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Contrasting Cultures: The “Fifties” and the “Sixties” : Contrasting Cultures: The “Fifties” and the “Sixties” -Key Concepts-


I. The “Fifties”: Affluence and Anxiety : I. The “Fifties”: Affluence and Anxiety


A. Life in the Suburbs : A. Life in the Suburbs Optimism and pessimism both characterized the 50’s Explosion of homebuilding during the decade Levittown Ease of financing for new homes Levittown “uniformity”


A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) : A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) Diversity under the surface at Levittown Post-war growth of American suburbs Dramatic population growth in the “Sunbelt” Increased mobility in the American population in general American “car culture”


A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) : A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) Post-War “Baby Boom” A new “Consumer Revolution” Origins of Fifties economic growth Real economic growth crossed class lines


A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) : A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) Age of the credit card arrived Leisure hours increased Growth of the “middle class” white-collar sector Big business kept getting bigger


A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) : A. Life in the Suburbs (cont.) Changes in American shopping patterns Concerns with growing materialism The crucial role of advertising Doubts about the strength of national character


B. Life in the Home : B. Life in the Home Home became the focus of activities “Togetherness” Television image of family togetherness No encouragement of feminism after WWII Life’s “ideal” middle-class woman (1956)


B. Life in the Home (cont.) : B. Life in the Home (cont.) The advice of baby doctor Benjamin Spock --The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946) Number of working women doubled between 1940-1960 --40% of all women and 33% of all married women worked outside of the home by 1960


C. Religion and the Media : C. Religion and the Media Organized religion flourished in the 50’s -- “Church shopping” The Power of Positive Thinking (1952) Fifties preaching avoided condemnation and controversy Symbols of 50’s Religious Enthusiasm -- “In God We Trust”


C. Religion and the Media (cont.) : C. Religion and the Media (cont.) Religion and the Cold War Religion on television “Neo-orthodoxy” and critics of 50’s religious culture Educational controversy during the decade


C. Religion and the Media (cont.) : C. Religion and the Media (cont.) Television became the largest growth area for an expanding American media --1946: 7,000 sets --1960: 50 million sets TV’s impact on culture Advertising on TV Fifties television programming


D. The Politics of the 1950’s : D. The Politics of the 1950’s


(1) The Election of 1952 : (1) The Election of 1952 Competition for the Republican nomination Democrats nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois The Campaign and Results -- “I Like Ike” Republicans failed to control Congress in the 50’s


(2) “Dynamic Conservatism”: The Eisenhower Presidency : (2) “Dynamic Conservatism”: The Eisenhower Presidency Eisenhower’s background and personality Eisenhower’s controversial cabinet Eisenhower’s priority of budget cutting Extending the reach of the “New Deal”


(2) “Dynamic Conservatism” (cont.) : (2) “Dynamic Conservatism” (cont.) Eisenhower’s heart attack and the election of 1956 Second Term “problems” Second Term “accomplishments” --Hawaii and Alaska statehood (1959) Eisenhower’s “Farewell Address” -- “military-industrial” complex


E. An Underlying Anxiety : E. An Underlying Anxiety


(1) Critics of Consumer Society : (1) Critics of Consumer Society Abundance of self-criticism in the 1950’s David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd (1950) -- “inner-directed” vs. “outer-directed” Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) Other literary critiques of the 1950’s


(1) Critics of Consumer Society (cont.) : (1) Critics of Consumer Society (cont.) Critique of American business in the 50’s The art of Edward Hopper Art becomes increasingly abstract The subculture of the “Beatniks” Beatniks pursue personal versus social solutions to their anxieties


(1) Critics of Consumer Society (cont.) : (1) Critics of Consumer Society (cont.) Beat poet Allen Ginsberg -- “Howl” (1956) William Burroughs -- Naked Lunch (1959) Jack Kerouac -- On the Road (1957) Contrast with the Hippies Anti-authority movies The Elvis “Revolution”


(2) The Second “Red Scare” : (2) The Second “Red Scare” House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Presidential loyalty oaths (1947) The Alger Hiss affair (1948) The climate for “McCarthyism” --Ethel and Julius Rosenberg


(2) The Second “Red Scare” (cont.) : (2) The Second “Red Scare” (cont.) “Communists in the State Department” (February of 1950) McCarthy’s tactics Growing fear of McCarthy in Washington, D.C. McCarthy’s attack on “subversive” books McCarthy and Eisenhower


(2) The Second “Red Scare” (cont.) : (2) The Second “Red Scare” (cont.) The Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954) --Army counsel Joseph Welch McCarthy’s demise Spirit of McCarthyism lived on “Frozen dissent” during the 1950’s


(3) Reaction to Sputnik : (3) Reaction to Sputnik Soviets launch “Sputnik” (October, 1957) American reaction to Sputnik NASA created (1958) “Project Apollo” and the race to the moon National Defense Education Act (1958) Commission on National Goals


II. The “Sixties”: Protest and Reaction : II. The “Sixties”: Protest and Reaction


A. The Politics of the 1960’s : A. The Politics of the 1960’s


(1) The Election of 1960 : (1) The Election of 1960 Richard Nixon (R-Ca) vs. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) The Kennedy family and political ambition -- Profiles in Courage (1956) Campaign issues and strategies Election Results


(2) The “New Frontier” Under Kennedy : (2) The “New Frontier” Under Kennedy Kennedy youthfulness and Cabinet appointments --Robert McNamara The “Kennedy” Style Difficulties in launching a domestic program --The Peace Corps (1961) Kennedy’s assassination (November 22, 1963) --The “Camelot” mystique


B. Important Supreme Court Decisions of the 1960’s : B. Important Supreme Court Decisions of the 1960’s Warren Court decisions continue to be controversial Prohibition of school prayer (1962) Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) Miranda v. Arizona (1966)


C. Life on College Campuses : C. Life on College Campuses Boom in college enrollments A new “adversarial” culture attacking materialism “Students for a Democratic Society” (SDS) -- “participatory democracy” --Founder: Tom Hayden -- “The New Left”


C. Life on College Campuses (cont.) : C. Life on College Campuses (cont.) Growth of the SDS Increasing radicalism and violence The “Weathermen” By 1971, the “New Left” was dead SDS as a symbol of youth in the 60’s Still, SDS was a minority symbol of the era


D. Student Revolt : D. Student Revolt Roots of student protest The Free Speech Movement (1964) --Berkeley student leader Mario Savio Causes of campus unrest -- “Don’t trust anyone over thirty!” First student teach-ins at the University of Michigan (1965)


D. Student Revolt (cont.) : D. Student Revolt (cont.) Growing threat of the draft to college men Draft resistance and evasion Mass student protests at Central Park and the Pentagon (1967) Sit-ins at Columbia University (April, 1968) Major gains of the protest were educational


E. The Cultural Revolution : E. The Cultural Revolution Much more pervasive and influential than the political revolution of the 60’s Values challenged through physical appearance The rise and fall of communal living --Haight-Ashbury


E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) : E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) The Woodstock Music Festival (August, 1969) Protest music of the mid-60’s --Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel


E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) : E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) Drug music and political radicalism of the late sixties -- “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” -- “You Say You Want a Revolution” --Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane


E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) : E. The Cultural Revolution (cont.) The role of drugs in the Counter-Culture --Dr. Timothy Leary The “Yippies” The Crippling of the Cultural Revolution (1969-1970) The commercialization of the Counter-Culture Environmentalism becomes the new student cause of the 70’s


F. Native American Nationalism : F. Native American Nationalism The poor, different nationalities and homosexuals all emulated the Black Power movement The plight of Native Americans in the 60’s Protest of sports mascots AIM and its takeover of Alcatraz (1969) Legal action taken


G. Hispanic Nationalism : G. Hispanic Nationalism Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association --boycott strategy Explosive growth of Hispanic American population -- “Chicanos” Campaign for educational opportunities and programs No more “Frito Bandito”


H. Women’s Liberation : H. Women’s Liberation New wave of feminism grew out of other reform efforts Signs of gender inequality during the 60’s Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) 1964 Civil Rights Act: no job discrimination on the basis of sex


H. Women’s Liberation (cont.) : H. Women’s Liberation (cont.) Forms of protest by 60’s women activists National Organization of Women (NOW—1966) Division within the women’s movement The Equal Rights Amendment (1972) Roe v. Wade (1973) The “quiet revolution”


III. Comparisons of the Fifties and the Sixties? : III. Comparisons of the Fifties and the Sixties?