America in the 1950s
Society & Culture
Warm Up
• Which US president pulled-off the biggest
upset in presidential election history when he
won in 1948?
• A = Truman
• Which president used the CIA to overthrow
left-leaning governments in Guatemala and
Iran?
• A = Eisenhower
MO
• What was the U2 incident?
Post-War Prosperity
• Stark departure from Depression
& War
• People want to enjoy the good
life.
• Main-Stream Cultural Image of
Good life:
– Owning a House w/ a lawn and a
white picket fence.
– Married w/ 2.5-kids.
– Women are supposed to be
homemakers
– (Retreat from “Rosie the Riveter” &
return to the Cult of Domesticity).
Economic Boom
• 1945-1970s = Time of
greatest economic
prosperity in the nation’s
history
• Peaked in the 1960s.
• Americans had the most
wealth of any people in the
history of the world.
GI Bill
• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act.
• $ for returning vets. To get vocational training,
go to college, buy homes, etc.
• Helps send more Americans to college than ever
before.
• Helps more Americans own homes than ever
before.
A Time of Conformity
• Many historians tend to stress the
amount of conformity that existed
in the 1950s.
• Many people sought to be like the
main stream cultural ideal.
• This leads to an emphasis on
materialism “Keeping up with the
Joneses” = If your neighbors own
something, you need to have it
too.
Moving to the Suburbs
• New prosperity means that more people can
afford to own homes.
• Many whites begin moving out of the city to the
suburbs—housing communities outside of cities.
• Levittowns (suburb communities of pre-made
homes) are the epitome of this new suburban
life.
TV
• 1950s are when TV’s
burst on to the scene.
• Households that own
TVs
– 1950 = 3.9%
1960 = 86.7%
Instrumental in spreading
main-stream cultural
ideals.
Consumer Culture
•
Prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s is
consumer driven (rather than investment
driven).
•
Increased prosperity (& more goods
available) led new levels of middle-class
mass consumption.
•
TV helps to fuel this.
•
Mickey Mouse Club—kids bought MMC
merchandise.
•
Modern kitchens and appliances.
Increased Highways
• 1950s saw unprecedented
building of highways.
• Federal Highway Act of 1956
= $25-millon for new
highways.
• More people had cars
• More people lived in suburbs.
The H-Bomb
• Hydrogen Bomb (The “Super”)
• Edward Teller
• 1952
Bomb Shelters
• Fear of Nuclear War
during the Cold War
led many Americans
to build Bomb
Shelters.
Baby Boom
• 1945-1962
• Increased Prosperity
• More people can
afford to have kids.
Dr. Benjamin Spock
• Wrote influential book on child
care: Baby and Child Care.
• Said that a woman’s chief
responsibility is to be a mother.
• Must put the child’s needs
before her own.
• Lots of pressure on women.
Dr. Kinsey
• Biologist at Indiana University
• Wrote best-selling books about sexual behavior.
• Were extremely controversial
Playboy Magazine
• Hugh Hefner--1953
Review
• What was the “GI Bill”?
• What were the most famous suburban
developments called?
• Who wrote the best-selling book on child rearing
and what did it say good mothers should do?
• What was the U.S. population explosion that
occurred after WWII and lasted into the 1960s
called?
More Review
•
Who was the most prominent figure o the 2nd Red Scare?
•
A = Senator Joseph McCarthy
•
What was the name of the best selling book about the discontent sufferd by
many middle-class house wives during the 1950s that helped give rise to
modern feminism?
•
A = The Feminine Mystique
•
Who wrote the above mentioned book?
•
A = Betty Friedan
•
What was the name of the authors and poets who wrote in a modernist style
and rejected the social norms of the 1950s?
•
A = The Beats
Alienation
• Despite many Americans buying-in to main stream
cultural ideals of the 1950s, many felt alienated.
• People feel unfulfilled by emphasis on conformity and
material possessions.
– Women & Many Minorities
– Some Youths
– Beats
Theme of alienation and disillusionment is present in much of the
art of the 1950s (literature, poetry, paintings, plays, etc.)
Women
• While society held that women
should be homemakers, the reality
was that more women were entering
the workforce than ever before.
• Mainly clerical and service jobs.
• Many people needed 2-income
households to buy the material
goods they felt that they should
have.
• Many women who remained at
home felt stifled by their roles.
• The sale of tranquilizers
skyrocketed (“Mother’s Little
Helper”).
• Betty Freidan in the Feminine
Mystique maintained that the
lack of fulfillment experienced
by many housewives was the
genesis of he women’s
movement in the 1960s.
• Friedan became a
major figure in the
burgeoning feminist
movement.
Women in the Workforce
• While popular culture portrayed a women’s role as a
homemaker, the 1950s saw a great increase in the
number of women entering the workplace.
• More 2-income families than ever before due to
pressures of consumer culture.
• Conversely, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care
held that a mother should be at home giving her full
attention to her children.
• This contrast between social norms and economic
realities caused tension.
Youth Culture
• Many youth sought to
emulate the
stereotypes of the
main stream.
• They wore poodle
skirts and sweaters.
• Hung out at the soda
shop, etc.
Youth Rebellion
• Other youths, however, rebelled against
the cultural norms of the time.
• The most popular images of youth
rebellion were the leather jacketed greaser
and the brooding young man.
The Beats
• Poets and Writers who
rejected contemporary
American society.
• Alan Ginsburg— “Howl.”
• Jack Kerouac– On The
Road
• William Burroughs—Naked
Lunch
Ginsburg and Kerouac
Beatniks
Main Stream Lit./Theatre
• J.D. Salinger– Catcher in the
Rye.
• John Updike – Rabbit, Run.
• Grace Metalious – Peyton Place
• Arthur Miller – Death of a
Salesman
• All deal with themes of
alienation.
Film
• Marlon Brando and
James Dean are the
actors most emblematic
of the Youth Rebellion.
• Marilyn Monroe is at her
height.
• Doris Day is the
archetype of the mainstream persona.
Music
•
With advent of TV, radio begins to rely more on music.
•
Term “Disc Jockey” conceived.
•
Rock and Roll is born.
•
Is an amalgamation of styles—mainly blues and country.
•
White performers like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis
rise to prominence by emulating the style of black
musicians.
•
Elvis is the biggest star, he is known as “The King.”
•
Other big-names are: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Big
Bopper, and Ritchie Valens.
•
Embraced mainly by teens and young adults so is thus
form of youth rebellion.
Art in the 50s
• Abstract Expressionism is the dominant style of
painting.
• Centered in NYC.
• Main Artists are: Jackson Pollock, Alan Rothko,
Robert Motherwell, Willem DeKooning.
• Edward Hopper is more a traditionalist. His
paintings show isolated, anonymous individuals.
Jackson Pollock
Edward Hopper
Mark Rothko
• Color Field
Post War Inventions and
Breakthroughs
• Salk Vaccine—1954, Prevents Polio.
• DDT—Chemical Pesticide that protected crops
from pests and prevented diseases caused by
insects such as Typhus and malaria. Only later
was it found to be toxic to humans and animals.
• UNIVAC—Universal Automatic Computer.
Developed by Remington Rand Company.
Fast Food
• More cars and
highways lead to Fast
Food Restaurants.
• McDonald’s is the
leading “franchise”
restaurant.
1950s: Good Times for Everybody?
• The economic boom applied mainly to
middle-class whites.
• African Americans and Latinos generally
did not share in the good times.
• The 1950s have often been described as a
time of social and cultural conformity. To
what degree is this statement true?