American

Society in Post

WWII

1950’s – 1960’s

The 1950’s

A Time for

Innocence

The perfect life, the

consumer life???

Conformity

Polio Vaccine

• deadly children’s

disease

• destruction of

nervous system

(paralysis)

• FDR – wheel chair

bound

• virus nearly ended in

1950’s because of

vaccine

• now, very rare in U.S.

The Red Scare

• fear of

communism

due to Cold War

(competition

with the Soviet

Union)

Arizona

• growth in the “Sunbelt”

– states in the SW

• population increasing - why?

– AIR CONDITIONER

– COPPER = king of Arizona economy

•jobs

– Army = largest source of revenue for AZ

•industrial development

– inland protection from aerial attacks

(the nukes)

• movement to the suburbs

• AZ’s economy post WWII GOOD

the Automobile

• changed America’s living patterns

never be without your car

– Drive in movies

– Suburbs – could travel back & forth

– Motor hotels – stay the night before

hitting the road

• Route 66

The Suburbs

• Highways made it possible to live outside

the city & commute quickly to work

• Housing developments increase

– offer larger homes, new appliances,

lower prices

– consumer culture (cars, TVS,

washer/dryer, etc.)

• Because of the move, BABY BOOM

– increase in babies born

after WWII

• Suburban mothers stayed

home

– full time mother

Leave it to Beaver Culture

“Beatniks”

• young generation of

writers who criticized

American life through

their unusual writing

and their rebellious

behavior

• Jack Kerouac (author)

– encouraged people to

reject American

traditional society &

find your own path

• Beat writings inspired

young people to question

the rules of mainstream

America

• Not a huge movement

(suburban children were

mainstream)

Rock ‘N Roll

• mainstream teenagers

challenging society

• drew heavily from African

American rhythm & blues

• Elvis Presley – most defined

singer for the new white

teenage culture

• Rock & Roll juvenile

delinquency???

• concern over musical

integration (black &

white kids mingling)

mirrored civil rights

struggle

Jackie Robinson

• 1st black baseball

player in the

majors; began a

new era in sports

& society (blacks

are just as good as

whites)

• ended 80 years of

baseball

segregation

• civil rights

activist

1960’s

For a times, they

are a changing

Counterculture = Hippies

(a way of life that differed

from mainstream America)

Pop Art

Music

• British Pop Music

– the Beatles, the Rolling Stones

• Folk Music

– Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel

• Soul Music

– Motown: Stevie Wonder, Aretha

Franklin, the Jackson 5

• Rock Music

– Woodstock: Jimmy Hendrix,

Janis Joplin

Civil Rights

• Segregated but equal???

• struggle for minorities to get

same rights as white male

Americans

– work at same place, go to same

movie theater, sit in same area in

church, bus, etc.

– women, Hispanics, Natives, &

African Americans

Civil Rights

• The NAACP opened a Washington Bureau in 1942 – to serve as a legislative arm and national

policy office. Walter White was the bureau’s first director.

– The NAACP Washington Bureau assumed responsibility for tracking and influencing federal legislation, monitoring government agencies administering federal regulations and programs, testifying before Congress, and working with other organizations with similar objectives.

Civil Rights

• National Organization for Women

• The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring

women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men.

• NOW is dedicated to the proposition that… – women, first and foremost, are human beings that must have the chance to

develop their fullest human potential

– belief that women can achieve such equality only by accepting to the full the challenges and responsibilities they share with all other people in our society, as part of the decision-making mainstream of American political, economic and social life.

Civil Rights

• American Indian Movement - AIM • founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

• initially formed to address American Indian sovereignty, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership

• AIM works to address specific issues concerning Native American urban communities including

– unusually high unemployment levels

– overt and covert racism, police harassment and neglect

– epidemic drug abuse (mainly alcoholism),

– reduce poverty, domestic violence and substandard housing.

– AIM's paramount objective is to create real economic independence for the Indians

Reforms

•Kennedy’s New Frontier

•Johnson’s Great Society

– Medicare, Medicaid, Peace Corps

Peace Corps

• Kennedy takes office in 1960

– New Frontier – a set of proposals asking

Americans to look beyond themselves

and to work for freedom & justice

throughout the world

– Peace Corps (part of New Frontier

plan)

•a program to send American

volunteers to developing countries to

work on a wide variety of

improvement projects

•basic purpose: aid people in

underdeveloped areas

The Great Society

• President Lyndon Johnson’s reform

& aid for Americans living in

poverty

• WAR ON POVERTY!

– aimed to provide the poor with

education & job training

• Medicare – helps people over 65

meet medical expenses by including

them in a govt. health plan

• Medicaid – provides health

insurance for people with low

incomes