Historical Context

“The Swimmer” was published in 1964, at a time of great prosperity for middle- and upper-
class Americans. Having survived World War II, which ended in 1945, and the Korean War,
which took place in the 1950s, many Americans—at least white Americans—were enjoying
the wealth and affluence of the postwar era. It was during this time that the American
suburbs, the setting of “The Swimmer,” grew at a rapid pace. This world of the upper classes
is the world of Neddy Merrill as he appears at the beginning of “The Swimmer.”

Neddy Merrill’s world was in no way, however, one to which most Americans had access.
The

civil rights movement was active, and basic liberties were still an issue of great concern for
many Americans. Although slaves had been freed as outlined in the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863 and slavery was abolished in 1865 with the enactment of the Thirteenth
Amendment, many African Americans continued to be denied their civil rights. The civil
rights act issued in June 1964 was intended to end this discrimination. Despite the progress
that the passage of this bill symbolized, the problems faced by women and many minorities
were not immediately resolved. Various other “rights” movements were also active in the
early 1960s. The environmental movement gained much momentum in 1962 with the
publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963)
shed much light on the problems faced by American women.