1950s American Culture and Society

Individuals of the Era

• Adlai Stevenson:
  • Illinois governor.
  • Democratic presidential nominee in 1952.
  • Opposed Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican nominee).
  • Lost the election to Eisenhower.
• Alan Freed:
  • Cleveland DJ.
  • Coined the term "rock 'n' roll" in 1951.
  • First person to play rock 'n' roll music.
• Alan Ginsberg:
  • American poet.
  • Beat Movement advocate.
  • Famous for his poem "Howl", which celebrated the Beat Movement's nonconformity to regular American life.
• Dr. Benjamin Spock:
  • Pediatrician.
  • Wrote "Baby and Child Care".
  • Encouraged parents not to physically punish children.
  • Advocated for children to express themselves.
• Dr. Jonas Salk:
  • Developed the polio vaccine.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower:
  • 34th U.S. President.
  • Famed military general.
  • Staunch anti-communist.
  • Presidential campaign slogan: "We Like Ike!"
  • Committed to Containment.
  • Regularly pushed Brinkmanship.
  • Oversaw massive postwar technological growth.
• Elvis Presley:
  • United States rock 'n' roll singer.
  • Rose to stardom in the 1950s.
  • Flamboyant and rebellious style.
  • Greatly influenced American popular music.
  • Idol among teenagers.
  • Nicknamed the "King of Rock 'n' Roll".
• Harry Truman:
  • 33rd U.S. President (after FDR's death).
  • First enacted the policy of Containment.
  • Won the 1948 election in a huge upset against New York Governor Thomas Dewey.
  • Presidential campaign slogan: "Give 'em hell, Harry".
• Jack Kerouac:
  • Author and Beat Movement advocate.
  • Wrote the novel "On the Road", depicting nomadic search across America for authentic experiences, people, and values.
• Jackie Robinson:
  • First African American to play in Major League Baseball.
  • Broke the norms of segregated sports teams.
• Richard Nixon:
  • Vice President under Eisenhower.
  • Later the 37th U.S. President.
  • Faced allegations of having a slush fund.
  • Delivered the "Checkers speech" on TV, denying all charges except one dog as a gift for his children to appeal to the American people.
• William Levitt:
  • American real estate developer.
  • Created Levittown, America's first suburb.
  • Revolutionized American housing outside cities.
  • Used an assembly line method to mass produce houses.

Social and Cultural Trends

• Baby Boom:
  • Period following WWII.
  • United States birth rate increased drastically as men returned from service.
  • People from this generation are considered the largest (in population) in the nation's history.
• Beatnik:
  • Followers of the Beat Movement.
  • Expressed social nonconformity toward tidy suburban life.
  • Sought deeper understanding through Zen Buddhism, music, literacy, and drugs.
• Conglomerate:
  • Major corporations.
  • Expanded from one industry to include many unrelated industries through acquisitions or mergers.
• Consumerism:
  • An economic trend based on materialism for Americans.
  • The standard of living became greater, so they had more money to spend on the increased number of products available to buy.
• Franchise:
  • A company that offers similar products and services in many locations.
  • First adopted and commonly practiced by fast food restaurants.
• G.I. Bill:
  • A law also known as The Serviceman's Readjustment Act passed in 1944.
  • Paid for a WW2 veteran's education.
  • Offered low-interest loans to buy a home or farm.
  • A one year's unemployment benefits while job hunting.
• Levittown:
  • America's first suburb created by American real estate developer William Levitt.
  • The bland yet cheap and quality homes were perfect for the young, emerging families of the Baby Boom.
  • These caused the middle class to grow as the economy grew with them.
• Planned Obsolescence:
  • A marketing strategy used by companies to encourage consumers to purchase more goods by making their products quickly wear out to become obsolete.
• Social Conformity:
  • What caused American workers to be standardized, becoming an "Organization Man" and losing their sense of individualism.
  • Businesses encouraged this as they didn't want any creative thinkers or rebels that could hurt their delicate processes.
• Suburb:
  • Small residential communities surrounding cities where young families flocked due to their cheap houses and quaintness.

Jobs

• White Collar Jobs:
  • Jobs that do not involve manual labor and are done in an office.
  • These include clerical, management, and professional jobs in fields like sales, advertising, insurance, and communications.

Impact of increased automobile ownership

• The influx of cars after the war allowed people to live further away from cities and move into quiet suburbs.
• Decreased the need for public transport.
• Increased the need for highways to link major cities (which led to the Interstate Highway Act).
• Replaced trains for cargo transport for trucks.
• Increased carbon dioxide pollution.

Impact of T.V.

• TV offered a completely new way of communication in the 1950s, with entertainment, news, and interviews becoming much more profitable with many new jobs also being creating in the process, like the actor.
• Advertising also capitalized on the TV's popularity with images allowing advertisers to effectively display the product to people across the nation.

Advertising trends in the 1950's

• Advertising trends commonly focused on new technology to accentuate their products, such as the TV, and the popularity of consumerism to get people to buy more with fun images and loud graphics.

Teenage behavior in the 1950s

• Teenage behavior in the 1950s primarily focused on nonconformity and rebellion of what their parents were doing, embracing rock 'n' roll, new fashion styles, and rejecting many materialistic ideals commonly associated with their parents.
• Thus, many were apart of the Beat Movement and commonly idolized actors and singers.

Typical suburban living

• Young families lived in small comfortable homes with yards and a tight-knit community.
• The men worked while the women stayed home, took care of the children while they were at home, and sent them to school.
• Cars were used often to get around and the noise of cities were replaced with quiet streets.

Middle class in the 1950s

• The middle class grew drastically in the 1950s thanks to the G.I. Bill of Rights making it easy for veterans of the war to get jobs.
• Many also transferred over from cities to quiet suburbs as children were being born at unprecedented rates and wages were higher than ever.

Advertising techniques of the 1950's

• Advertising techniques like catchphrases, positive imagery, bright colors, advertising on TV and billboards, tapping into consumerism, and planned obsolescence were all highly used during this time to get people to buy more than their basic needs.