Fifties the Book the Fifties Book Review

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S. air force. However, the first attack on the U.S. military by the Chinese was made on November 1 in North Korea. A large army of Chinese soldiers attacked the U.S. 8th Cavalry Regiment from the north, northwest, and west. This forced the retreat of UN forces.

C.

General Matthew Ridgway took over after General Walker's death on December 22. The former was the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in Wold War II. Ridgway received command of all the forces serving in Korea, along with relative freedom to act as he saw fit. Although his initial aim was to undertake an offensive in Korea, he soon realized that the army was not in sufficient shape to accomplish this. Instead, General Ridgway undertook to rebuild the army. After a successful Chinese attack on New Year's Day, the Allied forces had to withdraw to the "D line," extending from Pyongtaek to Samchok. Here, they were able to nurse their wounds and stabilize under Ridgway's leadership.

4.A.

In the book, one thing I particularly liked was Halberstam's language of description. Too often in works of this nature, authors tend to be either overly academic or they lack the depth of description that would do justice to their subject matter. In Halberstam's case however, it appears that his considerable experience as journalist combined well with a sense of depth and insight. This resulted in an excellent balance between entertainment and depth, each with an appropriate focus on subject matter.

In short, his choice of language makes Halberstam's work entirely accessible to a very wide audience. Those with a passing interest in the 1950s for example will not make a mistake when reading this book. It provides sufficient material for thought and entertainment. Those with more academic interests will also find the book highly educational and informative.

A second thing I particularly like about the book is also its structure. The structure combines well with the language in providing a seamless integration of the entertaining with the more serious types of subject matter in the work. This seamless integration appears entirely logical throughout the book, while also contributing to the balance mentioned above.

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The book achieves an important balance and thus caters to a widely diverse audience.

B.

Although there are not many things one can dislike about this book, I do feel that the length of the book -- 800 pages - is somewhat excessive. Today's culture of Internet users and speed readers may for example find a book of this length somewhat daunting, even for all its entertaining and informative content. Furthermore, the Information Age tends to require a large amount of information in as little space as possible. Halberstam's work does not appear to be written with this in mind. However, it must also be said that, even with this flaw, those who would give the book the chance to entertain and inform will find that it does its length justice.

Perhaps integrated with this slight flaw is the fact that Halberstam, with considerable success, attempted to integrate absolutely all the major events and facts about the 1950s. Despite his obvious talent of organization and integration, the inherent danger in such a work is a certain lack of focus or depth, or otherwise too much depth about too many events. This could leave the reader without sufficient focus to contemplate what he or she had read.

A better approach might have been to focus on fewer events during the 1950s and perhaps include some events from other decades, along with how these integrated with the later decades during the 20th century. Indeed, with the 1950s decade being more than half a century in the past, modern readers might be more interested to read an analysis of events since the 1950s or indeed across the 20th century. However, this is once….....

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