This groundbreaking collection examines popular and literary culture in the 1950s through the lens of postwar Ireland. The 1950s are at once a site of cultural nostalgia and of vital relevance to twenty-first-century readers. The diverse essays collected here offer insight into the artistic effects of austerity on both creators and consumers of 1950s culture, examining cultural production in Britain and the United States as well as Ireland. The first book of its kind, it blends critical analysis with cultural memory of a unique time in the history of Irish literature and the broader world. From Samuel Beckett to Elvis Presley and Movement poetry to bestselling science fiction, this volume highlights the crucial role Ireland played in the growth of literary and popular culture throughout this fascinating decade and beyond.

Gerald Dawe is Professor of English, Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. His most recent publications include Selected Poems (2012) and Conversations: Poets & Poetry (2011). Darryl Jones is Professor of English and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He has written and edited numerous books, most recently It Came From the 1950s: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties (with Elizabeth McCarthy and Bernice Murphy) and an edition of M. R. James’s Collected Ghost Stories. Nora Pelizzari is a PhD candidate in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin.