American Society In The 1950's

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

Question you must post your answers to the following questions in good essay form by April 11. You MUST include citations to the Schulman article found in files in addition to the Brinkley textbook

Historians tend to portray the 1950’s as a decade of prosperity, conformity, and consensus, and the 1960’s as a decade of turbulence, protest, and disillusionment. Do you agree or disagree with this view? Show evidence to support your argument.

“We`re book burners to. We burn read the books then burnt then, afraid that they`de be found.” (Bradbury, 145). Bradbury`s quote is telling us that firemen came together after doing similar things. The 1950’s were a time of great conformity. Pictures of fashion and commercials demonstrate conformity, opposed to political cartoons.Commercials are also an example of conformity, because the people unify in their materials. Fashion is also an example of conformity, because people are coming together in style. Finally the political cartoons demonstrate rebellion, because in the pictures people are rebelling the government.

As the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States strengthened in the late 1940s and mid 1950s, mania over the apparent risk postured by Communists in the U.S. got to be known as the Red Scare. (Communists were frequently alluded to as "Reds" for their constancy to the red Soviet signal.) The Red Scare prompted a scope of activities that had a significant and persevering impact on U.S. government and society. Elected workers were investigated to figure out if they were adequately faithful to the administration, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, and also U.S. Congressperson Joseph R. McCarthy, examined affirmations of subversive components in the legislature and the Hollywood film industry. The atmosphere of apprehension

The Civil Rights Era in the 60’s and 70’s was filled with many protests and political disarray, which threatened the instability and past stance that the U.S. had taken with the issue. With the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, the Court had agreed with the desegregation of public institutions, but never gave a timeline for when to enforce or be done with enforcing it. This caused much uproar as many southern states, including South Carolina and Texas, ignored or slowly implemented desegregation and continued to do so until the 70’s, even after the passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The stifling racism in the social environment limited the success of the laws made to protect colored people’s rights.

During World War II, there was tolerance for communism in the United States, but after the war ended and the Cold War began, that tolerance was gone. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was being developed even before the fighting stopped. Multiple crises that follow each other one after the other over the years such as the Greek Civil War and the Korean war made the United States come to regard the Soviet Union as a hostile power committed to expanding communism worldwide. The fear that the American public felt from their domestic Communists came from their government’s attempt for gathering support for the Cold War. The effects of people such as J. Edgar Hoover and Truman dehumanized the American Communists to the

Media and suburbs have defined and shaped American ideals in various ways, ranging from the ideal family structure in America, the ideal appearance and behavior of individuals to the ideal social arrangement and division in America. Media defined the America dream as the ability of a family to live in suburbs and follow the gender-specific functions in American society. Through overwhelming representations of suburbia in media, suburb living was shaped as an American ideal in the 1950s. Media portrays an ideal American home-life as one that involves home ownership in suburbs, which represented social status, guaranteed family stability and happiness. Therefore, the lives of middle-class families in suburbs have been widely depicted in sitcoms

One of the worst stains on American culture of the time was racial inequality. Despite being freed from slavery nearly a century before the end of WWII, African American’s were still treated like second-class citizens in the South and discrimination was still common. While change for African American’s and other minorities came slowly, it did eventually come. In the early 1950s, some states began establishing laws guaranteeing fair employment practices, and anti-discrimination laws. In 1954 Brown v. Board of Education lead the way for the desegregation of public schools.

During the post-war era on American living, an institution of conformity rapidly arises in the 1950s. The expansion of traditional values, leaning towards a system known as the “culture of conformity”, commits into the daily lives of Americans to integrate a suburban middle-class society within a consumer-based normality. However, an individual by the name of Holden Caulfield from Salinger’s, The Catcher In The Rye, witnesses the institution of conformity as a constraint from independent thought and sheds displeasure towards the system. Although the 1950s initiated massive economic advancements, the social formalities in conformity does not provide individualistic thought due to the fear of appealing as a communist to society. Therefore, the

The 1950’s was a period of development. The era of unique ideas,inventions, and changes that affected US’s economy, social, and political greatly. At the beginning of 1950’s the economy was negatively affected due to inflation. But during the mid 1950’s the economy was booming and one of the reasons was the GI Bill, which provided gov’t financing the veterans for colleges, free training,housing, and unemployed insurance. As a result families were buying mortgages and home,causing families moving from cities and rural areas to suburbs.

Sociologists view families as societal institutions that help create the basic unit of social structure. Both marriage and a family may be defined differently—and practiced differently—in cultures across the world. Families like other institutions, adapt to social change. The 1960s was the height of the suburban U.S. nuclear family on television. Often television shows within this era depicted families which included a father, a mother, and children cavorting under the same roof while comedy ensued.

There were many changes in American society during 1960s such as civil rights movement, the Great society, and the Vietnam War protests. Students for a Democratic Society declared that young people were fed up with older political movements, and also older radical ones. The goal was to establish something new such as the New Left, which terminated the Old Left’s ideologies of economic justice support of an ideology of social justice. “SDS fostered an atmosphere of restlessness on college campuses, as students nationwide challenged the limits of expression.” (Schultz, p. 465, 2009). There were many movements of freedom of speech, women’s movement, antiwar protest and black power organizations.

According to Tavernise (2011), data analysis proposes that 78 percent of married couples in 1950 were living together, but today it is sitting at 48 percent. Economists claim that the family structure was the most efficient during the 1950s, primarily defined as the breadwinner-homemaker family. Children were disciplined more as most believed punishment would decrease bad behavior. All in all, marriage was the social norm in the 1950s and divorce was mainly frowned upon; socially unacceptable. People lost respect for those who got divorced, as they were often painted a negative light. Societal pressure was mentally empowering because many women turned a blind eye when their husband was physically abusive or unfaithful. Most importantly, many

As George F. Kennan explained in 1946, it was a “long-term, patient but firm vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” Kennan predicted that containment would eventually result in “either the breakup or the gradual mellowing of the Soviet power (Roark, 693).” In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) raised suspicion of communist subversion was alive in our country. Hundreds of professionals in the film industries were fired and blacklisted for suspicion of being communists. After being blacklisted, many of the director, actors and writers were not able to get rehired for at least another ten years. Subsequently, an anti-communist politician named Senator Joseph McCarthy expanded this suspicion to the Federal government. Thousands upon thousands of federal employees were questioned, investigated thoroughly, fired, and prosecuted. Colleagues didn’t know who to trust, friends were turning friends into the authorities, and this Red scare hysteria spread all over the nation throughout the