1. 1950s America

2. The Baby Boom Between 1946 and 1964, the birthrate soared. As soldiers returned from WWII, they settled in to family life. In 1957, at the height of the Baby Boom, one infant was born every seven seconds.

3. The Prosperity of the 1950s 1950s America was very prosperous. Its prosperity was shown with the purchase of much more goods and services than ever before. Many more people were buying homes on the G.I. Bill and moving to the suburbs. Suburbanization

4. White Flight Millions of middle class white Americans left the cities for the suburbs. They took with them precious economic resources. At the same time the rural poor moved to inner cities. Cities began to fail as a result of a lack of businesses and economic activity. The National Housing Act of 1949 was passed which provided public housing for the urban poor.

5. The Subculture of the 1950s The Beat Movement Many nonconformists, called Beatniks, cared little for material things and lived in places like Greenwich Village in NYC, and San Francisco. Beatniks were artists, novelists and poets who expressed themes of traveling, drugs, and other countercultural things. Rock and Roll Musicians who added electric guitars to traditional blues music. Many adults condemned this aspect of the 50s subculture because the felt that it would lead to delinquency and immorality. http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM Greasers Bikers, motorheads, and others who were a part of the noncomformist subculture http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=9tLU_-8VIrs http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=9tLU_-8VIrs