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1950s America
- 1. THE 1950s: “ Anxiety, Alienation, and Social Unrest” ?? “ Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment” OR
- 3. A Changing Workplace Automation : 1947-1957 factory workers decreased by 4.3%, eliminating 1.5 million blue-collar jobs. By 1956 more white-collar than blue-collar jobs in the U. S. Computers Mark I (1944). First IBM mainframe computer (1951). Corporate Consolidation : By 1960 600 corporations (1/2% of all U. S. companies) accounted for 53% of total corporate income. WHY?? Cold War military buildup.
- 4. The U. S. population was on the move in the 1950s. NE & Mid-W S & SW (“Sunbelt” states) $125 million in federal dollars poured into the region EVERY US President since 1964 has come from this region! Took political, economic power out of North/NE
- 9. SHIFTS IN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, 1940-1970 1940 1950 1960 1970 Central Cities 31.6% 32.3% 32.6% 32.0% Suburbs 19.5% 23.8% 30.7% 41.6% Rural Areas/ 48.9% 43.9% 36.7% 26.4% Small Towns U. S. Bureau of the Census.
- 14. Caption: "On this American model and hanging alongside her is a complete and stylish Soviet wardrobe. The total cost, excluding hat, is $461." Subtitle: "U.S. envoy's wife finds Moscow modes high priced, wide shouldered, not very handsome." The article begins: "The slender gams (legs) of the girl above give her away as American."
- 16. 1959: The Kitchen Debate “ Nixon stressed that Americans had abundant food and appliances to process and cook their food. Khrushchev satirically shot back, "Don't you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and pushes it down? Many things you've shown us are interesting but they are not needed in life.’” *cultural diplomacy*
- 20. First McDonald’s (1955) The automobile promotes mass culture Drive-In Movies
- 21. Vacationing 1955 Disneyland opened in Southern California. (40% of the guests came from outside California, most by car.) Frontier Land Main Street Tomorrow Land 1950 – CA overtakes NY as most populous state!
- 22. Television 1946 7,000 TV sets in the U. S. 1950 50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S. *90% of American households had TVs! Mass Audience TV celebrated traditional American values. “ Television is a vast wasteland.” Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1961 Truth, Justice, and the American way!
- 23. The Western Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier The Lone Ranger (and his faithful sidekick, Tonto): Sheriff Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke
- 25. “ Juvenile Delinquency” ??? Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953) James Dean in R ebel Without a Cause (1955) 1951 J. D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye
- 30. Hollywood : apex of the biblical epics. It’s un-American to be un-religious! -- The Christian Century , 1954 The Robe The Ten Commandments Ben Hur 1953 1956 1959
- 31. “ The Good Wife’s Guide” – a phony primary source?
- 34. The Changing Role of Women? FROM TO
- 36. Christian Dior - 1957
- 40. Some images/text courtesy Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Editor's Notes
- Prosperity and Poverty: In 1960, 5% of the population owned over 50% of the assets and 25% lived at or below the poverty line. Educational Opportunities: The GI Bill of 1945. Women in the workforce: Although the percent of married women working slowly increased, many left nontraditional jobs. Most worked as secretaries, stewardesses, nurses, or teachers. Civil Rights: Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)Demographics: Population shifted tot he suburbs. For the first time in 1960 the majority of Americans owned the home in which they lived. Television: Why Johnny Can’t Read (1955). By 1953, 50% of American homes had a TV; by 1960, 90% did. Baby boom: Over 4 million babies born each year from 1946-1960. Increased idealization of youth. Automobile culture: National System of Defense Highways Act (1956) built interstate system. Conformity: The Lonely Crowd (1950), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), The Hidden Persuaders (1957). Rock and Roll: Allan Freed’s Moondog’s Rock ‘n Roll Party goes on the air in 1952.
- There were three compelling reasons why Levittown, PA was built. 1. A Housing Shortage Troops returning home to the Philadelphia and Trenton metropolitan areas after World War II stepped into a housing crisis. Apartments were scarce and houses, when they could be found, were too expensive for veterans. Also, the GI Bill provided money for housing as well as education. Levitt & Sons capitalized on this housing crunch by offering affordable housing to these returning GIs and their families. This came in the form of Levittown, offering small, detached, single-family houses mass produced in planned neighborhoods. 2. Increased Mobility Lower Bucks County was close to population centers of Philadelphia and Trenton. The new and improved road and highway systems, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike, as well as the post-war trend an almost exponential increase in automobile ownership made the world seem a much smaller place and the “suburbs” not so far away. 3. Plenty of Jobs The Philadelphia and Trenton metropolitan areas had lots of jobs to offer. Also, large numbers of new, manufacturing jobs were located in the Levittown, PA area, by such companies as General Motors and the US Steel Fairless Works. US Steel broke ground for its new Fairless Works Division along the western bank of the Delaware River in early 1951. At the time, the Fairless Works was the second largest integrated plant on the East Coast. Many of the workers were transplanted from as far away as Gary, IN (from US Steel’s Gary Works) as well as from rural central PA, western PA and the coal regions. One thing they had in common was that they all needed housing.
- http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/17/us/benjamin-spock-world-s-pediatrician-dies-at-94.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
- Kitchen Debate transcript: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=176 The Kitchen Debate was a series of impromptu exchanges (through interpreters) between then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow on July 24, 1959. For the exhibition, an entire house was built that the American exhibitors claimed anyone in America could afford. It was filled with labor-saving and recreational devices meant to represent the fruits of the capitalist American consumer market. The debate was recorded on color videotape , a new technology pioneered in the U.S., and Nixon made reference to this fact; it was subsequently rebroadcast in both countries.
- Protofeminist is a term used to define women in a philosophical tradition that anticipated modern feminist concepts, yet lived in a time when the term "feminist" was unknown, [1] that is, prior to the 20th century. [2] [3] The precise use of the term is disputed, 18th-century feminism and 19th-century feminism being also subsumed under "feminism" proper.