Day 9 Agenda
Enduring Understanding
• Due to changing technology
and new opportunities,
American society in the
1950s headed towards a
more simultaneously more
diverse and more
homogenous culture
1. Consider how culture
spreads in the past and in
the present
2. Create a poster displaying
cause and effect for a
given area in the 1950s
3. Use your classmates’
posters to fill out Chapter
4 Graphic Organizer
4. Complete worksheet on
cultural critics
5. Decide whether you
agree or disagree with
the cultural critics
How did/does “culture” spread?
•
Consider the above question in these five time
periods
– Ancient History
– Colonial America
– 19th century
– Post World-War II
– Present Day
• Does technology lead to a more or less
diverse culture?
Cause & Effect Poster
• There were a variety of changes in Postwar
America. These changes effected society, the
economy, and individual lives.
• In groups of three, you will create a poster
that demonstrates the “Cause & Effect” of
these changes
• Then you will hang up your posters and fill out
the graphic organizer in your packet (pp. 2-3)
using your classmates’ posters
Instructions for Poster
• Explain Cause & Effect for your topic
– Cause: What led to this change?
– Effect: What impact did this change have on
American society?
• Informative
• You can use diagrams, words, flow charts, or
pictures to show cause & effect of your topic.
• Be Creative!
Teen Culture
• Causes
– Baby boom
– Prosperity
– TV
– Growth of compulsory high school education
– Consumerism and marketing
• Effects
• Generational separation of music, arts, cinema, fashion and
attitudinal values of young people from older people
• Desegregation of music (white people listened to “black”
music), popularity of rock’n’roll, concern about juvenile
delinquency, promotion of post-materialist values, greater
sexual “freedom”
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes
Description
effects
Returning soldiers
Positive view of future
Social pressures to get
married & have kids
Delayed marriage due to
depression and war while
younger people got
married
Medical advances
Economic prosperity
Baby boom
Large number of children
born from 1946 to 1964.
Largest generation in
terms of birth rate and
number of children born
(the current generation is
bigger by number, but
smaller by birth rate
Changes in baby and
childcare (Spock)
Housing and school
crunch leads to boom in
building each
New industries to cater
to the new generation ie
toys, games
Late fifties teen culture
Advertising, suburbia,
economic growth leading
to widespread prosperity,
social pressures to beat
the Joneses, easy credit
Rise of consumerism
People buying lots of
stuff that make life easier
and more enjoyable
Economic boom, 2
income households
building malls, consumer
society equates stuff w/
class, minority feelings of
relative deprivation, debt
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes
Description
effects
Levittowns and other
developments made low
cost housing for middle
class, GI Bill, FHA loans,
changes in the tax code,
returning soldiers having
babies, TV &
entertainment defined
the American Dream
Rise of suburbs
Large #’s of people
moving to areas outside
cities to larger plots of
land, newer schools,
safer neighborhoods,
privacy
Decline of cities and their
tax base, services
moving out to suburbs,
weakened public
transport, malls,
suburban sprawl,
pollution, 85% of new
homes after ’48 built in
suburbs, commuting to
cities
Prosperity
Access to capital
Defense industries
Better educated workers
global trade begins
Rise of Corp. Am.
Consolidation vertically &
horizontally of the means
of production in to the
hands of a few – 53% of
income earned by 600
firms
Increased productivity by
using technology and
economy of scale,
concentration of wealth
& income, homogenized
of jobs & products,
increased investment and
political power of
defense contractors
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes
Description
effects
Prosperity and economic
growth, GI Bill education,
automation &
technology, consumer
demand and product
diversification
Changes in labor
Fewer blue-collar jobs,
more white-collar jobs,
more specialized skills
needed, more service
jobs
Decline in blue-unions,
small increase in whiteunion members, more
low-paying white collar,
good relations b/t
business & labor begat
better health & pension
benefits, origin of union
decline,
Television, fear of
communism, reaction to
consumerism, promotion
of American values &
reassurances in a time of
fear of communism &
loss of security due to
rapid changes
Religion
Large increase in church
attendance and
membership, TV
preachers, growth in
bible sales, public
displays of religiosity,
“Under God” ’54 & “In
“God We Trust” ‘55
Religious movies,
televangelists having
social and political
influence, but not
necessarily an increase in
a deep commitment to
faith commensurate with
the large increase in
public religiosity
Causes
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Description
effects
Rise of suburbia
Advertising
Consumer society of
status awareness
Innovations
prosperity
Car Culture
Cars become the center
of transportation and a
symbol of prosperity
Interstate Highway Act,
malls, drive-ins, travel,
mobility of families,
homogenization,
competition, jobs,
weakening of cities,
pollution, decline of
public transportation
Baby boom
Prosperity
TV
Growth of compulsory
high school education
Consumerism and
marketing
Teen Culture
Generational separation
of music, arts, cinema,
fashion and attitudinal
values of young people
from older people
Desegregation of music,
popularity of rock’n’roll,
concern about juvenile
delinquency, promotion
of post-materialist
values, greater sexual
“freedom”
Criticisms of Cultural Change
• Religious leaders – thought that the culture was
getting away from traditional American values
because there was the promotion of sex, gender
role changes, the evil of greed, covetousness
through advertising and consumerism and
increased violence in media.
• Writers/artists – thought that the culture was too
conformist and stifling, too homogenized, lacking
in creativity and individuality – too bland.
• Sociologists – thought there was too much peer
pressure, too inner directed with individualized
goals rather than social communal and outerdirected goals. They believed there was a loss of
individual personality due the need to work within
an organization system
• Was cultural change in the 1950s positive or
negative?
• Did it lead to more or less diversity?