Name: __________________ 19.2 Notes “The American Dream in the Fifties”
Vocabulary:
1. Conglomerate: Major corporations that owns smaller companies in unrelated industries
2. Franchise: Company that offers similar products or services in many locations
3. Baby Boom: Soaring birthrate from 1945 to 1964
4. Dr. Jonas Stalk: Developer of a vaccine to prevent polio
5. Consumerism: Excessive concern with buying material goods
6. Planned Obsolescence: Purposely making products to become outdated or wear out quickly
The Organization and the Organization Man
 Economy grew rapidly in the 1950s and the nature of labor transformed from blue-collar to
white collar jobs
 Blue-Collar jobs were the factory jobs ($) and White-Collar jobs were in offices ($$$)
 QUESTION: Match the job to the collar! Blue-Collar=BC and White-Collar=WC
1. Sales
7. Advertising
2. Ford automotive plant
8. Manufacturing
3. Steelworker
9. Insurance
4. Coalminer
10. Rail Stockyard
5. Communications
6. Clerical
 As businesses grew they began to form Conglomerates, or major corporations that owned
smaller unrelated companies
o International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT)- original business was communication,
bought a car-rental and insurance or investment companies
o American Telephone and Telegraph (ATT)
o Xerox
o General Electric (GE)
 QUESTION: How might a parent company benefit from this diversification?
 Some businesses expanded through franchising, which allowed an individual to buy rights to
sale similar products at various locations under the same logo or brand.
o McDonalds
o Dunkin Donuts
o Kentucky Fried Chicken
o Pizza Hut
 QUESTION: Name a franchise that is not on this list and is popular today?
 These large companies offered well-paying, secure jobs to certain kinds of workers
o These workers were conformist, or team players
o They were company people who would “fit-in” and not rock the boat
o Businesses rewarded loyalty rather than creativity
o They promoted a sameness, or standardization, of people as well as products
 Books such as The Organization Man and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit criticized this
conformity(agreement to an idea)
 QUESTION: What do employers look for today and has it changed since the 1950s, if so explain?
The Suburban Life Style
 Many enjoyed the benefits of a booming economy
 Many worked in cities, but commuted(drove) from the suburbs
o Of the 13mil houses built in the 1950s, 85% were in suburbs
 They had the American Dream-of a single family home, good schools, and a safe neighborhood
with people just like themselves
 There was increase in births, called the Baby Boom (late 1940s-1960s )
o It was caused by the reuniting of families after the war
 Aspirations of large families (1 birth/every 7 seconds) a total of 4, 308,000 a
year
 Resulting in the largest generation in US history
 Marriage age was younger resulting in a younger birthing rate
o Growing prosperity
o Medical advances- which wiped out childhood diseases (typhoid and polio)
 Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio which had killed or crippled 58,000
children a year
 The baby boom created a need for more schools and products for children
o Suburban family life revolved around the children
o Many parents depended on advice from Dr. Benjamin Spock an author of a popular
babe care book
 He said it was important that mother stayed at home with their children
 He advised parents not to spank or scold their children and include them in
decision making
 Question: What problems can you predict the Baby Boom generation will cause in the future?
 Women’s roles in the 40s-60s
o 40% in 1960 of mothers worked outside of the home leaving the majority at home
o Career opportunities limited to the usual pink-collar jobs and were paid less
o The role as homemaker and mother was glorified in popular magazines and TV
programs, such as, Father Knows Best and Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
o Time magazine described homemaker as the “key figure in all of suburbia, the thread
that weaves between family and community- the keeper of the dream.”
o Not all women were satisfied with this role
 QUESTION: What is the role of the woman in today’s society?
 Leisure in the 1950s
o Americans had more of it
o They spent time and money (30bill in 53) on leisure activities, such as, sports (Bowling
and golf), reading (Comic books, Readers Digest and Sports Illustrated), spectator events
(baseball, football, and basketball), and television.
o The Scouts and Little League became popular also
 Question: Compare the present to the 1950s are there any similarities and differences in trends?
The Automobile Culture
 Cars become very important during the 1950s
o Easy credit
o Cheap gasoline
o Both led to the boom in automobile ownership
o 1950s the number of automobiles increased from 40 to 60million
o There was no public transportation in the suburbs
 People needed cars
o Needed it drive to work
o Shop and errands
o Causing a need for more and better roads
o Led to the building of national highway networks
 These roads changed business
o Long distance trucking replaced the dependence on commercial rail shipping
o Drive-in movies and restaurants
o Motels and shopping malls were built
 Automobiles also caused problems
o Stressful traffic jams
o Air pollution
o Accidents
o Many white people left the cities and left mostly poor people in crowded inner cities
o They took the jobs and services with them to the suburbs.
o This widened the gap between middle and lower class
 QUESTION: How have automobiles changed your life and society as a whole?
Consumerism Unbound
 By the mid 1950s, nearly 60% of Americans were in the middle class
 They had more money and more products
 They measured success by their consumerism, or the amount of material goods they bought
o Some products that fled the market and made life easier were; washing machines,
dryers, blenders, freezers, and dishwashers
o Other items that made 1950s life more enjoyable were Televisions, tape recorders,
power lawn mowers, swimming pools, barbeques, and lawn decorations
 Manufactures tried new marketing strategies called planned obsolescence (purposefully making
products to become outdated or will wear out quickly)
o Americans began throwing items in order to buy “new models” to stay current, which
led to the title of “throw away society.”
o Easy credit, including the first ever credit card and the installment plan encouraged
people to buy, which increased the national private debt
 The 1950s were “the advertising age.”
o Ads were everywhere
o Even on the new medium of TV
o They persuaded Americans to buy things they didn’t need
o They appealed to people’s desire for status and a sense of belonging
 QUESTION: Is today’s society more consumerist or minimalists? Why?