The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II by William Henry Chafe

The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II Reviews

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  Myra Sullivan

  This book was surprisingly interesting. It was a history textbook, so I didn't expect much from it, but it turned out to be an okay read. It was relatively easy to get through. My only complaint is that things that could've been said in a paragraph or two were stretched out for pages upon pages with the same concept being repeated several times. The end result is that if you slave through the chapters, you'll know everything by heart, but it's frustrating to have gone through 7 pages and realize that they've really only said the same thing over and over.
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  Blaine Welgraven

  Chafe is a very engaging writer, but The Unfinished Journey's historically-questionable statements, selective topicality, and blatant progressivism are all hindrances to the work's purportedly honest attempts to accurately chronicle post-World War II America's domestic and foreign fronts. An uneven journey, to say the least.
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  Nick

  For a text book it doesn't get much better. Written from what appears to be a socdem perspective. Reading this I can see how some ignorant reactionaries view universities as breeding grounds for Marxism. Sadly this book isn’t Marxist and neither are universities. That being said I enjoyed reading all 600 pages.
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  Laura

  This was a really cool book! I was pleasantly surprised since this is a text book for a class. I actually read the whole thing rather than just assigned portions
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  Cade

  Extraordinarily fair take on both the successes and failures of the presidents from FDR to Obama. Chafe seems to have a bit of a left-leaning bias, but he is tough on the liberal presidents for their inconsistent and sometimes downright negative handling of civil rights issues. Chafe's main thesis is that the post-war United States hinges around the year 1968. While I'm not fully convinced this is the best reading of contemporary history, he does make a very reasonable case. Some readers may find him overly harsh on Reagan and Clinton, but I think the criticisms are fair. The only major oversight I noticed in the read-through was his failure to cover Nixon's role in the Yom Kippur War, and in general I think Chafe undercuts Nixon on foreign affairs a bit too much.
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  Jacqui Kitching

  You know how they say what you study in class always has a strangely perfect, timely connection to what's happening in the outside world? This textbook was the ultimate manifestation of that.
  
  I read this text for a class and was quite impressed. It thoroughly details American politics since 1945 and explored the relationships between the systems and governments and the developments.
  
  This is not a light read in the slightest, and many chapters were partially skim read. I do, however believe I will continually return to this book in my teaching of modern history and in my ongoing observation of American politics and society.
  
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  Jazmine Karunaratne

  I had to buy this book for a class about the U.S Since television and couldn't put it down after that. This book provides a clear and precise summary of many historically significant periods. One cannot expect the minute details that make history beautiful to always be in the book, however if you need a refresher on history or just need an introduction this is the right book. Personally I find the period right after World War Two to be the most interesting in US history and loved every chapter.
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  Kim Sasso

  An wonderfully 'readable' history text book. Thank you, Dr. Michele Gillespie for using this book in your classroom!
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  Leonardo

  William Chafe situó a 1968 como un cambio de régimen en los Estados Unidos, desde la perspectiva de historiador social: “Cualquier historiador que utilice la palabra „vertiente‟ para describir un momento dado corre el riesgo de sobresimplificar la complejidad del proceso histórico. Sin embargo, si esta palabra se emplea para indicar un punto de inflexión que señala el fin de la dominación de una constelación de fuerzas y el comienzo de la dominación de otras, parece apropiado para describir lo que ocurrió en América en 1968”. William Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 378. Chafe captura justamente lo que queremos decir con un cambio en el régimen constitucional, es decir, el fin de la dominación de una constelación de fuerzas y el comienzo de la dominación de otra. Sobre el análisis de Chafe del espíritu republicano de los movimientos, ver pp. 302-342.
  
  
  Imperio Pág.136
• 
  Rauhl Lemus

  really goood
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  Michael

  Chafe offers us a history of the post war period that one would best categorize as "progressive," a history in which the activism of everyday people is the driving engine of change that enables progress on issues of social justice in the halls of power. A historian of both the civil rights and women's movements, his account weaves considerations of race, gender and class into a subtle narrative. From the vantage point he affords us, the self-congratulatory pose of official America during the latter half of the 20th century once again appears suspect. As Richard Dalfiume notes in his review for the JAH, Chafe's history is an effort to invite student of these last six decades of American history to question the extent to which one's prospects in America are, after all is said and done, still delimited primarily by the accident of one's birth.