Well researched and well written account of many of the important and pivotal international events of 1956. I disagree with the author's contention that it was a more important year in modern world history than 1968 (absolutely not). I lived through both years, and 1968 was absolutely chaotic and tumultuous, and stands alone. He sheds some light on events that many Americans are perhaps not sufficiently aware of, and that in and of itself is worth reading this for. My opinion. Thanks ( )

You may think that the 1950's were sleepy times full of American consumerism & conformity, but 1956 was anything but dull. In fact the year was full of tumult and a harbinger of what was to come in the next decade.

Overseas, the European colonial empires were starting to crumble, and the efforts of the colonial powers to hang on to the territories and spheres of influence were met with disaster - as evidenced in the British and French efforts in Suez. The satellites of the Soviet Union were also restless culminating in revolutionary revolts in both Poland and Hungary, and even inside the USSR, there was a turning away from Stalinism to a milder form of Communism.

Here at home, the Civil Rights movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott, and the first stirrings of what would become the "youthquake" of the 1960's could be seen the first time Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

As I have frequently told people, the "good old days" were never as calm or peaceful as our memories would like us to believe. It's always good to revisit the recent past to be reminded of that fact. ( )

As I grow older the years seem to race by faster than ever, and it can be difficult to look back and pick out any one of them as being more significant than any of the others. Obviously, some stay in the mind more poignantly than others, perhaps as a consequence of personal involvement, and there are some such as 2016 in which it seemed that a far greater number of noted figures died than might usually be expected.

Other years become landmark for different reasons. David Hepworth identified 1971 as the single most significant year for rock and pop music (While I acknowledge his greater knowledge of the field, I would disagree, and might propose 1975, the year of Wish You Were Here and Physical Graffiti among other landmark albums, but I am straying from the point). Others have pointed to 1967 and the Summer of Love, or 1968 and the Prague Spring. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 marked the nadir of cold war posturing, and 1963 (significant to me as the year of my birth) brought the assassination of an American President in circumstances that have still never been adequately resolved.

Simon Hall’s book focuses on 1956, which brought more than its fair share of national and international crises. Seeing it on the shelf of Daunt Books, my first thought was of the crisis in Hungary – I knew of it, but certainly not much about it – but that proved to be merely one among many significant developments around the world. Britain and France were both going through a process of divesting some of their colonial holdings, with differing levels of success. Despite initial difficulties, Britain eventually oversaw a relatively painless (and largely bloodless) transition from colonial Gold Coast to independent Ghana. The French experience in North Africa was far more troubled, and while Morocco and Tunisia underwent independence, the situation in Algeria remained a flashpoint, with escalating atrocities perpetrated by both sides.

Britain and France would subsequently be united later in the year when, in partnership with Israel, they attempted to invade Egypt to counter President Nasser’s audacious and provocative nationalisation of the Suez Canal. Having misled America about their intentions, the two former imperial powers found themselves humiliated, and forced into an embarrassing withdrawal.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery, Alabama, pernicious racial segregation was a long-established nor. Challenges were thrown down, not least by Martin Luther King’s oratory and use of non-violent protest, and by Rosa Parks, who refused to yield her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Their dignified protest was met by untrammelled violence, and measured indifference from President Eisenhower, who was reluctant to take any sort of stand during an election year.

The Communist world was rocked following the so-called ‘Secret Speech’ from Nikita Khrushchev, which firing the opening volley in the dismantling of the legend of Stalin. That speech had reverberations throughout the Warsaw Pact countries, not least in Poland where serious and concerted protests challenging the prevailing regime occurred before they were taken up in Hungary.

Certainly, an action-packed year, and I haven’t even got around to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara sailing to Cuba with a view to overthrowing the regime of President Batista. Simon Hall covers all of these threads comprehensively, yet accessibly. He writes with great clarity, and makes the events come alive.

This is high calibre popular history writing. ( )

Reading this book reminded me of Billy Joel's great song "We Didn't Start the Fire".
1956, to my mind was the year that people all over the world learned how to protest the injustices that were being perpetrated allegedly in their name.
This should be compulsory reading in schools.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Faber and Faber Ltd., via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )