MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03256fam a2200385 a 4500
001 1830683
005 20220609004643.0
008 960313s1996 nyu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 96012090
020 $a0684809915 (hc : alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)34476973
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm34476973
035 $9ALR3377CU
035 $a(NNC)1830683
035 $a1830683
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aE839.4$b.E45 1996
082 00 $a973.92$220
100 1 $aElliott, Michael.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88019799
245 14 $aThe day before yesterday :$breconsidering America's past, rediscovering the present /$cMichael Elliott.
260 $aNew York :$bSimon & Schuster,$c1996.
263 $a9607
300 $a320 pages ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 $aAmericans have assumed for fifty years that the years after World War II were normal, and that any deviation from that standard is alarming. In fact, the boom period following World War II, the Golden Age, was a historical aberration. Although it had its roots in the American past, much of the prosperity came out of the country's unique position in the world of 1945.
520 8 $aOf all the nations on the planet, only the United States emerged unscathed from the three decades of war and revolution that had crippled all the other great industrial powers - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan. As a result, in 1945 the U.S. reigned supreme.
520 8 $a. Then, between the assassination of JFK and the end of the Cod War in 1989, all the factors that had contributed so much to America's self-image went into reverse. American politics went through a period of murderous instability; the federal government was delegitimized; great divisions grew among races, regions, and classes; a wave of immigration transformed the country's ethnic makeup; and the economy slowed down.
520 8 $aNow the major debate among politicians is how to fix America's decline. Elliott puts that debate in perspective by showing that we're in a natural cycle, not an absolute decline, and reminds us that we won't find the solutions in the shiny model of the Golden Age. Those circumstances will never be repeated. Instead, by looking back to the whole of American history, especially to the period before 1914, Elliott offers explanations and some hopeful answers for our current problems.
520 8 $aThen, as now, America was a society of immigrants, messy, ragged at the edges, transfixed by cultural wars and suffering serious social cleavages. America was also home to unprecedented pioneering spirit and extraordinary resourcefulness. America today is still characterized by the same sense of community and entrepreneurial vision that enabled us to overcome our problems a hundred years and more ago and become the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$y1945-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140302
651 0 $aUnited States$xCivilization$y1945-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139945
852 00 $bleh$hE839.4$i.E45 1996