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![•1. DON'T TALK
•Oh, did Mavis from next door insult your prize winning squash? Did little Timmy get sent home for starting fires again? That
shooting pain in your left arm just keeps getting more intense? Keep it to yourself! Your man works all through his day and the
last thing he needs to hear about is yours. Refer to the first four commandments on “How to be a Good Wife” Edward Podolsky
gives in his 1943 book, Sex Today in Wedded Life:
•Don’t bother your husband with petty troubles and complaints when he comes home from work.
•Be a good listener. Let him tell you his troubles; yours will seem trivial in comparison.
•Remember your most important job is to build up and maintain his ego (which gets bruised plenty in business). Morale is a
woman’s business.
•Let him relax before dinner. Discuss family problems after the inner man has been satisfied.
•In his 1951 book, Sex Satisfaction and Happy Marriage, Reverend Alfred Henry Tyrer has more to add to that. Do not ask for
things. This is called "nagging":
•I verily believe that the happiness of homes is destroyed more frequently by the habit of nagging than by any other one. A
man may stand that sort of thing (nagging) for a long time, but the chances are against his standing it permanently. If he
needs peace to make life bearable, he will have to look for it elsewhere than in his own house. And it is quite likely that he
will look.
•Unless your husband wants you to talk. Then don’t you dare disappoint him. Says Reverend Tyrer:
•“If [the husband] is intellectually inclined, and from time to time seeks to explain little things to her so that she may have at
least a bare knowledge of what it is that interests him, and, without the slightest comment, she takes up again the fashion
magazine she laid down when he commenced to speak, we may be pretty sure that there is going to be a ‘rift in the lute’
sooner or later in that house.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/apushlecturech-160412222912/85/APUSH-Lecture-Ch-28-41-320.jpg)
![CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:
Gender Roles & Women
◆ At end of WWII, many women left the
work force
◆ “pink collar” jobs
◆ Paid less - seen primarily as wives and mothers
◆ However, by end of decade 33% of
women held jobs
◆ More married women joined workforce,
especially as they reached middle age
◆ Why? - Betty Friedan Feminine Mystique
◆ "The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years
in the minds of American women. It was a strange
stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a longing that
women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in
the United States. Each suburban [house]wife
struggled with it alone. As she made the beds,
shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even
of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?"](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/apushlecturech-160412222912/85/APUSH-Lecture-Ch-28-46-320.jpg)
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APUSH Lecture Ch. 28
- 1. The 1950s: TheHappy Days
- 2. SRQ for Ch.28 Background: The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic growth and rising social contentment and conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing affluence and comfortable domesticity, social critics expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture in the 1950s. •Assess the validity of the above statement and explain how the decade of the 1950s laid the groundwork for the social and political turbulence of the 1960s.
- 3. Baby Boom •It seemsto me that every other young housewife I see is pregnant. - British visitor to America, 1958 •1957: 1 baby born every 7 seconds
- 4. Baby boom 1946-1964 •1950US population was 151 million •Slow growth during the first 50 years of 20th c. •Traditionally, US population had doubled every twenty-five years •WWII ends - Americans have money to spend on homes and families •From 1946-1964 seventy-six million babies were born •By 1964, 4/10 Americans were of the “baby boom” generation •Boom leads to establishment of a child-based culture in America • Dr. Benjamin Spock “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” • Best seller for decades. Advocated for more nurturing with kids, rather than strict or tough. “Focus on Individualism”
- 5. The Baby Boomin Historical Context
- 6. The generations of the20th century
- 7. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY:Economic Prosperity Reasons for Prosperity: ◆ Pent-up savings ◆ Lack of foreign competition ◆ Government spending ◆ military (Korean War, Cold War) ◆ G.I. Bill ◆ Expansion of suburbs – grew 47% during decade ◆ stimulated demand for cars and homes
- 8. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY:Economic Prosperity ◆ Regional Growth: The Sunbelt ◆ Warmer climate, lower taxes, lower labor costs ◆ Military spending Population Change, 1950-1960
- 9. “What’s good for{America} is good for General Motors” • Wages during the 1950s rose by more than 1/3 • Pent-up spending habits led to a burst of consumerism • Low unemployment (19 in 20 had work) • Most Americans desired home ownership as a symbol of prosperity • Economy dominated by manufacturing and service sector jobs • Almost all industries were blossoming and new industries emerged • plastics, electronics and computers, airline industry • 1950s were the heyday of the modern corporation • GM, Ford, GE, IBM, Boeing and US Steel
- 10. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Corporate America ◆ Automation ◆ 1947-1957: Factory workers decreased by 4.3% (1.5 million jobs) ◆ By 1956 more white collar jobs in America than blue collar ◆ IBM mainframe 1951 - growth of science and computers ◆ Consolidation ◆ 1960 - 600 corporations (1/2% of all U.S. companies) accounted for 53% of total corporate income ◆ Why? Cold War military buildup ◆ Conglomerates (food processing, hotels, transportation, insurance, banking) ◆ Corporate culture - “The Company Man” Sloan Wilson’s The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
- 11. Birth of theSuburbs: Levittown, NY • William Levitt - desired to build the “General Motors of the housing industry” • assembly line principles to home construction • standard 2 bed/1 bath homes • sold for $6,990 - initially just for vets • Fed. Gov. through FHA backs low downpayment loans to encourage home ownership • Designed as “bedroom communities” • further encouraged the growth of cars/roads • Levittown showcased the increasingly influential middle class • Growth of wealth • “economies of scale”
- 12.
- 13. Population Shifts 1940s Cities 32% Suburbs 20% Rural49% 1950s Cities 32% Suburbs 24% Rural 44% 1960s Cities 33% Suburbs 31% Rural 37% 1970s Cities 32% Suburbs 42% Rural 26%
- 15. REASONS FOR THE GROWTHOF SUBURBS ◆ Growth of families (“baby boom”) ◆ Home-ownership became more affordable ◆ Low-interest mortgage loans ◆ gov’t-backed & interest tax deductible ◆ Mass-produced subdivisions ◆ Expressways – facilitated commuting ◆ Decline in inner city housing stock ◆ Also: congestion, pollution ◆ Race – “white flight”
- 16. REASONS FOR THE GROWTHOF SUBURBS ◆ Growth of suburbs came with growth of TV - connected them to national culture “Americana” ◆ Shows focused on ‘families’ ◆ Suburbs were settled in racially homogeneous patterns. ◆ “Blockbusting” - relators would buy low on white owned homes and sell high to minority buyers. ◆ Restrictive covenants - racially restrictive residential sale laws. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Growth of Suburbs
- 18.
- 19. AMERICAN CULTURE ISA CAR CULTURE ◆ Car registrations: 1945 - 25,000,000; 1960 - 60,000,000 ◆ 2-car families double from 1951-1958 ◆ Federal Highway Act (1956) ◆ (National Defense and) Interstate Highway System ◆ Result: a more homogeneous nation. Largest public works project in the world. 41,000 mi of new roadway at 32 billion • Established national roadways • N to S ending in 5 • E to W ending in 0 • Its purpose was to provide a way of transporting heavy weaponry across the US. • Further encouraged the growing American car culture and the “atomization” of America
- 21. •Automobiles symbolize anew lifestyle •The freedom provided by the car fit the tenor of the era •Embracing freedom meant embracing the open road and car in the 1950s
- 22. All things werenot equal •Freedom of the road was not equally possessed, however. •The Negro Motorist ‘Green Book’ which was established pre-WWII, was a popular and frequently used guide for African-Americans who wanted to travel and needed information on businesses friendly to blacks. •Especially popular throughout the southern states.
- 23. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Car Culture First McDonald’s (1955) •America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile. •Franchise restaurants focused on convenience and speed. •New industries were created as a result of the growing influence of the automobile Drive-In Movies Howard Johnson’s
- 24. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Consumer Culture ◆ Advertising (tv, radio, magazines) name brands ◆ Suburban shopping centers (The Mall) ◆ Credit Cards ◆ Rise of Franchises (McDonalds)
- 25. Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate” ◆Public spat between Nixon and Khrushchev over which country better provided for their populations ◆ When viewing a model kitchen for an American family Khrushchev replied “it was capitalized attitude towards woman” ◆ Nixon cut back saying “an average steel worker could afford all of it” ◆ Dawn of “consumer politics”
- 26. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Television ◆ Television arrived in the 50s ◆ 1946 - 7,000 TV sets in U.S. ◆ 1960- 46,000,000 (1 per 3.3 persons) ◆ “Television is a vast wasteland” - Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Fed. Comm Commission, 1961 ◆ Common mass culture built on suburban middle class values RADIO AND TELEVISION OWNERSHIP, 1940–1960
- 27. Entertainment • Television programsemerge as a main form of family entertainment • Disney is a leader in TV and film • Disneyland opens in 1955 (first theme park) • princess-complex: develops/ encouraged among young girls of the baby boom generation • Spectator sports emerge in the 1950s • TV contracts were generously given to sports to encourage athleticism in the American youth. • Football is a Cold War era product
- 28. Suburban Living: Both‘typical’ middle class families and working class Leave It to Beaver 1957-1963 Father Knows Best 1954-1958 The Honeymooners 1957-1958
- 29. The Golden Ageof the Western •The peak year for television westerns was 1959, with 26 shows airing during prime-time. In one week in March 1959, eight of the top ten shows were westerns. •Westerns paralleled the conflict between the US and Soviet Union. Promoted rugged individualism and moral value in protecting the weak from abuse.
- 30. College Football: FromIvy Sport to American Pastime •The Cold War era spawned a host of anxieties in American society, and in response, Americans sought cultural institutions that reinforced their sense of national identity. •Football, a team sport, exemplified a commitment to hard work, teamwork, and overcoming pain. Toughness and defiance were primary virtues, and many found in the game an idealized American identity. •Even early terms were war-like: Long bomb, sack, blitz, formation, trenches, neutral zone,
- 31. •The reason TVcouples were not allowed in bed together harkened back to the Hayes Code, a series of rules and regulations designed to moderate the action of Hollywood film industry directors and producers in the 1930s. The Hayes Code censorship guidelines dictated that a man and woman could never be seen in the same bed. If the situation occurred that a man and woman were on the same bed together, one of them had to keep a leg on the floor. So, for instance, a man could sit on the side of a bed and talk to a woman in the bed, but one of his legs had to maintain contact with the floor at all times. The Hayes Codes also prohibited the navel of a woman to be displayed in the screen. •The Hayes Code was replaced by the MPAA Ratings announced in November 1968 (G, PG/PG-13, R and X rating guidelines). •When Lucy was pregnant she couldn't say the word pregnant. She had dialogue such as "I'm with child", or "I'm having a baby".
- 32. Sexuality • Alfred Kinsey,“Kinsey Reports” in 1948 and 1953 • Findings: 1.Premarital sex was common 2.Extramarital affairs were frequent/not uncommon 3.Same sex/homosexuality was present and homosexuals did engage in sex as frequently as heterosexuals 4.People commonly valued sex for pleasure not procreation. • “Kinsey’s results are an assault on the family as a basic unit of society, a negation of moral law, and a celebration of licentiousness.” - Life Magazine, early 1950s
- 34. The Lavender Scare •Communists andthe homosexual populations were both viewed as threats to standard American culture. •The belief that closeted homosexuals were a threat to nationalism was rampant and ‘gay-ness’ was routinely referred to as a potential invasion that needed containment. •Federal officials believed that homosexuality was a mental illness that made them more likely to accept bribery or blackmail and thus commit treason. •April 27, 1953 - Eisenhower signed executive order 10450 that required the finding and firing of all gay federal employees - 5000+ affected (currently still legal to fire someone for being gay in 29 states) •Early resistance in SF, LA and Philadelphia - Daughters of Bilitis and Mattachine Society
- 37. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: GenderRoles & Women ◆ Traditional gender roles reaffirmed ◆ baby boom ◆ home in suburbs ◆ mass media ◆ Dr. Benjamin Spock’s best- selling book Baby and Child Care (1946) 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
- 38. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: GenderRoles & Women ◆ Playboy magazine starts publication in 1953 ◆ This alone with continuation of ‘pin-up’ girl popularity built a modern understanding of beauty and attractiveness. ◆ Women encouraged to be more ‘damsel in distress’
- 39. Gender Roles/ Etiquette Enforced “Mywhole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.” Ruth Hadler creator of Barbie, 1959 Disney’s Cinderella, 1950 Wishing for a better life “No matter how your heart is feeling, if you keep on believing, a dream that you wish, will come true.”
- 40.
- 41. •1. DON'T TALK •Oh,did Mavis from next door insult your prize winning squash? Did little Timmy get sent home for starting fires again? That shooting pain in your left arm just keeps getting more intense? Keep it to yourself! Your man works all through his day and the last thing he needs to hear about is yours. Refer to the first four commandments on “How to be a Good Wife” Edward Podolsky gives in his 1943 book, Sex Today in Wedded Life: •Don’t bother your husband with petty troubles and complaints when he comes home from work. •Be a good listener. Let him tell you his troubles; yours will seem trivial in comparison. •Remember your most important job is to build up and maintain his ego (which gets bruised plenty in business). Morale is a woman’s business. •Let him relax before dinner. Discuss family problems after the inner man has been satisfied. •In his 1951 book, Sex Satisfaction and Happy Marriage, Reverend Alfred Henry Tyrer has more to add to that. Do not ask for things. This is called "nagging": •I verily believe that the happiness of homes is destroyed more frequently by the habit of nagging than by any other one. A man may stand that sort of thing (nagging) for a long time, but the chances are against his standing it permanently. If he needs peace to make life bearable, he will have to look for it elsewhere than in his own house. And it is quite likely that he will look. •Unless your husband wants you to talk. Then don’t you dare disappoint him. Says Reverend Tyrer: •“If [the husband] is intellectually inclined, and from time to time seeks to explain little things to her so that she may have at least a bare knowledge of what it is that interests him, and, without the slightest comment, she takes up again the fashion magazine she laid down when he commenced to speak, we may be pretty sure that there is going to be a ‘rift in the lute’ sooner or later in that house.”
- 43. DON'T BE ASEXUAL VAMPIRE OR A FRIGID FRANNY •Of course, as Dr. Robinson tells us, it is possible to be over-cooked. Then you become a “sexual vampire” and you will drive your husband to his grave, feasting on his life force. •Just as the vampire sucks the blood of its victims in their sleep while they are alive, so does the woman vampire suck the life and exhaust the vitality of her male partner—or "victim." •The opposite of that is to be frigid, of course. That means you take no particular pleasure from the sexual act with your husband. Oh, "we should talk it out openly and honestly," you say? Maybe see a doctor, a therapist? •Now, if you are one of those frigid or sexually anesthetic women, don’t be in a hurry to inform your husband about it. To the man it makes no difference in the pleasurableness of the act whether you are frigid or not unless he knows that you are frigid. And he won’t know unless you tell him, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Heed this advice. It has saved thousands of women from trouble.
- 46. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: GenderRoles & Women ◆ At end of WWII, many women left the work force ◆ “pink collar” jobs ◆ Paid less - seen primarily as wives and mothers ◆ However, by end of decade 33% of women held jobs ◆ More married women joined workforce, especially as they reached middle age ◆ Why? - Betty Friedan Feminine Mystique ◆ "The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a longing that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban [house]wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?"
- 47. OTHER AMERICAS: NONCONFORMISTS& CULTURAL REBELS Teen Culture developed (free time, spending money) ◆ Seventeen magazine published in 1944 ◆ “teenager” - coined during 1950s ◆ consumerism ◆By 1956, 13 million teens with $7 billion to spend a year. Rock and Roll ◆ James Brown ◆ Elvis Presley ◆ American Bandstand with Dick Clark Movies and Literature ◆ James Dean, “Rebel without a Cause” “juvenile delinquency” ◆ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) ◆ Marlon Brando, The Wild One (1953) ◆ James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- 48. OTHER AMERICAS: NONCONFORMISTS & CULTURALREBELS ◆ Behavioral Rules of the 1950s ◆ Obey Authority ◆ Control Your Emotions ◆ Don’t Make Waves - Fit In ◆ Be Sexually Conservative
- 49. Beginnings of RockMusic Alan FreedBill Haley & the Comets Elvis Johnny Cash
- 50. OTHER AMERICAS: NONCONFORMISTS& CULTURAL REBELS ◆ “Beats” – “Beatniks” ◆ Allen Ginsberg – “Howl” (1956) ◆ Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957) Alan Ginsburg, 1953 Jack Kerouac with his cat
- 51. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Religion ◆ Organized religion expanded dramatically after WW2 ◆ Church/synagogue memberships reached highest level in US history ◆ 1940 - 64,000,000; 1960 - 114,000,000 ◆ thousands of new churches and synagogues built in suburbs ◆ Reasons for growth: ◆ a means of socialization and belonging ◆ God-faring capitalist vs. Godless communists • Individualism vs. State worship
- 52. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Religion ◆ Television fueled the growth of ‘Televangelism’ ◆ None bigger than Reverend Billy Graham: ecumenical message warned against evils of Communism ◆ Media even reflected America’s religiosity ◆ The Robe, 1953 ◆ The Ten Commandments, 1956 ◆ Ben Hur, 1959
- 53. CHANGES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY& MEDICINE 1951 -- First IBM (commercial) Mainframe Computer 1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test 1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered 1954 -- Polio Vaccine Tested – Jonas Salk 1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant 1958 -- NASA Created 1959 -- Press Conference of the First Seven American Astronauts ENIAC, first mainframe computer, 1945 Automation: 1947-1957 - factory workers decreased by 4.3%, eliminating 1.5 million blue-collar jobs.
- 55.
- 57. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY:Politics Election of 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson ◆ Ike won: 34 million to 27 million popular votes; 442 to 89 electoral votes. “Modern Republicanism” ◆ Fiscal Conservative: sound business principles, Reduce federal spending, balance budget and cut taxes ◆ Social Moderate: maintain existing social and economic legislation ◆ Tried to avoid partisan conflicts ◆ Federal Highway Act (1956) President Eisenhower (Courtesy Dwight D. Eisenhower Library) Ike with VP Nixon on the Links.
- 58. Dwight Eisenhower: ForeignPolicy •Ended the Korean War •US failure in Hungary increases involvement in other regions, including Latin America, East Asia and Middle East (Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, Cuba, Guatemala) •US paying 80% of costs for France in Vietnam •1953 CIA coup props up Shah Pahlavi in Iran •Suez Canal Crisis with Gamal Nasser, 1956 •1959, Fidel Castro takes power and joins with USSR
- 59. Dwight D. Eisenhower •EisenhowerDoctrine - that the US was prepared to use force to defend any country from communism. •Sputnik and Sputnik II, 1957 •race over ICBM capability consumed the 1950s defense industry •John Foster Dulles warned of a “science and missile gap.” We needed military investment to catch up. •1958 - National Defense Education Act •Increase in math and science, inc. start of AP program
- 60. Military Industrial Complex •Armsbuild up (M.A.D.) encouraged by John Foster Dulles •America had ICBMs in Turkey •Idea was defensive in nature - to have the ability to respond to a first strike •Military Industrial Complex - a term coined by Eisenhower that refers to the relationship of our military to the private companies and corporations that supply the country with military equipment
- 62. 1950 total US Budget= $40 billion •$12 billion spent on military 1960 total US Budget = $92 billion •$60 billion spent on military
- 63. •The legacy ofthe Cold War in America is a nation whose culture and economy are strongly attached to weapon production and war •Nearly every major weapons manufacturer is a US based company The Reality of Eisenhower’s Warning
- 64. •While military spendingas a % of budget has declined from the 1950s, the US still spends more than the next 10 nations combined. •All of these nations are allies •Recent Brown and Harvard studies place total cost of just the Iraq war from 2003-2010 from 1.1 to 3 trillion dollars
- 65.
- 66. Girl in frontof dome atomic bomb shelter As the Cold War intensified and the Soviets became a nuclear power, the government began to consider methods to survive a nuclear war. One "solution" was to encourage people to build backyard bomb shelters. Pictured here is one family's atomic bomb shelter that slept six. The cost was $1,250 in 1951. Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelter
- 68. A Society Focusedon Nuclear Weapons Duck and Cover Invasion of the Body Snatchers ⇦"Fallout shelter built by Louis Severance adjacent to his home near Akron, Mich., includes a special ventilation and escape hatch, an entrance to his basement, tiny kitchen, running water, sanitary facilities, and a sleeping and living area for the family of four. The shelter cost about $1,000. It has a 10-inch reinforced concrete ceiling with thick earth cover and concrete walls."
- 70. Even fashion trendswere connected to Cold War readiness
- 73. Atomic Age Science Fiction •UFOsightings skyrocketed in the 1950s •Aliens were used as a metaphor for invaders (communist)
- 74. The Duck andCover Generation •Atomic Anxieties •Testing of atomic weapons from 1946-1962 •217 nuclear weapons tests in Pacific Ocean and in Nevada
- 75. Mars Bluff -Or that 1st time we almost dropped a bomb on ourselves •On March 11, 1958, an Air Force B-47 flying to UK from Georgia carrying a 26-kiloton Mark 6 nuclear bomb (about twice the strength of Hiroshima bomb, Little Boy) •As the plane was cruising over South Carolina, the pilots noticed that a light in the cockpit was indicating a problem with the locking pin on the bomb harnesses in the cargo bay. (It was standard M.A.D. policy to carry nuclear weapons at all times just in case a war broke out with the Soviet Union). •Air Force Captain Bruce Kulka decided to go back and check out the problem. •While pulling himself up from the plane floor, he reached around the bomb to steady himself, but ended up grabbing the the bomb’s emergency release pin instead. •The bomb dropped to the floor of the plane, and its weight pushed open the bomb bay doors, and fell 15,000 feet toward rural South Carolina. •Fortunately for the entire East Coast, the bomb’s fission core was stored in a separate part of the plane, meaning that it wasn’t technically armed. •Unfortunately for Walter Gregg, it was still loaded with about 7,600 pounds of traditional explosives. The resulting explosion leveled his house, flattened a good section of the forest, and created a mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles. When the dust had settled, the bomb had caused a 25-foot-deep crater that measured 75 feet wide, and while it had injured a number of Gregg’s family members, miraculously, not a single person was killed.
- 77. Phew that wasclose, part 2: Must be a Carolina thing? •January 23, 1961, a B-52 bomber broke up mid air, dropping two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs over Goldsboro, North Carolina. •While one bomb never activated, the second one had its trigger mechanisms engage and its parachute open, two things that only happen when the bomb is intended to explode on target. •By luck, one low-voltage trigger malfunction kept it from detonating upon landing.