At the end of World War II, America stood alone as the world's only superpower. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had placed the United States not only at the pinnacle of technological advance but also in a position of unchallenged international power. The results of World War II had a complicated effect on the nation—building on the one hand an attitude of near invincibility, on the other a desire to assist the rest of the world in moving toward democracy. Magnanimous in victory over Germany and Japan, we were coldly hostile to the Soviet Union and her satellites. The skillful wielding of American power brought immense challenges and problems to the country in places like Korea and Vietnam, and those kinds of issues are still being faced.

In the domestic arena, the nation entered a prolonged period of economic prosperity that has advanced virtually unabated since 1945. Minor economic setbacks have been seen more as necessary adjustments than as crises anywhere near the magnitude of the 1930s. On the other hand, not all Americans have participated equally in the good times, and the civil rights struggle which began with the end of the Civil War continues even as signs of progress abound.

Each decade had its own particular character—the laid-back fifties with growing domestic turmoil beneath, the turbulent and often violent sixties and the uncertain seventies when in the aftermath of Vietnam and urban riots, the nation tried to look at itself more realistically. While it is the belief of this historian that the past needs to to unfold—to truly become History, we can still learn much from the not-so-distant past. We begin with the returning and surviving World War II generation. Go to the following sections for the details.