Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950sW. T. Lhamon 's Deliberate Speed is a cultural history of the 1950s in the United States that directly confronts the typical view of this decade as an arid wasteland. By surveying the artistic terrain of the period--examining works by figures as varied as Miles Davis, Ralph Ellison, Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg, Little Richard, Charlie Parker, Jackson Pollock, Thomas Pynchon, and Ludwig Wittgenstein--Lhamon demonstrates how many of the distinctive elements that so many attribute to the revolutionary period of the 1960s had their roots in the fertile soil of the 1950s. Taking his title from Chief Justice Earl Warren's desegregation decree of 1955, Lhamon shows how this phrase, "deliberate speed," resonates throughout the culture of the entire decade. The 1950s was a period of transition--a time when the United States began its shift from an industrial society to a postindustrial society, and the era when the first barriers between African-American culture and white culture began to come down. Deliberate Speed is the story of a nation and a culture making the rapid transition to the increasingly complex world that we inhabit today. |
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achievement aesthetic artists audience avant-garde Berry Berry's black culture called century chapter Charlie Parker Chuck Berry Cody's complex congenial consciousness contemporary Davis's decade deliberately speeding culture developed early Eliot Ellison epoch father fiction fifties film folklore Foppl's Frank gestures Ginsberg Gravity's Rainbow Greenberg idea important improvisation instance invisible youth Jack Kerouac Jackson Pollock James jazz kitsch later Lester Young Little Richard living logic Lolita lore cycle mass Maybellene meaning mid-fifties Miles Davis minstrel minstrel shows modernist Mondaugen Neal Cassady novel Ornette Coleman painting Paola patterns Philosophical Investigations photograph play poetry political poplore popular culture postwar Pynchon radio Ralph Ellison reality record rhythm rites ritual Road Robert rock Sambo scene shows social song Sphere Stencil story strategy style Thomas Pynchon tion Tractatus tradition Trueblood turn vernacular Visions of Cody wanted Whole Sick Crew Wittgenstein writing wrote