it right.

Excellent Course

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book/course. The writing is wonderful, the topics are thoughtfully presented, and Mr. Flamm’s narration is excellent. I highly recommend it. I can’t wait for his next Audible course!

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

The year 1954 was a good year, at least it was for me since that was the year that I was born. So, it was nice to find that a history professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, Michael Flamm thought that was was good enough to record a series of lectures on. And it turns out that a lot happened in 1954. It was the year that saw the first issue of Sports Illustrated hit the stands (for those of you under 30, there used to little kiosks in cities, shopping centers, bus stations, airports and elsewhere that sold newspapers and magazines printed on paper). That was a nice coincidence because in the same year, a young English medical student did the impossible, shattering previous records to run a mile in under 4 minutes (followed by two other people in the same year). The French lost a battle in one of their Asian colonies, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu that started a chain of events that eventually brought the US into its most unpopular war and the first that we lost. Ostensibly that one was fought to protect democracy but in 1954 President Eisenhower decided to overthrow democracy in Guatemala because it had elected a government that went against US business interests there.  Then there was a rare unanimous Supreme Court ruling that ended segregration in American schools, at least on paper. It took many years before there was any real attempt to enforce that and, in practice, American schools are still practically segregated in many areas. 

That may sound like this is a book of trivia, but that’s my fault for just listing them that way. Flamm does very well and showing the significance of the events he chose and he clearly made his choices for a reason, even some that seem a bit trivial. He starts the book with an event that might seem to be of questionable importance at first, the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. It might be hard to understand how that was a history-changing event, but he explains the significance in showing how this was when it became so patently clear that professional sports was now creating stars of its own. By the way, Marilyn filed for divorce later that same year making it one of the shortest celebrity marriages.

And other stars were born, but one who burst on the stage that year was particularly significant, such a star that he was given the nickname of “King.” A young man from Tupelo, Mississippi recorded a record at a small studio in Memphis and started a resolution in music, style, and performance, a record that is considered the birth of Rock and Roll. And when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the cameras were explicitly instructed not to show him below the waist because his “moves” were too provocative and corrupting. It also was the year when one star fell, the congressman that so many had feared, Joseph McCarthy, began to fall from any semblance of influence and respect and his name has become a synonym for ignorance and dirty politics.

It was also the year that saw the introduction of a polio vaccine, when desperate parents gladly took the risk of allowing their children to be vaccinated with a vaccine that was different from other vaccines that had come before. They trusted the science and my generation became the first in many decades to be able to go swimming and enjoy their summer without the fear of coming down with this debilitating, crippling, and sometimes deadly disease. It worked and Jonas Salk became a national hero, but in my book he became a hero because of what he did afterwards. The vaccine had come about, not due just to a company’s years of research, but through a huge public investment including a great deal of government support (much like the recent Covid-19 vaccines). When it completed trials and was introduced to the broader market the following year, he was asked who owned the patent. His answer was, “Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” 

The whole decade was significant as the world recovered from the second world war in less than 40 years, the Communist scare and the increasing Cold War. It was then that Christianity became so tightly intertwined in politics. It was 1954 when we added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and “In God We Trust” became the national motto in addition to “E plurbus unum.” The middle class became increasingly important and optimism was the guiding principle. The Interstate Highway system began to spread its tentacles across the US and scientific and medical breakthroughs. It was an age when science was ready to solve every problem and it laid the foundation for the space race of the early 60s. 

You could argue with some of his choices and even why he chose 1954 and not 1953 or 1955 as his focus, but he makes a good case. There was a lot that was good and a lot that was bad in 1954, a lot more complicated that the popular “Happy Days” TV show we all enjoyed in the 70s, the embodiment of the literary phrase, “the best of times, the worst of times.” And Professor Flamm’s recounting was thoroughly enjoyable–and not just because I’m partial to 1954.

Wonderful

A wonderful telling of how the events of one year were pivotal and changed the future

educational

very informative and educational. The authors approach of starting with a subject in the target year and then giving you both the backstory and the future of said subject has a little bit of an ADD feeling to it but still flows well. highly recommend giving it a chance.

The pleasure of non-manufactured history

While it is true that the maturing media played a not insignificant role in shaping and filtering some of the events of 1954, one has a sense that the authenticity of the events far exceeds the media driven agenda of the 24/7 news cycle platforms today. And for that this listening experience was most refreshing.

The story is beautifully narrated and captivating Delivered.

Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this!

While it may sound potentially kind of boring, in fact, it was fascinating, engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable. I hope the author writes more books for the general public!

Fascinating history

A series of 10 lectures, each about 30 minutes long, covering some of the major events and trends in the US that first emerged in 1954. I thought I knew a lot about these events, but Michael Flamm has managed to find fascinating anecdotes and important connections which added immensely to my understanding of the era.

Throughout Flamm finds ways to connect the strands of the story to each other, and to our own time. For anyone between the ages of 30 and 75 or so, Flamm's analysis makes it easy to see how the events of 1954 helped form the world in which we grew up, and also to see how many of the models created in that year are changing rapidly in the current century. The section on the development of the polio vaccine is particularly relevant for our COVID-19 historical moment.

In addition, Flamm has a pleasant, resonant baritone that makes the lectures a pleasure to listen to.

Strongly recommended.