Post War- 1950’s American
Society
Reading Assignment
• Read Chapter 18
• Section 1,2,3 pages 598-624
• Quiz on Tuesday
Slang of the 1950’s
• List the terms we still use today.
Post War Economic Boom
• GI Bill
– Millions go to college-white collarmiddle class
– FHA makes low interest loans, spurs
growth of suburban American
• Consumer Goods-Cars, T.V.,
Appliances, AC, electric everything
• Wages increase by 20% during the
1950’s, dominate world
manufacturing
A Moving Society
• American’s love for cars is everywhere
in the 1950’s- overwhelming majority
have 1 by 1960
– Symbol of American freedom,
individualism, standard of living
– Car registrations: 1945- 25,000,000
1960 -60,000,000
– 2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958
• Interstate Highway Act of 1956- Builds
freeway system in the U.S.- 43,100
miles of road
• Today’s Problems
The Culture of the Car
‘Drive in’ culture, very socially mobile
society
First McDonald’s
(1955)
Howard
Johnson’s
Drive-In
Movies
Growth of the Suburbs- American
Dream and “White Flight”
• Levittown, Long Island was
one of the first ‘ideal’
suburban towns created
• Houses, streets, trees, etc. are
all the same
• “Little Boxes”
• White Flight- 1950’s-1960’smass movement of middle
class whites to the suburbs
• By 1960-1/3 of the U. S.
population in the suburbs.
• Sunbelt Migration
1949 -William Levitt produced
150 houses per week.
$7,990 or $60/month with no
down payment.
“Little Boxes”, 1962-Malvina Reynolds:
Critique of the American Dream
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
Suburban Living:
The Typical TV Suburban Families
Present a glossy image of ideal American life and values
The Donna
Reed Show
1958-1966
Leave It
to Beaver
1957-1963
I Love Lucy
1951-1957
Father Knows Best
1954-1958
The Ozzie & Harriet Show
1952-1966
Gender Roles
• T.V. shows, magazines,
advertisement and
government propaganda
promote the ‘ideal American
family’
• “Traditional Gender Roles”Reading
•
•
The ideal modern woman married, cooked
and
cared for her family, and kept herself busy by
joining the local PTA and leading a troop of
Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her
family’s suburban house and worked out on
the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.
-- Life magazine, 1956
The ideal 1950s man was the provider,
protector,
and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine,
1955
• Backlash against 50’s gender
role conformity.
• Betty Friedan writes the
groundbreaking book, “The
Feminine Mystique”.
• Sows seeds for Feminist
movement of 60’s.
American Dream in the 1950s
• White Middle Class America
thrived in the 1950’s
• Suburban Growth create new
‘ideal’ communities with many
activities
• Baby Boom- 1945-1964, largest in
U.S. History, 70+ million!
• Religious revival
• Keeping up with ‘The Joneses’
• McCarthyism and Cold War fears,
along with T.V. and government
propaganda, push for social
conformity
1950’s Consumerism
1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card
Spending on credit becomes the foundation of the
American economy!
Advertising drives America’s spending habits.
Television in the 1950s
1946  7,000 TV sets in the U. S.
1950  50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.
Mass Audience  TV celebrated traditional
American values.
Truth, Justice, and the American way!
Television – The Western
Davy Crockett
King of the Wild Frontier
Sheriff Matt
Dillon, Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Popular Culture Changes-Birth of Rock
and Roll
• Teenager culture drives pop culture
• Dances, diners, drive ins
• Rock and Roll is born -1951 Alan
Freed
• 1954-Elvis cuts ‘That’s alright Mama’,
Bill Haley ‘Rock Around the Clock’
• Elvis on T.V.
• Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy
Holly
• American Bandstand and The Ed
Sullivan Show dominate T.V.
Rebellion and Dissent
• The 1950’s sees a rise in juvenile
delinquency
• Rock and Roll was seen as the
devil’s music by some
• Hollywood had its rebels also...
• The Beat Generation: First
Counter Culture, roots of the
Hippie movement
• Jack Kerouac- On The Road
• Allen Ginsberg poem-“Howl”
The Other America: Poverty And
Segregation in the 1950s
• Not everyone sharing in prosperity.
• Jim Crow is still alive and well in the south.
• In the north, de-facto segregation and
discrimination.
• Women are questioning traditional gender roles.
• “The Feminine Mystique” is the beginning of the
Feminist Movement
• Not everyone conforming (Counter-culture)
• Poverty exists, but ‘mainstream America’ ignores it.
• “The Other America” is written to expose poverty.
• “The Invisible Man” is written to expose racism and
segregation