CQ: To what extent did the politics and culture of Abundance create a unified America

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CQ To what extent did the politics and culture
of Abundancecreate a unified America?

• 19521960Chapter 27 The Politics Culture of
  Abundance

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THE 1950s
Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment
OR
Anxiety, Alienation, and Social Unrest ??

• Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua,
  NY

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• The 50s The Kitchen DebateHow was this a
  microcosm of the decade?

1959 ? Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen
Debate
Cold War -----gt Tensions
lt----- Technology Affluence
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Eisenhower the Politics of the Middle Way
I

• The President and McCarthy
• Executive Order (1953)
• Communist Control Act (1953)
• Army Hearings (1954)
• Legacy of Jr. Senator from WI.
• Moderate Republicanism
• The 8 Millionaires and 1 Plumber
• Social Security Expansion (1954)
• Department of Health, Education, Welfare (1953)
• Today
• Health Human Services
• Education

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Eisenhower the Politics of the Middle Way
II

• Moderate Republicanism
• Atomic Energy Act (1954)
• Interstate Highway Defense System Act (1956)
• Benefits Costs

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Interstate Highway Act1956
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Eisenhower the Politics of the Middle Way
III

• Moderate Republicanism
• Tax Policy
• Price-Anderson Act (1957)
• The 1956 Election 2nd Term
• Triumph Gridlock
• Recession (1958)
• Economic Policy Changes
• Domestic Economic Legacy

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Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment I

• The New Look in Foreign Policy
• Bigger bang for the buck (Charles Wilson, Sec.
  Defense)
• The importance of John Foster Dulles
• Secretary of State
• Intermestic Agenda
• Massive Retaliation Evolution of MAD
• Propaganda Cultural Infiltration
• United States Information Agency (1953)
• Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
  

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Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment II

• Applying Containment to Vietnam
• Descent into Americas Longest War
• Timeline
• Vietnamese Independence (1945) application of
  Truman Doctrine?
• Eisenhower Domino Theory (1950s)
• Dien Bien Phu (1954)
• How and why did Eisenhower try to draw the line?
• Geneva Accords (1954)
• Agreement Implication of U.S. Decision
• SEATO (1954) Ngo Dinh Diem
• Americanizing the War?
• ARVN Aid (1954-1961)

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Geneva Accords 1954
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Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment III

• Role of the CIA (Allen Dulles)
• Foreign Relationships
• CIA Politics, Labor, Journalists Academics
• MKULTURA Program
• Interventions in Latin America
• Guatemala (1954)
• Jacobo Arbenz United Fruit Company
• Nixon Venezuela (1958)
• Cuba (1959-1960)
• Batista, Castro End of Platt Amendment Era
• Interventions in the Middle East

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CQ To what extent did the politics and culture
of Abundancecreate a unified America?

• 19521960Chapter 27 The Politics Culture of
  Abundance

13
Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment IV

• Interventions in the Middle East I
• Iran (1951-1953)
• Mohammed Mossadegh
• Reza Pahlavi
• Role of the CIA (Allen Dulles)
• Why did Eisenhower authorize the Agency to
  instigate a coup?
• To what extent did/does this event shape
  American-Iranian Relations?
• How might this be an example of misapplied
  Containment?

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Liberation Rhetoric Practice of Containment V

• Middle East II
• Suez Crisis (1955-1956)
• Gamel Abdel Nassar (1956)
• Crisis Timeline
• Negotiations Collapse Nationalization
• Israeli, British, French Incursion
• How why did Eisenhower undermine this action?

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Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment VI

• Interventions in Middle East III
• Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)
• Jordan Lebanon (1957-1958)
• End Questions
• Why did US intervene so actively in these two
  areas?
• What implications did this period have for
  current relations with these two regions?

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Liberation Rhetoric the Practice of
Containment VII

• The Nuclear Arms Race
• From Stalin to Khrushchev (1953)
• Atoms for Peace (1953)
• Austria Geneva (1955)
• Why did these moments suggest opportunities for
  détente between the two sides?
• Why didnt it last?
• Escalation1956-1960
• Hungary (1956)
• Sputnik (1957)
• NASA National Defense Education Act (1958)
• U-2 Incident (1960)
• ICBMs (1961)
• Military-Industrial Complex Irony? (1961)

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• Progress Through Science

1951 -- First IBM Mainframe Computer 1952 --
Hydrogen Bomb Test 1953 -- DNA Structure
Discovered 1954 -- Salk Vaccine Tested for
Polio 1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear
Power Plant 1958 -- NASA Created 1959 --
Press Conference of the First 7
American Astronauts
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New Work and Living Patterns in an Economy of
Abundance

• Technology transforms Agriculture
• Agribusiness Productivity
• Agribusiness New Deal Legacy
• Agribusiness race/poverty
• Technology transforms Industry
• What fields were impacted?
• Why was Union influence at its zenith?
• AFL-CIO Merger (1955)
• How and why did U.S. practice government welfare
  welfare capitalism?

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A Changing Workplace
Automation 1947-1957 ? factory workers
decreased by 4.3,
eliminating 1.5 million
blue-collar jobs. By 1956 ? more
white-collar than blue-collar
jobs in the U. S. Computers ? Mark I
(1944). First IBM
mainframe computer (1951).
Corporate Consolidation By 1960 ? 600
corporations (1/2 of all
U. S. companies) accounted for
53 of total corporate income. WHY?? Cold
War military buildup.
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A Changing Workplace
New Corporate Culture The Company Man
1956 ? Sloan Wilsons The Man in
the Gray Flannel Suit
What type of economy was the U.S. now
becoming? Why did this have serious political,
social, and economic implications?
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• Suburban Living

Levittown, L. I. The American Dream
1949 William Levitt produced 150
houses per week.1960 1/3 of Americans are
suburbanites
7,990 or 60/month with no down payment.What,
who (not), where, why? (
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New Work and Living Patterns in an Economy of
Abundance

• The Rise of the Sun Belt
• Why did World War II the Cold War drive this
  demographic change?
• Examples?
• Why did this change have profound implications
  for Mexican and Native Americans?
• Operation Wetback (1954) Termination (1953)
• Why was Lakewood, CA. an excellent case-study for
  this change?

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CQ To what extent did the politics and culture
of Abundancecreate a unified America?

• 19521960Chapter 27 The Politics Culture of
  Abundance

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The Culture of Abundance

• The Revival of Domesticity and Religion
• Why did both of these phenomenon stem (in part)
  from the Cold War?

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Religious Revival

• Today in the U. S., the Christian faith is
  back in the center of things. -- Time magazine,
  1954

Church membership 1940 ? 64,000,000
1960 ? 114,000,000
Television Preachers 1. Catholic Bishop
Fulton J. Sheen ? Life is Worth Living 2.
Methodist Minister Norman Vincent Peale ?
The Power of Positive Thinking 3. Reverend Billy
Graham ? ecumenical message warned against
the evils of Communism.
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Well-Defined Gender Roles
The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared
for her family, and kept herself busy by joining
the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire
Girls. She entertained guests in her familys
suburban house and worked out on the trampoline
to keep her size 12 figure.
-- Life magazine, 1956
MarilynMonroe
The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector,
and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine,
1955

• 1956 ? William H. Whyte, Jr. ? The
  Organization Man
• a middle-class, white suburban male is the ideal.

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• Baby Boom

It seems to me that every other young housewife I
see is pregnant. -- British visitor to
America, 1958
1957 ? 1 baby born every 7 seconds
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The Culture of Abundance

• Television transforms culture politics
• Did this medium transform or uphold traditional
  American values?
• Why?

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• Suburban LivingThe Typical TV Suburban Families

The Donna Reed Show1958-1966
Leave It to Beaver1957-1963
Father Knows Best1954-1958
The Ozzie Harriet Show1952-1966
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• Consumerism

1950 ? Introduction of the Diners Card
All babies were potential consumers who
spearheaded a brand-new market for food,
clothing, and shelter. --
Life Magazine (May, 1958)
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The Culture of Abundance

• Countercurrents
• What evidence existed that dissent existed during
  the 1950s?

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Teen Culture

• In the 1950s ? the word teenager entered
  the American language.
• By 1956 ? 13 mil. teens with 7 bil. to spend
  a year.

1951 ? race music ? ROCK N ROLL
Elvis Presley ? The King
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Teen Culture
Juvenile Delinquency ???
1951 ? J. D. Salingers A Catcher in the Rye
James Dean inRebel Without a Cause (1955)
Marlon Brando inThe Wild One (1953)
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Teen Culture

• The Beat Generation
• Jack Kerouac ? On The Road
• Allen Ginsberg ? poem, Howl
• Neal Cassady
• William S. Burroughs

Beatnik
Clean Teen
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Teen Culture
Behavioral Rules of the 1950s
Obey Authority. Control Your Emotions. Dont
Make Waves ? Fit in with the Group. Sex
Marriage.
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Challenges to Neo-Cult of Domesticity
Changing Sexual Behavior Alfred Kinsey
1948 ? Sexual Behavior in the Human
Male 1953 ? Sexual Behavior in
the Human Female
Premarital sex was common. Extramarital affairs
were frequent among married couples.
Kinseys results are an assault on the family as
a basic unit of society, a negation of moral law,
and a celebration of licentiousness.
-- Life magazine, early 1950s
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Challenges to neo-Cult of Domesticity

• Edith Stern
• Betty Friedan
• What challenges did both make about the revival
  of domesticity?

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Emergence of a Civil Rights Movement I

• African Americans Challenge the Supreme Court and
  the President
• Review the F-on-F Handout on Civil Rights
• Answer as groupHow why did the USSC chip away
  at Jim Crow?
• Why was Brown v. Board (1954) the most important
  of these cases?
• Why did Brown, the Little Rock Crisis (1957) and
  subsequent Civil Rights Bills (1957 1960) mark
  the beginning rather than the end of this
  movement?

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Emergence of a Civil Rights Movement II

• Montgomery and Mass Protest
• CORE World War II
• Rosa Parks Bus Boycott (1953)
• The importance of women WPC
• Montgomery Improvement Association emergence
  of Dr. King
• SCLC Southern Civil Rights Movement (1957)

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• The 50s Come to a Close

1959 ? Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen
Debate
Cold War -----gt Tensions
lt----- Technology Affluence
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Class TopicPair Discussions

• The postwar era witnessed tremendous
  economic growth and rising social contentment and
  conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing
  affluence and comfortable domesticity, social
  critics expressed a growing sense of unease with
  American culture in the 1950s.
• Assess the validity of the above statement and
  explain how the decade of the 1950s laid the
  groundwork for the social and political
  turbulence of the 1960s.

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Conclusion

• Peace, Prosperity, and Unmet Challenges
• What evidence was there by the end of this decade
  that these three concepts were interconnected?