A forgotten year that shook the world

History/Politics; 1956: The Year in Revolt ; By Simon Hall; Faber & Faber, €27

Elvis Presley released Heartbreak Hotel in 1956, making him the first global superstar Picture: Getty
Che Guevara and Fidel Castro (left) began a new phase of the communist revolution in Cuba Picture: Getty

The “dreary” decade of the 1950s is often overshadowed by, on one side, the battle against fascism and, on the other, the flowering counterculture of the 1960s. But English historian Simon Hall claims that 1956 was one of the ...