Aside From The Approach Taken By Elaine Tyler

After World War II the next threat was the Soviet Union and the growing amount of communism. The fear of communism breed the conformist 1950’s, which created suburbs, consumerism, “organization men”, domesticated women, car culture, and explicit gender rules (I&J, 43-58). Communism engulfed everyone so much that people were afraid to be different. The culture of the 1950’s was not only seen in their everyday lives but shown through advertisements.

During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.

It's no secret that Baby Boomer Americans have idealized the pre-Vietnam war, pre-commercial, all American, cheeseburger-eating, family-oriented, black and white era of the 1950s, with it’s five television channels, chastity rings, suburban streets, and traditional church-going families. This desire is represented in the Gary Ross film, Pleasantville, which has been called the most liberal movie of all time. The actions and behavior expressed in the film represent the importance of leaving the past behind, and standing up for what is right against all odds. However, no matter how destructive, hateful, or unaccepting some actions may have been, they represent a political response to the unreasonable wish to return to the 1950's and to traditional

Through the 1920s, conflicts regarding the teachings of religious values versus Evolution, along with the increasing fight for women’s independence, caused a great deal of tension within America. Prior to the ‘20s schools taught the Bible and Christianity’s principles were stressed. It was in 1925 when Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes, a biology teacher, who was put on trial in the court for teaching the theory of Evolution (Doc C). This document illustrates the dialogue of

Coontz analyses both the weakness and strengths of the period and takes a ‘sarcastic’ approach. She is able to indicate the ideal time for the Americans pointing positive outlooks such as education, birthrate, economic expansion, jobs, family oriented culture and social environment. Her weakness about the myth of the 1950s includes teen pregnancies, poverty, marital problems, discrimination, racial and gender inequalities. She attacks the political system who continues states the goods of the 1950s but the politicians have not created and advanced the ideals and optimism of the 1950s. She categorically attacks the perceptions of people saying the 1950s was good even though when compared to the freedoms and engagements of these days, the 1950s’ thinkers are misplaced. The following quote summarizes her perspective, “This confidence that almost everyone could look forward to a better future stands in sharp contrast to how most contemporary Americans feel, and it explains why a period which many people were much worse off than today sometimes still looks like a better period for families than our own” (p. 40). Based on the historical and available information, Coontz argument may suffice because currently, nobody thinks about the future since the economic and social challenges are immense. The optimism is absent while challenges of discrimination, prejudice are fading. Hence, the article cleverly covers the

In the end, no one can dispute that the 1920’s presented seemingly insurmountable tension between, “Old America,” and, “New America,” in terms of religion, social conflicts, and cultural values. This tension was masked in some places by the prosperity, brought on by the roaring twenties, but still remained at large. One good side effect of these tensions was brought about though, in the sense that many precedents, which are still followed

With the arrival of the 1920’s, new battles fought between traditionalist rural society and modernist urban civilization arose in the postwar United States. These urban-rural culture wars of this time period represent the everlasting conflict between conservatives and liberals. The 1920 census demonstrated to traditionalists that their views were under attack by the modernists who gradually came to outnumber them. Traditionalists were disturbed that they were losing a battle against immigrants who didn’t understand or appreciate “old American values” and against their own children, a new generation of rebellious youth who brought about sexual revolution, materialism, and skepticism.

Frederick Lewis Allen described the revolution in morals that occurred in the 1920’s as an inevitable outcome. In his publication, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties, Allen attempts to provide a detailed analysis as to how this revolution upset the moral foundation of the United States. Frederick Allen explains to the adult figures of his era how the efforts to quell this chaotic revolution in social custom were futile, that it was impossible to halt this rapid redefining in moral code.

At the forefront of the argument is the societal ideology of the American people during the era, most of whom were trapped in a traditionalist mind-set, one that required them to disregard generations of social norms, which had been subconsciously spoon-fed to them through media advertisements such as billboards and magazines most notably Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Journal, that had set a psychologically restrictive standard about what was acceptable. Following the baby boom of the 1960’s with the birth of a massive seventy-six million children, the American people were clearly in a mind-set of traditional family

With the overwhelming amount of Levittown houses, the obsession to obtain the perfect American “ideal family” as seen on TV and the unspoken agreement to fear any and all foreign ideas and values, the 1950s were revealed to be a decade of prosperity, conformity and consensus. Just ten years later the atmosphere in America was shockingly different; the 1960s were a decade of turbulence, protest and disillusionment due to the ongoing struggle for civil rights, arising feminism, and the Vietnam War.

In the 1940’s many changes were occurring culturally in the United States, many due to the war that was being fought. In this essay, many of these cultural innovations will be discussed and assessed. As will the events that caused such changes and evolutions in the American culture.

After Americans endured two decades of continuous depression, war and crisis through the 1930's and 40's, they sought a return to normalcy and longed to focus on the more private details of existence. Instead of national objectives, the public concentrated on family, home, and career, while becoming increasingly absorbed in religion.

The 1950's, a time of renewal for the United States, yet was all that came out of the atmosphere productive for the continuous growth of the U.S.? The world was recently recovering from a terrible worldwide conflict that touched the lives of every being that drew breath. It was a time of renewed sexuality (1950's, MSNBC) , where stars such as Marilyn Monroe dominated the film industry and where the concept of organized religion took a steep downward turn that it has never recovered from. The emergence of many newly founded religious groups and the growth of others that had been previously established created an unstable atmosphere of competition between the differing denominations. Yet, Many good things did come from the newfound

American Morality drastically changed in the 1920s and is changing dramatically in current times. But, the changes made in these decades were

“Experience” was a complex concept in American cultural life. At times it came to be associated with corruption against the simplicities of an innocent life; at others it came to represent the rugged frontier of sensibility of the West in contrast to the enclosed patrician communities of the East and at others with bitter encounters with economic hardship. American culture, ideas, spaces and identities-all contested in the 1950s with the view that the decade characterized “as a struggle between conflicting forces” (Halliwell 11). Michael Rogin regards that though Americans favoured pluralism of the 1950s against the narrow materialism of communist countries at the same time they championed individualism but had harboured fears that ‘the