The 1950s

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

A Memoir

by Bill Bryson
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Oct 17, 2006, 288 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2007, 224 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

The 1950s

This article relates to The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Print Review

While many in the USA experienced an unprecedented economic boom in the 1950s, what was happening elsewhere?

Europe: The division of Europe into West and East persisted. The foundations for the European Community were laid. Rationing continued in some Western countries (e.g. in Britain up until 1953), but post-war reconstruction was booming, due to the Marshall Plan (a four year plan instigated in 1947 during which about $13 billion of economic and technical assistance was given by the USA to certain European countries. At the end of the four years, the economies of every participating country except Germany had exceeded their pre-war levels.

The Middle East: The increasing importance of oil gave an economic boost to many Middle Eastern countries, but the ruling elite were the main ones to benefit. The fledgling state of Israel spent most of the decade in a 'state of austerity' as it tried to accommodate the approx. 250,000 Holocaust survivors who flocked to Israel, and many of the 800,000 or so Jewish refugees that were expelled from Arab countries, in response to the approx. 700,000 Arab refugees created by the founding of Israel.

Africa: Many countries achieved independence as the European colonists started to withdraw, but government corruption was rife, as were border conflicts, disease and famine.

Asia: In China, Mao Tse-Tung led the revolution against the Nationalist government, instigating his "Great Leap Forward", which was a leading cause of the "Three Years of Natural Disasters", at the end of the decade, during which about 38 million people died from widespread famine. The Korean War came and went. The First Indochina War in Vietnam ended with the defeat of the USA backed French and the partitioning of Vietnam into North and South, but American involvement in the region continued, eventually leading to the Second Indochina War ("Vietnam War").

The Caribbean: Castro overthrew the corrupt Batista regime; Haiti gained a new dictator.

The Soviet Union: Stalin died, democratic uprisings were suppressed in Poland and Hungry. Cold War tensions increased. Sputnik was launched.

Australia became a formal military ally of the USA. Mass immigration from Europe continued.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. It originally ran in October 2006 and has been updated for the September 2007 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
by Clare Leslie Hall
A love triangle reveals deadly secrets in this thriller for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
    by Liza Tully

    A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.

  • Book Jacket

    The Whyte Python World Tour
    by Travis Kennedy

    Rikki Thunder, drummer for '80s metal band Whyte Python, is on the verge of fame, love—and a spy mission he didn’t expect.

  • Book Jacket

    Angelica
    by Molly Beer

    A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's influential sister-in-law.

  • Book Jacket

    The Original
    by Nell Stevens

    In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.

Who Said...

A library is a temple unabridged with priceless treasure...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

E H L the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.