Challenges the widespread misconception that the American 1950s was a placid decade with a literature to match.

Introduction Steven Belletto; Part I. Cultural Issues: 1. Cold War Arthur Redding; 2. Mass media Katie Muth; 3. When psychoanalysis was in vogue Mary Esteve; 4. Towards decolonization Cathy J. Schlund-Vials; 5. Religion Jason Stevens; 6. Politics Tracy Floreani; Part II. Varieties of Literary Experience: 7. WASP culture Keith Wilhite; 8. African American literature Steven Belletto; 9. Los(t) 'happy days': Chicana/o literature, 1950-1960 Spencer R. Herrera; 10. Asian American literature Tara Fickle; 11. Gay and lesbian culture in the 1950s Michael Trask; 12. Feminist literature Kathlene McDonald; 13. Youth culture and the postwar drop-out narrative Denis Jonnes; Part III. Schools, Movements, and Sensibilities: 14. Proto-postmodernism Robert Genter; 15. Black mountain college as experimental arts community Anne Dewey; 16. The beat movement Fiona Paton; 17. Advertisements for themselves: poetry, confession, and the arts of publicity Christopher Grobe; 18. New York School Ben Hickman; 19. Literary exiles, cultural émigrés Martin Halliwell; 20. The literature of commitment Alan Wald; Part IV. Formats and Genres: 21. From consensus to conflict: little magazines in the 1950s Loren Glass; 22. Best sellers and the 1950s Evan Brier; 23. A genre comes of age: the maturation of science fiction in the 1950s Rob Latham.