David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 3: Let's Play House on AllMovie

A decade comes clean in the third installment of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam's series. Apron strings became shackles for millions of American women during this time. Families, when faced with the reality of having it all, wondered if they really wanted it. David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 3: Let's Play House uncovers the hidden burden of the perfect family. Traditional roles of men and women began to crumble in the '50s as dissatisfaction reared its ugly head. Author Betty Friedan helped feminists label their pain as Sloan Wilson shattered the myth of the stoic hero. As the freewheeling '60s approached, Americans imagined a different world. The result was the death of the nuclear family and the emergence of dysfunction as an art form.