1. THE
1950s

3. 1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds
Post-War Baby Boom
“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

6. $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.
Growth of the Suburbs
Levittown: “The American Dream”
1949  William Levitt produced houses per week.
Suburbs of New York and Philadelphia
Many suburbs included discriminatory restrictions on who could move in.
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

7. National Interstate and Defense Highway System, 1956
Largest Public Works Project in US History

8. 1950s Car Culture! Hot-Rods Fast-Food NASCAR Muscle Cars Malls
Car registrations:  25,000,  60,000,000
Hot-Rods
Fast-Food
NASCAR
Muscle Cars
Malls
Drive-In Movies
Drag Racing

9. A Changing Workplace
Automation:
By 1956  more white-collar than blue-collar jobs in the U. S.
Computers!  Mark I (1944).
First IB mainframe computer (1951).
Corporate Consolidation:
By 1960  600 corporations (1/2% of all U. S. companies) accounted for 53% of total corporate income.

10. G.I. Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944)
Education
job training
college
Loans for homes and
businesses
J. Jones, P. Wood, et al, CREATED EQUAL: A Social and Political History of the US,

11. G.I. Bill & College Enrollment

12. “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

13. Gender Roles Return of the Cult of Domesticity NOW WITH CONSUMERISM!
Harriet the Housewife over Rosie the Riveter
Starker Definitions of
Masculinity and Femininity
Idea of “Family” as society’s nucleus

16. Even so . . .
Two books studies by Alfred Kinsey challenged the traditional narrative.
1948  Sexual Behavior in the Human Male  Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
Conclusions:
Premarital sex was common.
Extramarital affairs were frequent among married couples.
Homosexual relationships more common than expected.

17. 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

18. Religious Revival Marked Increase in Religiousness in 1950s.
Possible Cold War influence [?]
Church Membership rose by 78%.
95% of Americans professed a belief in God.
Religious Community > Doctrinal Debates

19. Truth, Justice, and the American way!
Television
1946  7,000 TV sets in the U. S  50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.
TV celebrated traditional American values.
Leave it
to Beaver
Truth, Justice, and the American way!