The 1950s were a time of economic prosperity and suburban growth fueled by the GI Bill, affordable housing, and increased car ownership. However, there were also social tensions as new youth and countercultures emerged while racial segregation continued. The postwar era saw a rise in mass consumerism and popular culture influenced by new technologies like television.

1. THE 1950s:
“Conservatism, Complacency, and
Contentment”
OR
“Anxiety, Alienation, and
Social Unrest” ??
Ms. Stacey M. Hoye
Caprock HS Amarillo, TX

2. •Nickname: "Ike"
•Born: Oct. 14, 1890,
in Texas
•Died: March 28,
1969, in Washington,
D.C.
•Education: Graduate
of West Point
•WWII: Supreme
Allied Commander
during WWII
•34th President: Republican, 1953 to 1961
•VP: Richard Nixon

3. Baby Boomers
•It seems to me
that every other
young
housewife I see
is pregnant.
•British visitor to
America, 1958.
1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds

4. Baby Boomers
•During Great
Depression, birthrate
and population
decreased.
School Enrollment of children
•Post WWII, both
increase

5. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity
• Regional Growth: The Sunbelt
– Warmer climate, lower taxes, lower labor costs
– Military spending
Population Change, 1950-1960

6. The Culture of the Car
•The U. S. population was on the move in the
1950s.
•NE & Mid-W ---> S & SW (“Sunbelt” states)

7. On June 22,
1944, President
Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed
the "Servicemen's
Readjustment Act
of 1944"
“GI Bill of
Rights”

8. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity
• G.I. Bill of Rights (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of
1944)
– Education
• job training
• college
– Loans for homes and
businesses
G.I. Bill & College Enrollment

9. •Help veterans adjust to
civilian life after
separation from service
•Gain higher education if
you couldn’t afford one
•Restore lost educational
opportunities because of
military service.
•Enhance our nation
•FDR signing the GI Bill through a more highly
of Rights into law. educated and productive
•This was a correction of work force
our mistake after WWI.

10. GI Bill provided 6 benefits
•education and training
•Loans for a home, farm, or business
•unemployment pay of $20 a week for 52 weeks
•job-finding assistance
Eligible for GI Bill Benefits
WWII veteran, served 90 days or more after September
16, 1940 and a honorable discharge.
Program ended July 25, 1956
•Of the 15,440,000 veterans, some 7.8 million were
trained.
•2,230,000 in college
•3,480,000 in other schools
•1,400,000 in on-job training
•690,000 in farm training Total cost of the
World War II
education
program was
$14.5 billion.

11. Suburban Living
Levittown, L. I.: “The American Dream”
1949  William Levitt produced
150 houses per week.
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

12. Suburban Living:
The New “AmericAN DreAm”
1 story high
12’x19’ living room
2 bedrooms
tiled bathroom
garage
small backyard
front lawn
By 1960  1/3 of the U. S. population in
the suburbs.

13. Suburban Living
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. Suburban Living
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.

15. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Growth of Suburbs
REASONS FOR THE GROWTH OF SUBURBS
• Growth of families (“baby boom”)
• Home-ownership became more affordable
– Low-interest mortgage loans
• gov’t-backed & interest tax-deductable
– Mass-produced subdivisions
• Expressways – facilitated commuting
• Decline in inner city housing stock
• Also: congestion, pollution
• Race – “white flight”

16. Suburban Living
The Typical TV Suburban Families
Leave It to
The Donna
Beaver
Reed Show
1957-1963
1958-1966
Father Knows Best The Ozzie & Harriet Show
1954-1958 1952-1966

17. Highway Act of 1956
42,000 miles of interstate highways linking major
cities
Improve national defense
Good for jobs, trucking
Bad for the poor, public transportation

19. The Culture of the Car
America became a more homogeneous
nation because of the automobile.
First McDonald’s (1955) Drive-In Movies
Howard Johnson’s

20. The Culture of the Car
Car registrations: 1945 --> 25,000,000
1960 --> 60,000,000
2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958
1956 --> Federal Interstate Highway Act -->
largest public works project in American
history!
* Cost $32 billion
* 41,000 miles of new highways built

21. The Culture of the Car
1959 Chevy Corvette
1958 Pink Cadillac

22. The Culture of the Car
1955 --> Disneyland opened in Southern
California. (40% of the guests came
from outside California, most by car.)
Frontier Land Main Street Tomorrow Land

23. Truman’s “Fair Deal” program
called for improved housing
full employment
a higher minimum wage
better farm price supports
New Tennessee Valley Administrations
 extension of Social Security.
“Point Four Program”
financial support of poor, underdeveloped lands
keep underprivileged peoples from becoming communists.

24. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Organized Labor
• Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act of 1947)
• Unions – big, powerful and more conservative
– Merger AFL and CIO in 1955
– blue collar workers - enjoying middle-class incomes and benefits
– Goal: preserve and extend compensation
Labor Union
Membership, 1
920-1992

25. Consumerism
Americans were caught up in the “economic boom”
that took place after WWII
1950 --> Introduction of the Diner’s Card

26. Consumerism
Americans were becoming a consumer
society…..Buying whatever new product that came
out that would make their lives comfortable.

27. Television
1946 --> 7,000 TV sets in the U. S.
1950 --> 50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.
Television is a vast wasteland --> Newton
Minnow, Chairman of Federal
Communications Commission, 1961
RADIO AND
TELEVISION
OWNERSHIP, 1940–
1960
Mass Audience
•TV celebrated traditional American values:
•Superman-----Truth, Justice, and the American way!

28. Television
Davy Crockett--King of the Wild Frontier
Sheriff Matt Dillon,
Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger (and his
faithful sidekick, Tonto):
Who is that masked
man??

29. Television
Family Shows --> glossy view of mostly middle-
class suburban life.
Wally and the
Beav
I Love Lucy Alice Kramden,
The Honeymooners

30. Popular Culture
• Consumer-driven mass economy
Television
• By 1961, 55 million TV sets
• 3 national networks, bland sit-coms,
westerns, quiz shows, sports,
• “vast wasteland” for children, culture
Advertising
• All media, aggressive
• Shopping centers, credit cards
• Change from “mom & pop” to
franchises

31. Popular Culture
Paperback books
• Reading Increase despite
television—1 million copies a day
Records
• Mass-marketed, inexpensive LP’s
or 45’s
• Rock and Roll music becomes
popular with teenagers

32. Teen Culture
“Happy Days”
OR
“Juvenile Delinquency”?
Dobie Gillis Marlon Brando in James Dean in
The Wild One Rebel Without a
(1953) Cause (1955)

33. • Teen Culture developed (free
time, spending money)
– “teenager”
– consumerism
• By 1956, 13 million teens with $7
billion to spend a year.
• Rock and Roll
– Elvis Presley
• James Dean, “Rebel without a
Cause”
• “juvenile delinquency”
In the 1950s --> the word “teenager” entered the
American language.
1956 --> 13 mil. teens with $7 billion to spend a year.

34. Teen Culture
The “Beatnik” Generation:
* Jack Kerouac --> On The Road
* Allen Ginsberg --> poem, “Howl”
* Neal Cassady
* William S. Burroughs
A man is beat whenever he goes for broke and wagers
the sum of his resources on a single number; and the
young generation has done that continually from early
youth------------John Clellan Holms
•Jack Kerouac is said to have responded:
We’re a beat generation!
•Against traditional values of the Great Depressions and
WWII generation (their parents)
•Would influence the “counter-culture” of the 1960’s

35. Well-Defined Gender Roles
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
Marilyn
Monroe
The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector,
and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine, 1955
1956  William H. Whyte, Jr.
 The Organization Man
A a middle-class,
white suburban Family
male is the ideal. Man

36. Religious Revival
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
• Why??
– more a means of socialization and belonging
than evidence of interest in doctrine?
• atmosphere of tolerance
– stage of life?

37. Progress Through Science
1951 -- First IBM (commercial)
Mainframe Computer
1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test ENIAC, first mainframe computer, 1945
1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered
1954 -- Polio Vaccine Tested – Jonas Salk
1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant
1958 -- NASA Created  Automation: 1947-1957 - factory
workers decreased by 4.3%,
eliminating 1.5 million blue-collar jobs.