8.5 Culture after 1945

television, credit cards, fast food, paperback books, rock and roll, conglomerates, The Lonely Crowd, The Affluent Society, The Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, beatniks, Warren Commission

consumer culture and conformity

• television became the center of family life, reinforced conservative values and stereotypes

• advertising promoted material wants achieved by shopping centers and credit cards

  • successful marketing of fast food

• millions of paperback books sold per day

• popularization of rock and roll music

• conglomerates with diversified holdings dominated industries, more white collar workers than blue collar, loss of individuality

• religion expanded dramatically after WWII

works criticizing society

• The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman - criticized replacement of inner-directed individualism with other-directed conformity

• The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Gallbraith - brought attention to failure of wealthy Americans to address need for increased social spending for common good

• White Collar and The Power Elite - portrayed dehumanizing corporate worlds and threats to freedom

• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - commentary on phoniness from a teenager’s view

• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - novel satirizing rigidity of military and insanity of war

beatniks

made up the Beat Generation of the 1950s, advocated spontaneity, drugs, rebellion against societal standards

Warren Commission

headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of JFK, began the loss of credibility of government