USA history paper 2 Key Topic 1 affluence and conformity 1955-63

Common concerns in 1955-63 America (6 answers)

Nuclear threat from Soviet Union (children taught ‘duck and cover’)

Conformity (critics said American culture was excessively homogenised)

Consumerism (cars, TVs, household)

American youth (believed to be less conformist and less well behaved than previous generations)

Race relations (the inferior status of black Americans - the south)

Economic inequality (1/3 Americans were poor - black, Hispanic, native especially)

Why had car purchasing slowed 1930-55

The Great Depression and WW2

What cars did middle class Americans buy? What was the cost?

Chevrolets of fords $1,300

2/5 of the average family income

How many cars were manufactured in 1955 alone

7.9 million new cars

What were he ‘big three’ car manufactures

General Motors, Ford, Chevrolet

Made in the US

Eisenhower’s reasons for the great highway construction programme

American words were in ‘shocking condition’ compared to German autobahns

Car ownership rocketed from 39.3 million in 1950 - 73.8 million in 1960 - Eisenhower told congress in ‘55 that an interstate system was vital

Most Americans agreed cars meant ‘greater convenience.. .greater happiness, and greater standards of living’

How much construction did congress authorise?

41,000 miles of interstate highways - changed American society and culture

Dwight D Eisenhower (1890-1969) context

Masterminded the Normandy landings - Americans respected him for wartime achievements and denial personality

Elected president in 1952 and 1956

‘Hands off’ president - more foreign policy

1958 established NASA - in response to Soviet Sputnik satellite

1958 National Defence Education Act - promoted study of science

Cars - Social and ethnic status:

Wealthy white men: Lincoln’s and Cadillacs

Increased level of leisure time and disposable income in middle class families 1950s (polish the car with Simoniz wax)

Poorer Hispanics drove second-hand chevys

Cadillacs where a status symbol for black middle class 1960s

Cars - Young people and women:

Desire to gain independence and escape control

1953 Kinsey sex survey found young people has almost as much sex in cars as the did in their homes

Young men expressed individuality with speed and style (hot rods / grease machines)

Women could drive to the mall

Reflected traditional attitudes - 1955 Dodge LA Femme came with matching lipstick and bag

Cars - on the road culture:

1952 first motel chain - Holiday Inn opened near Memphis

By 1960 there were 228 McDonald’s

Created thousands of service industry jobs

Macdonalds

First franchise opened in a Chicago suburb 1955

Made $100,00 per annum from $0.15 hamburger

1960 amount of service workers?

7.6 million

1950-1960 number of white collar workers?

Rose from 21.2 million to 27.2 million

The proportion of blue collar workers fell form 29% to 36% of the workforce by 1960, why?

New technology left economy left dependent on manual labour in factories and mines

Increased automation

By 1960 34.8 million service workers outnumbered the 25.6 manual workers

Fall in manufacturing jobs led to economically depressed areas in old industrial heartlands Midwest and Northeast

Expansion of suburbs

17% lived in a suburb 1920

11 million out of 13 million new homes were in the suburbs 1948-58

1960, 1/3 of Americans were suburbanites

Middle class whites in ranch houses with double garages 2 bathrooms 3 bedrooms

Post-war housing shortage

250 old streetcars were sold for use as homes in Chicago

Shortage and cheap mortgages encouraged builders

What did the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration offer?

Mortgages up to 90% of homes value + 30 years to pay off at 4-4.5% interest

What did the VA allow

Between 1944 and 1952 VA allowed 2.4 million vets to purchase homes without a down payment

What where Levittown’s?

Suburbs built by the LEvitt brothers

Began construction in Hempstead Longisland 1947

Primarily for young vets

Hempstead had 17k homes 80k residents

Rules: weekly lawn mowing, no fences, no washing hung out on weekends

Question to buy them

$8k dollars

Racial issues with Levittown’s?

Racially exclusive

Rocks thrown at black family that bought a house in Pennsylvania Levittown 1957

First LEvvittown house sold to black family 1960

‘If we sell a house to a N- family, 90-95% of white costumers will not buy’ - William Levitt

Why did Chicago and Detroit gain a black population?

The great migration north

Personal choice to live with other migrants (ended yo in ghettos)

White flight to suburbs

How did white people contribute to the growth of ghettos?

Restrictive covenants to exclude BA from white areas (despite SC declaring not legal 1948)

Lending institutions, developers and city officials made it hard to buy dent housing - BA paid high rent for poor accommodations

‘Housing riots’ - 1951 Cicero Chicago thousands WCW looted and burnt to drive out the sole black family

White flight from the south pre segregation

What was wrong with the FHA distribution of billions of dollars of low cost mortgages?

Excluded ‘risk’ applicants - low income or likely to illicit hostile reaction from white majority

‘Up harmonious racial or nationality groups’

Residential segregation was effectively Govt policy

‘Urban renewal equals N-o removal’ what does this relate to?

Congress authorised 810k subsidised public housing units (projects) And purchase of slum areas for redevelopment

Chicago affluents manipulated laws and funds for urban renewal to tear down black neighbourhoods

In 1960 what did the average family income give Americans?

30% more purchasing power than 1950

What were ‘must have’ domestic technology products?

Washing machines. Freezers, dishwashers

Made housewives lives easier

How did mass media spread the ‘American dream’ of consumerism?

Mass media: advertising, magazines, radio and Tv

Also in news stories, celebrity profiles.

Arguments against consumer culture:

Intellectuals feared consumerism and runaway materialism were becoming central to national identity and undermining ‘traditional American values’ (hard work)

John Kenneth 1958: Americans were grossly materialistic and cared little about the less fortunate.

The teenage consumer:

1959 life magazine: ‘a major factor in the nations economy’

10mill record players, 1mill TVs

Spending $20mil on lipstick $25mil on deodorants

What industry did teenager consumption support?

Ice cream

At 20% more than adults

Ate 145 million gallons per year

What percentage of teen girls were married?

1/3 19 and 19 year olds

Young teen wives were big spenders on furniture

Age of conformity

Mass society in which standardisation, cooperation and conformity replaced traditional American values of self-reliance, competition and rugged-individualism.

Stanley Rowland wrote in 1856: (challenge)

Everyone in suburbia ‘buys the right car, keeps his lawn like his neighbours, eats crunchy breakfast cereal, and votes republican’

Between 1947 and 1957 the number on salaried middle-class workers rose by ——

61%

The organisation man 1956 - William Whyte

Sold 2 million copies

Personality tests

Businesses increased use of personality tests to ensure social conformity, those who failed to conform to dominant white MC values would be disadvantaged and ostracised.

By 19– —% of American homes had a television

1960 60%

TV was the favourite leisure activity for —% of Americans, more popular then movie-going

50%

TV promoted conformity:

1950s sitcoms Father Knows Best 1954-60 and the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet 1952-66 oirtrayed the domestic bliss of white MC suburban families where mothers stayed home

TV promoted consumerism:

I Remember Mama (1949-56) young family members taught their immigrant parents that consumerism was good + constant advertisement

TV made people stupid:

Tv caused a decline in educational test scores and reading - newspapers and magazines lost sales of it - Life magazine stopped printing

Racism in TV for profit

Programmes were sponsored by advertisers, unpopular shows were a waste of money, the National King Cole Show (1956-57) on NBC struggled to retain sponsorship because Cole was black. Sponsors suggested white makeup. ‘Madison avenue is afraid of the dark’ - Cole

1958 Father Knows Best episode Betty:Girl Enginer

Betty hears a lecture at school and decides to become an engineer, her dad convinces her to focus on her date for Saturday night

Praise for tv:

• helped decrease provincialism

• National culture

• The Open Mind MLK interview

• News footage of Little Rock 9

Sex sells

Hollywood changed its attitudes to sex to beat the TV. Babydoll 1956 was sexually explicit and popular. The Motion Picture Code was being ignored due to liberalising public attitudes.

Hollywood was more conservative than broadway

Blue Denim 1956 was based on a play. In the play the 15yr old has an abortion - in the film she keeps the baby - abortion is never mentioned

Hollywood challenge

The Defiant Ones 1958 - block and white convicts chained together must cooperate

Sirk’s Imitation of Life 1959 - real heroine was the black mother not the white actress

Hollywood conformity

South Pacific 1958 - two interracial romances - not popular in south and caused a race riot in long island

Paths of Glory 1957 - antiwar movie - critically acclaimed but did poorly at the box office

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

James Dean plays the archetypal teenager struggling with the adult world. Eventually recognises his father’s authority and valuable support.

Increase in advertisement spending in the 50s

$5.7 billion spent on adverting in 1950, $11.9 billion in 1960

Juvenile delinquency

• as many as 250 youths

• slums of Chicago and New York

• Typically same racial group

• Fought, stole cars, demanded ‘protection money’ from pupils

• Girls were ‘auxiliaries’

Experts blamed juvenile delinquency on:

• comic books (13 states had laws against the sale, so the industry toned down the content)

• Working mothers - not attending to their children

Beat Generation characteristics

Rejected materialism, the consumer culture and conformity, for spontaneity, drugs, free love and general deffience of authority and convention

First members of the Beat Generation

Group from Columbia University students that included Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac

On The Road 1957 - Jack Kerouac

‘The most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yer made the the generation’

Written under influence of marijuana - detailed drug use and homosexual practices

Beatniks

• wore sandals or bare feet

• Jazz, sex, drugs, swearing

• Critical of materialism, government, cops, employment and patriotism

• Nik - from Sputnik used to mean anti-American

Rock and Roll origins

Combined rhythm and blues and country and western styles

1953 Alan Freed played black artists Rhythm and blues records calling it rock and roll - lyrics frequently based on sex

Artists - Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, little Richard

Why was rock and roll popular with young people

• added to sense of group identity

• Temporary jobs typically in fast-food outlets, and parents allowances teenagers had money to spend on records

How much did teenagers spend on records

$182 million in 1954, $521 million in 1960

Criticism of rock and roll

• Rock concerts were compared to Hitlers rallies

• Parents feared it’s Impact on children - sexual longing themes and anti MC messages

• White Citizens’s Council - Alabama - feared it would bring white people down to the level of black people