Renowned Journalist Examines an ‘Edgy Nation’

El Camino College was born during a time of extraordinary optimism, respected journalist David Halberstam said as the college kicked off its Golden Anniversary celebration Tuesday.

Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of 14 books, including “The Best and the Brightest,” told a crowd of more than 2,000 at the Torrance community college that the postwar era in the United States holds the key to America’s future.

“It was a time when ordinary people had a sense that they could live a good life,” Halberstam said. “Those days are gone with considerable pain for many people.”

Halberstam described the 1950s as a dull decade. It was a time when dads went to work and moms stayed home and business was booming. Although most jobs were blue collar, everyone could afford to buy a home and had a nice lawn.

During the 1950s, Halberstam said, people believed the United States was stronger than ever. Other countries looked at the nation and modeled their economy after ours, he said.

Halberstam said that back then, folks felt their quality of life would surpass their parents’ era and today we can’t say these same things.

“That kind of era is over,” said Halberstam, whose 1993 book “The Fifties” examines the decade. “Other parts of the world have caught up, modeled us and created a new, international economy and we wonder if our kids will live as well as we do. We are an edgy nation.”

Still, Halberstam said, that earlier decade of hope can provide a model for the future.