AP US History presentation on the 1960s

1. Affluence
AP US History

2. Affluence

3. Affluence

4. Affluence
• 1950s television
programs such as
“Leave it to Beaver” or
“Ozzie and Harriet”
depicted ideal suburban
families with a working
husband and stay at
home mother.

5. Affluence
• Feminist Betty
Friedan fueled
controversy with her
book The Feminine
Mystique, which
launched the
modern feminist
movement.

6. Consumer Culture
• The 1950s witnessed a
huge expansion of the
middle class and a
consumer culture.
• Diner’s Club introduced
the plastic credit card in
1949, just one year after
the first McDonald’s
hamburger stand opened
in California.
• In 1955 Disneyland
opened in Anaheim,
California.

7. Consumer Culture
• Televangelists such
as Billy Graham
and Pentecostal
preacher Oral
Roberts stormed
the airwaves as
well.

8. Consumer Culture
• The chief revolutionary
was Elvis Presley, who
fused black rhythm and
blues with white
bluegrass and country
styles.
• This new musical style
would forever be
known as ‘rock and roll.’

9. Consumer Culture
• Movie stars such as
Marilyn Monroe also
helped to popularize new
standards of sexuality.
• Harvard economist John
Kenneth Galbraith called
into question the relation
between private wealth
and the public good in a
series of books beginning
with The Affluent Society
(1958).