1. Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment” “Anxiety, Alienation, and
THE 1950s:
Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment” OR
“Anxiety, Alienation, and
Social Unrest” ??
How America Changed…

2. 1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds
Baby Boom
Children born between 1946 and 1964 after WWII
1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds

3. Suburban Living Levittown, L. I.: “The American Dream”
1949  William Levitt produced houses per week.
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment. GI Bill loans helped pay for it. .

4. Suburban Living
GI Bill – Provided vocational /educational training or college $$
Provided loans to buy a house/ start a business
Even 1 year of unemployment compensation
Segregated- No African Americans allowed.

5. The Other Side—African Americans
GI Bill – Not many banks offered loans to African-Americans
African-Americans kept out of suburbs- no sell/threats/ violence
“white flight” As Af-Am moved into cities whites headed out- fearing minority population-to more “white” homogeneous neighborhoods
Segregation- Neighborhoods
still racially divided today.

6. Highways aid suburb boom
1956 Interstate Highway Act (41,000 miles creates)
Connected city jobs to suburbs.
Coast to coast- 2 wks.

7. The Culture of the Car
Car registrations:  25,000,  60,000,000
2-family cars doubles from
1958 Pink Cadillac
1959 Chevy Corvette
1956  Interstate Highway Act  largest public works project in American history!
Cost $32 billion.
41,000 miles of new highways built.

8. 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

10. The Culture of the Car
The U. S. population was on the move in the 1950s.
NE & Mid-W  S & SW (“Sunbelt” states)
1955  Disneyland opened in Southern California (40% of the guests came from outside California, most by car.)
Frontier Land
Main Street
Tomorrow Land

11. Cars- Move to the Sunbelt

12. Consumerism New wave of consumerism - You can buy your happiness!!!
All babies were potential consumers who spearheaded a brand-new market for food, clothing, and shelter Life Magazine (May, 1958)

13. Television Truth, Justice, and the American way!
1946  7,000 TV sets in the U. S  50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.
Mass Audience  TV celebrated traditional American values.
Father Knows Best
Leave it to Beaver
Truth, Justice, and the American way!

14. Television 1952 TV Guide outsold every other magazine.
1954 TV Dinner introduced
TV =center of consumer
culture.

15. Television – Teaching Americans
Shows like Leave it to Beaver, and I love Lucy portrayed a perfect family life----not reality.
Moms were always pretty and doing domestic things
Children were adventurous but obedient
Dads never worked late, never lost their temper and knew all the right answers.
Everyone obeyed authority.

16. 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
A middle-class, white suburban businessman is the ideal.
Mad Men is a modern portrayal
“Corporate Culture”

17. 3E.. Television - Family Shows
Glossy view of mostly middle-class suburban life.
I Love Lucy
The Honeymooners

18. 3D. Television – The Western
Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier
Sheriff Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger (and his faithful sidekick, Tonto): Who is that masked man??

19. 4A. A Changing Workplace Automation:
 factory workers decreased by %, 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).

20. 1951  “race music”  “ROCK ‘N ROLL” Elvis Presley  “The King”
1951 – Cleveland "My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll".
characterized by electric guitars /instruments
strong rhythm / accent
on the offbeat,
fast tempo, drums
Simple phrases /
youth-oriented lyrics
Elvis Presley  “The King”

21. 7A. Why rock n’ roll mattered
Went against stereotypes
Created inter-racial discussion
Challenged roles of sex/ gender
Little Richard
Chuck Berry

22. Teen Culture
In the 1950s  the word “teenager” entered the American language. By 1956  13 mil. teens with $7 bil. to spend a year. Teens given new “freedoms” – disposable income, cars their own music & films - Mostly produced by adults

23. Behavioral Rules of the 1950s:
Teen Culture
Behavioral Rules of the 1950s:
Obey Authority.
Control Your Emotions.
Don’t Make Waves  Fit in with the Group.
Don’t Even Think About Sex!!!
Yea right!

24. Teen Culture “Juvenile Delinquency” ???
1951  J. D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye
Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953)
James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

25. Teen Culture The “Beat” Generation: “Beatnik” “Clean” Teen
Jack Kerouac  On The Road
Let’s read!
“Beatnik”
“Clean” Teen

26. 10A. Progress Through Science
First IBM Mainframe Computer
Hydrogen Bomb Test
DNA Structure Discovered
Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio
First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant
NASA Created
Press Conference of the First American Astronauts

27. 10C. Progress Through Science
UFO Sightings skyrocketed in the 1950s.
War of the Worlds
Hollywood used aliens as a metaphor for whom ??

28. The 50s Come to a Close 1959  Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate”
Cold War -----> Tensions
<----- Technology & Affluence