"Hall succeeds admirably in presenting 1956 as a year that belongs in the same revolutionary tradition as 1848 and 1968."

– The Financial Times

"A marvelous social history of that year."

– The Guardian

"Fast-moving and vivid. Hall is a fluent and unobtrusive narrator."

– The Independent

"Taking an ambitious, panoramic view of a single year, Hall examines major events in postwar Europe, America, Africa, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. Contemporary newspaper reports give the author's month-by-month narrative a vivid, you-are-there quality. An impressive history of a year’s political tensions, necessarily limited in focus but still sweeping and in-depth."

– Kirkus Reviews

"Hall deals with the remarkable year of 1956 on the British, American, and world fronts in this nicely written account of opposition to established authority (and resistance—often brutal—to that dissent). Hall does a workmanlike job in putting it all together. He sheds light on some vital events that took place in a very short period of time."

– Booklist

"Hall captures the collective drama of the year 1956. Switching between multiple developments, Hall provides a dramatic and immersive narrative of a tumultuous year of oppression, revolt, and reaction in a decade often considered bland and docile."

– Publishers Weekly

"1956 is a study of revolution in action and in thinking. The parallels from continent to continent are nearly undeniable, and one can postulate from Simon’s lively account that there was, if not a direct connection between all these happenings, certainly a notable ricochet effect."

– Bookreporter