Proud Decades: America in War and Peace, 1941-1960 (Revised)

By John Patrick Diggins

Book Overview

What happens when public figures' private selves are put forth for examination by public audiences? How do the personal struggles of music artists, specifically those with immigrant backgrounds, compare to the private struggles of other individuals? At a time when many countries in the European Union experience an increase in far-right political party activities, how do individuals from the margins negotiate new ways of thinking about identity, offering hope for greater understanding of shared struggles across societies? This book offers interpretations of identity and belonging by examining the work of two music artists, Faudel Belloua from France and Adam Tensta from Sweden. By analyzing texts produced by these individuals, I argue that ongoing engagement with the materials produced by Belloua and Tensta, a process which I refer to as living biography, presents a unique window into the process of how Belloua and Tensta connect personal struggles to public issues, providing a compelling departure point for further discussions on how interpretations of national identity are changing in France and Sweden and beyond.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393956563
• ISBN13: 9780393956566
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Two sides to every argument

Historical reviewer Carter was correct in putting Diggins in the synthesis camp. Diggins acknowledged the revisionist view on many events. He agreed with the revisionist view that Roosevelt could have done more to save Jews in the concentration camps. But Diggins also pointed out the traditionalist view that Roosevelt felt defeating the Nazi war machine was the best long-term salvation for the Jews.He showed both sides over the debate on dropping the atomic bomb. He brought up the revisionists? opinions that Truman could have simply had a demonstration of the bomb on an island near Japan, and that the second bomb was dropped too soon after the first, not giving the Japanese government time to react. Yet Diggins also admitted that Japanese soldiers had not shown a willingness to surrender and that an invasion would have killed more people than the bombs killed. He wrote: ?The sorrow and the glory in this period of America?s past are inseparable. To be worthy of truth, history must make us shudder as well as smile.? Diggins is a true synthesis historian.