1. The Fifties – The Four A’s
ANXIETY, ANTI-COMMUNISM, AFFLUENCE, ALIENATION

2. ANXIETY

4. Truman, the old county judge
Truman, the old county judge. Had said in ’41 if Germans are winning, help the Russians, and vice versa. Thought he could do business with Joe Stalin, like Tom Pedergast, local party boss, Kansas City. “From Brest on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic.” Soviets consider the Churchill Speech in March 5, 1946 the beginning of cold war. Arguments over who started go round and round. Truman erupts over Polish “elections”

5. Cold War
We’re not going to shoot at each other….too horrific to contemplate…but we will use proxies to try to win over the world.

6. The Russian Bomb, ‘49

7. Civil Defense
Bert the Turtle Says
“Duck and Cover”

9. Our H-Bomb, ‘52

10. Their H-bomb, ‘53

11. “New Look”: Mutual Assured Destruction

12. October 4, 1957

15. This is Only A Test…

16. Push Button Age

17. Fallout

19. No Need to Worry

20. There Wouldn’t Be Such Anxiety if it wasn’t for those Godless Communists!

21. ANTI-COMMUNISM

22. International Communism is a Disease

23. CONTAINMENT STALEMATE more than VICTORY
Truman Doctrine, ’47
Marshall Plan, ‘48
Berlin Blockade/Airlift, ’48-’49
NATO, ‘49
Korean War, ’50-’53

24. Domestic Anti-Communism

25. Fighting Commies at Home
J. Edgar Hoover
FBI
Richard Nixon
Sen. Joe McCarthy
205 Names!

26. Execute A Few
P.S. They Were Guilty

27. Put A Few Behind Bars
Alger Hiss
Hollywood Ten

28. Ruin a Few Careers
Dalton Trumbo – Blacklisted 13 years

29. Who You Can Trust?
Loyalty Oaths, 1950

30. They Could Be Hiding Under Your Bed!

31. You Could Bowl with One on Tuesdays

32. Conformist Society: Don’t Stand Out in A Crowd

33. Whatever Communists Don’t Like, We Like: State vs. Family

34. Everyone is Getting Married

35. Even in the Comics

36. Post War Baby Boom

37. Woman’s Place
But, Women work more as decade goes on

38. Gender Roles Very Clear

39. Return of the Full Figured Star

40. TV Tells us How to Behave
Cult of Domesticity

41. Heroes and Villains

42. Stalin Tears Down Moscow’s Cathedral
Atheism vs. Godliness
Stalin Tears Down Moscow’s Cathedral
To Build….

43. We Get More Religious

44. “Under God…”

45. Highest Standard of Living in History
Family, Religion, Gender Roles Separate Us from Communists But, Bottom Line, We’re Also Far Wealthier
Highest Standard of Living in History

46. AFFLUENCE

47. U.S. Economic Dominance
After World War II – U.S. Produces 45% of World Economy
July, ’44. In 1945, the U.S. produced half the world's coal, two-thirds of the oil, and more than half of the electricity. The U.S. was able to produce great quantities of machinery, including ships, airplanes, vehicles, armaments, machine tools, and chemicals. Reinforcing the initial advantage—and assuring the U.S. unmistakable leadership in the capitalist world—the U.S. held 80% of gold reserves and had not only a powerful army but also the atomic bomb. Other currencies fixed to dollar, dollar fixed at $35 per ounce. IMF policed exchange rates, needed approval to change. World Bank to make loans to help countries recover.

48. G.I. Bill

49. Marshall Plan, 1947 $13 Billion in aid to Western Europe
Especially France and Italy – why?
Huge Success Home & Abroad
Offered aid to Communist countries too…of course Stalin says no. There is a reason why East Europe never fully recovers under Soviets

50. Consumption is Patriotic!

51. $10,000 homes – FHA and VA Loans
Suburbs
$10,000 homes – FHA and VA Loans

52. Business and Labor Harmony
Big Business Booms
Big Labor Prospers
Good Pay, 40 hour week
Factory Workers Buy Homes
60% Americans Are Home Owners
Big Business Booms – enjoys high reputation and image from wartime contribution

53. Credit Cards Diners’ Club, 1950 Sears cards for the rest of us
Sears bets on abundance after war…MW bets on contraction. Guess who wins.

54. Interstate Highway System
IKE started in Remembers traveling across country on Lincoln highway in Lobbied hard by automakers. Justification was Civil Defense and Military Movement. No question helped movement of goods cross the country.

55. Vacation and Leisure
                                                

56. New Industries

57. ALIENATION
Who are These Malcontents?

58. The Warren Court
Brown v Board of Education, 1954

59. 19 Million Blacks Are A Little Tired of This
De Jure or De Facto, It Still Spells Segregation

60. Suburban American Dream?

61. Public Accomodations Rosa Parks, 1955
Martin Luther King – Why Ministers?
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956
Importance of having ministers lead the movement…to counter complaints of Communism…student sit ins in Greensboro….

62. School Integration

63. Abstract Expressionism
Jackson Pollock

64. Extreme Comics

65. BeBop
Charlie Parker
Dizzie Gillespie

66. Literature: Chaos, Spontaneity, Alienation
The BEATS
Burroughs, Ginsburg, Kerouac

67. SEX! -- Alfred Kinsey
Sexual Behavior
’48 Males
’53 Females

68. Sex
Which View Represented the 50’s?
Playboy
1953

70. Youth culture and rebellion
Anti-Materialism,
Anti-Conformity
Marlon Brando
James Dean
Youth culture and rebellion
Sultry youth…looking for something besides the mainstream values…reaction against consensus, bland, bottled up and tranquilized 50’s.

71. POPULAR MUSIC First Teen Market 45’s and Radio Shows
Elvis Presley changes
everything
Elvis rebels against norms about race, sex, class, and the protestant work ethic

72. The Fifties – The Four A’s
ANXIETY, ANTI-COMMUNISM, AFFLUENCE, ALIENATION