Episode 5

As people get deep into middle age it's normal to look back at your childhood through a golden haze of nostalgia. But what if things really were better in the past? What if, by chance, you were born and grew up in a time and place of unprecedented economic growth and stability?

In this series of five talks for The Essay, Michael Goldfarb, born in the middle of the American Century, looks back at growing up in a US where things really were better: economically and socially. As the US struggles with social disintegration and political gridlock, Goldfarb remembers being born in the afterglow of World War 2, and how the "children of victory" were certain that the future would always be bright.

In this programme, he remembers the politics of 1960s America as anarchic violence tempered by youthful hope.