In these essays, a combination of personal remembrance and broad-stroke cultural history, Philip Beidler addresses the culture and politics of post–WWII America: the national blindness toward the Holocaust and a rising China, the canker of McCarthyism, ascendant cultures of hard smoking and heavy drinking, the worship of cars and film idols, and the chronic fear of an always-possible nuclear apocalypse. In lively, driving prose, he recalls veiled episodes in the history of the Korean War, the civil rights movement, and the struggle for women’s liberation. On these subjects and many others, Beidler draws from his own experience and a penetrating grasp of American social history, offering deep, pointed, and comprehensive perspectives on iconic moments in American history.

Philip D. Beidler is the William and Margaret Going Endowed Professor in English at the University of Alabama and the author of many works of cultural and literary criticism, among them The Island Called Paradise: Cuba in History, Literature, and the Arts; Late Thoughts on an Old War: The Legacy of Vietnam; First Books: The Printed Word and Cultural Formation in Early Alabama; and American Wars, American Peace: Notes from a Son of the Empire.

“[The Victory Album] comes off as some exemplary essay writing, which can be invaluable to a student like myself. No less invaluable is Beidler’s overall message about misconceptions.”
—Anniston Star