1. Notes on Cold War Culture

2. Baby Boom: dramatic inc birthrates following WWII (1946-1964)
Effect: Levittown – the first postwar suburb (Long, Island, NY)
Effect: Interstate Highway Act created 41,000 miles of new highway to connect major cities

3. Red scare: fear communist conspirators would overthrow the government
Effect on television
TV = social influence
Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best
TV dinners = popular

4. Television I Love Lucy Superman Davy Crockett “Bonanza”
“Leave it to Beaver”

5. Hollywood used aliens as a metaphor for whom ??
b. Popular movies reflects the fears of the time
i. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
ii. “War of the Worlds”
Hollywood used aliens as a metaphor for whom ??

6. c. TV = Political Influence
Senator Joseph McCarthy: Claimed to have list of known communists in state department… Targets government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators, and union activists
HUAC = (House of Un-American Activities Committee) – investigated suspected communists in Hollywood

7. iii. Presidential debates (Kennedy / Nixon, 1960)
iv. Civil Rights Movement – shows violence in South
Reason for Nixon’s defeat…. Kennedy is just sooooo cute 

8. 2. Effect on technology Space Race Computers, televisions, cell phones
US develops hydrogen bomb
Soviets develop Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
Soviets launch sputnik: orbiting satellite
US (Neil Armstrong) lands on the moon (1969)
Computers, televisions, cell phones

9. I’m gonna make bigger and better guns than you!!! HA!

11. 3. Effect on education… Eisenhower’s response
NASA – National Aeronautic Space Administration
National Defense of Education Act of 1958: improve science and math in schools to defeat Soviets

12. 4. Fear of nuclear war a. Atomic Anxieties:
“Duck-and-Cover Generation”
b. Atomic Testing:
i. U. S. exploded nuclear weapons over Pacific and in Nevada.
Honda's original cut is rife with nuclear references. Godzilla is clearly awakened by American offshore testing of hydrogen bombs, and he spews atomic breath. Government officials debate -- members of the Japanese government believe Godzilla's atomic origins should be kept from the public to avoid panic; but a female senator (a new phenomenon at the time) says the truth must be told.