American
Society in Post
WWII
1950’s – 1960’s
The 1950’s
A Time for
Innocence
The perfect life, the
consumer life???
Conformity
Polio Vaccine
• deadly children’s
disease
• destruction of
nervous system
(paralysis)
• FDR – wheel chair
bound
• virus nearly ended in
1950’s because of
vaccine
• now, very rare in U.S.
The Red Scare
• fear of
communism
due to Cold War
(competition
with the Soviet
Union)
Arizona
• growth in the “Sunbelt”
– states in the SW
• population increasing - why?
– AIR CONDITIONER
– COPPER = king of Arizona economy
•jobs
– Army = largest source of revenue for AZ
•industrial development
– inland protection from aerial attacks
(the nukes)
• movement to the suburbs
• AZ’s economy post WWII  GOOD
the Automobile
• changed America’s living patterns
 never be without your car
– Drive in movies
– Suburbs – could travel back & forth
– Motor hotels – stay the night before
hitting the road
• Route 66
The Suburbs
• Highways made it possible to live outside
the city & commute quickly to work
• Housing developments increase
– offer larger homes, new appliances,
lower prices
– consumer culture (cars, TVS,
washer/dryer, etc.)
• Because of the move, BABY BOOM
– increase in babies born
after WWII
• Suburban mothers stayed
home
– full time mother
Leave it to Beaver Culture
“Beatniks”
• young generation of
writers who criticized
American life through
their unusual writing
and their rebellious
behavior
• Jack Kerouac (author)
– encouraged people to
reject American
traditional society &
find your own path
• Beat writings inspired
young people to question
the rules of mainstream
America
• Not a huge movement
(suburban children were
mainstream)
Rock ‘N Roll
• mainstream teenagers
challenging society
• drew heavily from African
American rhythm & blues
• Elvis Presley – most defined
singer for the new white
teenage culture
• Rock & Roll  juvenile
delinquency???
• concern over musical
integration (black &
white kids mingling)
mirrored civil rights
struggle
Jackie Robinson
• 1st black baseball
player in the
majors; began a
new era in sports
& society (blacks
are just as good as
whites)
• ended 80 years of
baseball
segregation
• civil rights
activist
1960’s
For a times, they
are a changing
Counterculture = Hippies
(a way of life that differed
from mainstream America)
Pop Art
Music
• British Pop Music
– the Beatles, the Rolling Stones
• Folk Music
– Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel
• Soul Music
– Motown: Stevie Wonder, Aretha
Franklin, the Jackson 5
• Rock Music
– Woodstock: Jimmy Hendrix,
Janis Joplin
Civil Rights
• Segregated but equal???
• struggle for minorities to get
same rights as white male
Americans
– work at same place, go to same
movie theater, sit in same area in
church, bus, etc.
– women, Hispanics, Natives, &
African Americans
Reforms
• Kennedy’s New Frontier
• Johnson’s Great Society
– Medicare, Medicaid, Peace Corps
Peace Corps
• Kennedy takes office in 1960
– New Frontier – a set of proposals asking
Americans to look beyond themselves
and to work for freedom & justice
throughout the world
– Peace Corps (part of New Frontier
plan)
•a program to send American
volunteers to developing countries to
work on a wide variety of
improvement projects
•basic purpose: aid people in
underdeveloped areas
The Great Society
• President Lyndon Johnson’s reform
& aid for Americans living in
poverty
• WAR ON POVERTY!
– aimed to provide the poor with
education & job training
• Medicare – helps people over 65
meet medical expenses by including
them in a govt. health plan
• Medicaid – provides health
insurance for people with low
incomes