THE ORGANIZATION MAN by WILLIAM H. WHYTE

TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT THE BEATS WERE REBELLING AGAINST, ENTER THE CORPORATE MINDSET AND THE GESTALT OF THE FIFTIES INCLUDING THE AUTHOR'S MISGUIDED BELIEF IN THE POTENTIAL OF THE CORPORATION TO ENSURE A BETTER WORLD FOR ALL OF US . . . 

MIND-BLOWING!

Regarded as one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times, The Organization Man developed the first thorough description of the impact of mass organization on American society. During the height of the Eisenhower administration, corporations appeared to provide a blissful answer to postwar life with the marketing of new technologies—television, affordable cars, space travel, fast food—and lifestyles, such as carefully planned suburban communities centered around the nuclear family. William H. Whyte found this phenomenon alarming.

Thus, the book offered a new perspective on how post–World War II American society had redefined itself.  Whyte’s 1950s America had replaced the Protestant ethic of individualism and entrepreneurialism with a social ethic that stressed cooperation and management: the individual subsumed within the organization.  It was the age of middle management, what Whyte thought of as the rank and file of leadership, whether corporate, governmental, church, or university.  More importantly, for those coming of age in the '50s, the book encapsulated the growing counter-culture's (read, The Beats) ideas about conformity, resistance to it, and the meaning or, rather, meaninglessness of being part of an organization, any organization

As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual. With its clear analysis of contemporary working and living arrangements, The Organization Man rapidly achieved bestseller status.