The Fifties – The Four A’s
ANXIETY, ANTI-COMMUNISM,
AFFLUENCE, ALIENATION
ANXIETY
Cold War
The Russian Bomb, ‘49
Our H-Bomb, ‘52
Their H-bomb, ‘53
“New Look”:
Mutual Assured Destruction
October 4, 1957
This is Only A Test…
Civil Defense
Bert the Turtle Says
“Duck and Cover”
Fallout
No Need to Worry
There Wouldn’t Be Such Anxiety
if it wasn’t for those Godless
Communists!
ANTI-COMMUNISM
International Communism is a
Disease
Domestic Anti-Communism
•
Fighting Commies at Home
J. Edgar Hoover
FBI
Richard Nixon
Sen. Joe McCarthy
205 Names!
Execute A Few
P.S. They Were Guilty
Put A Few Behind Bars
Hollywood Ten
Alger Hiss
Ruin a Few Careers
Dalton Trumbo – Blacklisted 13 years
Who You Can Trust?
Loyalty Oaths, 1950
They Could Be Hiding Under
Your Bed!
You Could Bowl with One on
Tuesdays
Conformist Society:
Don’t Stand Out in A Crowd
Whatever Communists Don’t
Like, We Like:
State vs. Family
Everyone is Getting Married
Even in the
Comics
Post War Baby Boom
Woman’s Place
But, Women work more as
decade goes on
Gender Roles Very Clear
Return of the Full Figured Star
TV Tells us How to Behave
Cult of Domesticity
Heroes and Villains
Atheism vs. Godliness
Stalin Tears Down Moscow’s Cathedral
To Build….
We Get More Religious
“Under God…”
Family, Religion, Gender Roles
Separate Us from Communists
But, Bottom Line, We’re Also
Far Wealthier
Highest Standard of Living in History
AFFLUENCE
U.S. Economic Dominance
After World War II – U.S.
Produces 45% of World
Economy
G.I. Bill
Marshall Plan, 1947
• $13 Billion in
aid to Western
Europe
• Especially
France and Italy
– why?
• Huge Success
Home & Abroad
Suburbs
$10,000 homes – FHA and VA Loans
Business and Labor Harmony
• Big Business Booms
• Big Labor Prospers
– Good Pay, 40 hour week
– Factory Workers Buy Homes
– 60% Americans Are Home
Owners
Credit Cards
• Diners’ Club, 1950
• Sears cards for the rest of us
Interstate Highway System
Vacation and Leisure
New Industries
Consumption is Patriotic!
ALIENATION
Who are These Malcontents?
Exlusion = Alienation
De Jure or De Facto, It Still Spells Segregation
Suburban American Dream?
Public Accomodations
• Rosa Parks, 1955
• Martin Luther King – Why Ministers?
• Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956
The Warren Court
Brown v Board of Education, 1954
School Integration
Conformity = Alienation
Abstract Expressionism
Jackson Pollock
BeBop
Charlie Parker
Dizzie Gillespie
Literature: Chaos, Spontaneity,
Alienation
The BEATS
Burroughs, Ginsburg, Kerouac
Sex
• Which View Represented the 50’s?
Playboy
1953
•
•
•
•
Anti-Materialism,
Anti-Conformity
Marlon Brando
James Dean
Youth culture and
rebellion
Extreme Comics
Birth of Rock’n’Roll
A 5th “A”??
Anticipation
The Fifties – The Four A’s
ANXIETY, ANTI-COMMUNISM,
AFFLUENCE, ALIENATION