American Literature, 1945 to date

Mihai Mindra

LECTURE 1
MAJOR CULTURAL AND POLITICAL
DIRECTIONS IN THE 1950S

Political Background
Harry S. Truman (Democrat, 1945 1953)

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 6 and 9,

1945
The Korean War (part of the Cold War: mid-1940s to the early
1990s): 1950 -1953
McCarthyism (Republican senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy
[1908-1957]):
activities associated with the period in the United States known
as the Second Red Scare (First Red Scare:shortly after the end of
World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia; fear of
anarchism: 1917 1920)

roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s

characterized by heightened fears of Communist influence on American

institutions and espionage by Soviet agents.

Political Background

Term coined by Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block.

Block and others used the word as a synonym for demagoguery,

baseless defamation, and mudslinging.

Later, embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters.

"McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled,
(McCarthy, a 1952 speech; later that year he published a
book titled McCarthyism: The Fight For America).

Political Background
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican, 1953 1961)
commanding general of the Allied forces in Europe during World
War II
truce in Korea
moderate policies
continued most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs; balanced
budget
reinforced desegregation of schools
"atoms for peace" program--the loan of American uranium to
"have not" nations for peaceful purposes
tried to ease Cold War tensions
ordered the complete desegregation of the Armed Forces.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle*

At the opening of the decade, the United States: the most powerful

nation on earth. Its industrial base, undamaged and strengthened by

World War II, manufactured over half of all the world's products,
along with producing raw materials like steel and oil in prodigious
quantities.
Presidents of the decade: Harry S. Truman (1945 1953); Dwight D.
Eisenhower (1953 1961)
America: the biggest single consumer of this outpouring. Citizens
rushed to buy everything that appeared on the new peacetime market.
This orgy of self-indulgence created a level of prosperity unseen
since the heady days just before the stock market crash of 1929,
resulting in a period of unparalleled growth and economic
expansion that lasted through the decade.
*The 1950s. William H. Young, Nancy K. Young. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

1950 1960: the gross national product (GNP) grew by over $200

billion, escalating from $285 billion to $500 billion in ten years, a

remarkable increase by any measure
Worker productivity doubled
Much of the growth stemmed from the changing demographics of
the nation: the mid- to late 1940s heralded a nonstop population
surge that carried through the 1950s.
In 1940, the U.S. census counted 132 million Americans, a figure
that rose to 150 million in 1950, and then leaped to 179 million in
1960.
More people meant more of everything: jobs, workers, goods,
servicesall the ingredients for a boom economy that eagerly
accepted the challenge.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

heralded an onslaught of personal

consumption the likes of which the world has

never seen. This display shows the wealth of
disposable products that flooded the market
during the decade, proof that American prosperity
was such that people could throw away much of
what they used. (Young 4)
World perception as material: consume and dispose.
(Protest: the Beats [e.g. Howl])

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

Family and its Prosperity as major Eisenhower values of

the American middle class: the job and economic success

for the family channeled human mental and physical energy as
well as human relations.
For the first time, industry employed more white-collar
(office) employees than blue-collar (factory) workers. The
mechanization and automation of traditional occupations led to
the creation of many more office positions.
Further, in 1957, the service sector overtook and surpassed the
manufacturing portion as the leading component of the national
economy. Both industry and service grew increasingly
impersonal, as little family businesses became components of
large corporations.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

This led to the growth of the American middle class

and its values.

See The Adventures of Augie March as rebelling attitude

towards the imposition of social clichs of the decade, rejection
of patterns/roles other characters offer to Augie as trimmers of
his individualism [perceived in Whitmanesque, pre-industrial
manner.
Read Allen Ginsbergs A Supermarket in California (1956) for
poetical perception of American 1950s materiality and
consumerism vs. 19th century spiritual values

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

In the area of durable
goods, Americans
went on a buying
spree in the 1950s,
bringing about the
birth of huge,
warehouse-like stores
to cater to their
wants. This picture
shows shoppers
looking at the latest in
television sets, a
product that certainly
helped spark this
phenomenon.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

The small-town face of America had begun to be supplanted by an urbanized

and corporate one.

Most people were enmeshed in a consumer frenzy to buy and
accumulate.
Despite rising inflation spurred by rising government expenditures, Americans
as a whole directed increasing amounts of their money to whatever they
wished, enjoying a level of goods and services never dreamed of earlier.
Median family income almost doubled: between 1950 and 1960, it went from
$3,083 per year to $5,976 per year.
Even factoring in inflation, real wages increased 30 percent, so that food,
clothing, and shelter no longer took away so much of each paycheck.
New cars (instead of used models), televisions, high-fidelity units, improved
telephones, alcoholic beverages, and endless entertainment saw sharply rising
sales

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - The Economy

Pockets of poverty persisted in postwar

America. Many black Americans still toiled in

underpaid, low-status jobs and lived in
substandard housing.
Neither did a majority of farmers and factory
workers immediately share the fruits of rising
prosperity.
Single women, already laboring in low-paying
positions, continued to lag behind their male
counterparts.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - Family Life

More and more couples opted for more offspring,

making the 1950s one of the most youthful

decades on record.
By 1958, almost a third of all Americans were 15
years old or younger.
The parents of all these childrenanxious to buy
houses, cars, and all the other material goods
needed to set up a household and join the ranks of
the swelling middle classemerged as a primary
factor in the rambunctious economy.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - Family Life

Divorce rates rose somewhat during the decade, and

marriage rates fell slightly.

The rush to marry during and immediately following
World War II had subsided, and some couples that
had wed with the pressures of war reexamined their
decisions, a partial explanation of growing divorce
figures.
Read John Updikes Rabbit Run, 1960, to
understand better the domestic atmosphere and
problems of the American 1950s.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - Family Life

Despite the declining marriage totals, surging birth

rates more than made up for any differences. Baby

boom evolved as the term used to describe the
skyrocketing numbers of new additions to families
This astonishing rise proved an economic bonanza for
retailers, but schools and recreational facilities found
themselves stretched to their very limits (Young 7)
Having children was touted as the highest form
of happiness; a woman fulfilled herself by
bearing children. And, despite a swelling
population, the baby boom continued unabated.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - Family Life

Popular television situation comedy, I

Love Lucy, (1951 1957).

Desi and Lucy Ricardo, husband and wife, find

that Lucy is expecting. In those more innocent
days of TV, network censors considered the
word pregnant taboo, although they embraced
the concept of approaching motherhood.
In reality, Lucille Ball, the star of the show, had
become pregnant, and so her condition got
written into the series. It proved a wise move;
audiences followed her progress in one episode
after another, culminating in the birth of little
Ricky in early 1953 (filming took place in
November of 1952).
It became one of the most watched events in the
history of American television.

1950S Everyday Lifestyle* - Family Life

In a similar way, shows like Father Knows Best, The

Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver,

Make Room for Daddy, and The Donna Reed Show
espoused strong family values.
The picture painted of the decade might be
unrealistic and rose-colored, but it has persisted
as a nostalgic perception of the 1950s.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

Focus on the nuclear family

as major social and

psychological life unit.
In the 1954 Easter issue of
McCall's magazine, the term
togetherness gained some
media legitimacy.
It meant the family worked as a
unit, that Mom and Dad and
the kids undertook joint
activities. It meant families
looked inward, that parents and
children learned from one
another, and the home became
the nexus of sharing.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

Do it your-selfinstead of letting outsiders do it for

youemerged as a catchphrase eagerly embraced by

suburban families everywhere.

Fathers showed sons how to assemble a bookcase, and mothers

demonstrated to daughters how to prepare a proper meal.
Everyone could work on a paint-by-numbers kit in the family
room, an area reserved in the modern suburban home for just
such activities.

As long as the family operated together, all was well

with America.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

Organized religion also celebrated this emphasis

on the insular family. A popular slogan of the time

touted the family that prays together stays
together.
Americans attended church in record numbers.
About half the citizenry claimed church membership
or affiliation in 1950.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

On July 30, 1956, two years after pushing to have the phrase

"under God" inserted into the pledge of allegiance, President

Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring "In
God We Trust" to be the nation's official motto.
The law, P.L. 84-140, also mandated that the phrase be
printed on all American paper currency.
The phrase had been placed on U.S. coins since the Civil War
when, according to the historical association of the United
States Treasury, religious sentiment reached a peak.
Eisenhower's treasury secretary, George Humphrey, had
suggested adding the phrase to paper currency as well.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

The new Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible

spent an unprecedented three years on the best-seller

lists.
With the government proclaiming a Christian heritage,
various evangelists found themselves drawing record
crowds into churches and other venues.
Chief among them was Billy Graham and his Crusades,
but Bishop Fulton Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and
Oral Roberts also attracted large audiences.

Personalize: you are a teenager in Eisenhowers America in a typical

middleclass family. See Pleasantville for cinematic representation
and easier personalization.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

Even with togetherness, evangelism, and

record church attendance, the 1950s also

witnessed the development of tranquilizers,
most of which sold in astronomical numbers.
By 1957, some 73 brands crowded the market, with
Miltown and Equinal among the best known.
Although available only by prescription, it soon
became obvious a lot of people used them.

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

Beneath an outwardly calm surface, Americans had issues that needed

attention, and organized religion seemed unable to solve all of them.

For some, masking reality with drugs appeared a possible outlet.
The reality to be concealed: the role playing at home and at the office
to conform with the Protestant middle class norms of the decade, i.e.
the hard working, competing, good provider, dependable
husband/father dedicated to the family; the thrifty domestically
minded housewife, whose happiness consisted in the material comfort
of the family home. Sexual/erotic life was an unmentionable. Women
depended economically on their husbands.

Read Allen Ginsbergs Howl (1955/1956) for youth using drugs to face the
Eisenhower age of endeavor to gain material comfort and middle class
respectability

TOGETHERNESS AND DO IT YOURSELF

The collective spiritual messages of the day reflected moral

complacency, not a call to action.

One's concern should be with individual salvation, not
social problems.
In the nation's quest for some kind of spiritual certainty,
writers like Catherine Marshall (A Man Called Peter, 1952)
and Jim Bishop (The Day Christ Died, 1957) obliged.
Not to be outdone in the spirituality department,
Hollywood released an unprecedented number of quasireligious films: The Robe (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954),
The Ten Commandments (1956), and Ben-Hur (1959). These
drew record crowds and prospered at the box office.

Civil Rights Movement

Definition: plural noun ( often initial capital letters )
1.rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and
14th Amendments to the U.S. constitution and certain
Congressional acts, especially as applied to an
individual or a minority group.
2. the rights to full legal, social, and economic equality
extended to blacks.
Origin: 171525

Civil Rights Movement

For much of the decade, white Americans

remained blissfully ignorant about racism.

suburbs were often almost one hundred percent white,

and likewise their schools and country clubs
network television series or the movies promoted the same
whiteness.
the era continued however to see lynchings in the South
and increasing segregation in the public realm.

Civil Rights Movement

In1954 civil rights developed into a widespread issu:

The Supreme Court ruled against the Topeka Board of

Education, saying that racially segregated schools and
facilities were not necessarily equal.
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white
man. Bus boycotts followed, accompanied by the elevation of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into the national limelight.

The country slowly realized that racial segregation

could not remain a part of the fabric of American life.

Civil Rights Movement

A few facts (source: Library of Congress Website)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) and its legal offspring, the Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
developed a systematic attack against the doctrine of separate but
equal.
The campaign started at the graduate and professional educational levels.
The attack culminated in five separate cases gathered together under the name
of one of themOliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas.
Aware of the gravity of the issue and concerned with the possible political and
social repercussions, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case argued on three
separate occasions in as many years.
The Supreme Court announced its unanimous decision on May 17, 1954. It
held that school segregation violated the Equal Protection and Due
Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The following year the
Court ordered desegregation with all deliberate speed.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to protect

black students attempting to integrate Little Rock High

School, compelling President Eisenhower to call out federal
troops.
Television cameras had already arrived on the scene, and the
national nightly news detailed the unfolding stories of rage
and repression. American mass media had become a witness.
Dr. Martin Luther King (1929 1968, see biographic clip at
http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-93
65086
) emerged as a spokesman for expanding civil rights,
and also became the conscience of the country.

Civil Rights Movement

Read Ralph Ellisons

Invisible Man (1952) for

the Civil Rights Movement
roots and background
See DVD American
Experience PBS (Public
Broadcasting Service)
series: Eyes on the Prize:
America's Civil Rights
Years 19541985. Henry
Hampton, Blackside, Inc.,
1987-1990.

Technological Change
The 1950s witnessed significant technological change.
In order to accomplish high-speed computations, a machine called

UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer, 1951) succeeded a previous

calculator called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer,
1946).
The ENIAC and its variations (about 20 different models) might be called the
first real computers, but UNIVAC, because it could store memory, came
on the scene as a marked improvement.
Remington Rand, which owned the rights to UNIVAC, convinced the U.S.
Census Bureau that its computer was the best for calculations and tabulating.
Put into service in 1951 in Philadelphia, UNIVAC ushered in the
Information Age, although no one at the time foresaw the dimensions of
change computers would have on everyday life.
For American computer technology evolution and the Cold War
from the 1950s to the first half of the 1960s, read John Barths
metafictional novel Giles Goat-Boy (1966)

Women and the Imagery of Housework

Throughout the fifties, popular media

portrayed American women as possibly the

best-dressed housekeepers ever seen.
In television situation comedies and
countless advertisements, women don
elegant dresses, high heels, jewelry (the
pearl necklace seems almost de rigueur), and
smile as they dust and vacuum.
Three leading TV examples would be Donna
Reed as Donna Stone in The Donna Reed
Show, Jane Wyatt as Margaret Anderson
in Father Knows Best, and Barbara Billingsley
as June Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver.

Donna Reed as Donna

Stone in The Donna
Reed Show (1958 1966)

Women and the Imagery of Housework

In the ads, some even wear crownswomen as

queens of domesticity.
It mattered little that many American women chose
employment and careers over homemaking; the
image perpetuated throughout the 1950s was one
of inequality: a woman's role consisted of making
her family happy by serving them, providing them all
the best consumer goods, and then taking her
pleasure in their happiness.

Working Women
The media image of the American woman had her

staying at home and raising a family.

Widely accepted in the popular mind, this comforting
and stereotypical picture got challenged in real life as
the fifties moved along.
Also, while numerous television shows featured stayat-home moms in their plots, large-circulation
magazines countered with articles that extolled the extra
earning power of a second income.
Statistics suggest that increasing numbers of women
chose a paying job over being full-time housewives.

Working Women
The 1950s female college student was more likely to marry, start a family,

and put an end to her educational aspirations.

As a result, although an unexpectedly large proportion of American
women worked, they were conspicuously absent from high-level jobs.
They instead settled for the traditional employment outlets:
secretarial, clerical, nursing, teaching, assembly lines, and
domestic service.
Just over ten percent of working women entered a profession, and a
minuscule six percent had management positions.
Read Vladimir Nabokov,s Lolita (1955), John Barths The
Floating Opera (1956) and The End of the Road (1958) for the
ironical, critical perception of the rebellious artist of middle
class America misconceptions about erotic life via, clichs
about women roles and family values.

Nuclear Anxiety
In August of 1949, the Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics exploded its first atomic bomb.

This blast would cast a pall over the entire upcoming
decade.
A fear of nuclear annihilation, an underlying
anxiety that ran counter to the rampant consumerism
that many equate with the time, became a part of the
American scene.
Popular culture, always sensitive to the many moods
of the nation, quickly picked up on this uneasiness,
and capitalized on it in a variety of ways.

Nuclear Anxiety
With the news that Russia also had the Bomb,

President Truman announced in January of 1950

that the United States would continue to develop a
hydrogen bomb, a much more destructive version of
the atomic bomb.
Shortly thereafter, the Russians also commenced
working on such a weapon.
By 1953, both nations possessed H-bombs, and the
threat of total war and mutual annihilation
loomed ever larger.

Nuclear Anxiety and the Space Race

Throughout the decade, the United States and Russia

frequently tested their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and

news of growing amounts of radioactive materials in the air
became more common.
By mid-decade, ominous reports of huge Russian
intercontinental missiles circulated, and it all came to a head
when the USSR launched Sputnik in October of 1957.
The Russian name means little traveling companion, and
Sputnik shook the U.S. out of any technological complacency.
No one had expected the Soviets to be the first into space; it
served as a disquieting moment for any lingering notions of
inherent American superiority.

Nuclear Anxiety and the Space Race

Part of the American response to Sputnik involved spending vast sums

of government money to catch up.

In the spring of 1958, a reluctant President Eisenhower asked Congress
to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
and a new component to the ongoing arms racethe space racewas
officially on.
Instead of having their fears alleviated by these moves, Americans found
their anxieties compounded by other steps taken by the government.
Officials put into place a civil defense system that included aircraft
spotters and buildings designated as fallout shelters for protection from
deadly radiation.
Bright yellow-and-black triangular signs were attached to the entrances
of stout public buildings, with the instructions to take shelter in the
event of an attack.

Nuclear Anxiety and the Space Race

Even the public schools had their Duck and Cover

drills. At the news of approaching planes, students

were to duck (under whatever is close by) and
cover (arms over the head for additional protection).
A generation of 1950s students practiced the exercise
an exercise in futility had there been an actual
attack.
The government also printed many pamphlets and
posters that purported to show how to survive a
nuclear explosion.

Nuclear Anxiety and the Space Race

They encouraged building backyard bomb shelters, but

suggested a reinforced basement room, suitably stocked

with emergency items, might suffice.
For those unfortunate to be caught outdoors when disaster
struck, the instructions were succinct: because most men
wore hats when outdoors in those days, they urged tilting
the head so the brim will shield the eyes from heat flash;
for women, they advised wearing hosiery and long sleeves
at all times for a similar level of protection.
Lacking a hat or hose, jumping face first into nearby ditches
and gutters might also provide a modicum of security.

Nuclear Anxiety and the Space Race

In a series of movies that ranged from the trite

Invasion, U.S.A. (1952), to the modest Magnetic

Monster (1953), to the terrifying Them! (1954),
Hollywood played on fears of mutations, atomic war,
domestic spying, and Communist infiltration.
See DVD movie Great Memories of the 1950s
the Atomic Bomb part (II)

The Korean War

On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces attacked South

Korea, prompting an immediate military response from

both the United Nations and the United States.
Many U.N. member nations shipped troops to the
distant peninsula, all under a unified command. By far
the largest contingent came from the United States.
For the next few years, a bloody war raged throughout
Korea, and the government employed the disingenuous
term police action to describe the free world's attempt
to hold back Communism.

The Korean War

In 1953, the parties agreed to an armistice, and peace

negotiations dragged on for years thereafter.

This war boasted neither victors nor losers, an
unsettling fact for Americans used to winning all their
encounters with foreign adversaries.
During the decade, over 1.8 million U.S. troops saw
service in Korea, with more than 33,600 losing their
lives in combat and some 103,000 sustaining wounds.
See DVD movie Great Memories of the 1950s
the Korean War part(I)

McCARTHYISM
For many TV fans, the various Congressional

hearings that marked the decade served as

some of the most engrossing series on the air.
They had all the stuff of good popular culture:
drama, heroes and villains, sensationalism, and
even a few surprises.
Most prominent were the McCarthy
hearings into Communist infiltration in
the national government.
In February 1950, Joseph McCarthy, the
junior senator from Wisconsin, loudly
proclaimed that he had evidence that 205
active Communist agents had been
employed at the State Department.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy,
1950s

McCARTHYISM
Leading the Senate Investigations Subcommittee,

McCarthy launched a campaign based on fears,

innuendo, and smears to track down Communists in
government.
An outright witch-hunt, the subcommittee often used
guilt by accusation to besmirch its victims.
By 1957, some six million individuals had been
investigated by various related agencies and committees
because of alleged sympathies to the Communist cause.
Out of those six million, only a small handful ever got
convicted.

McCARTHYISM
McCarthy likewise offered no hard evidence for his ceaseless

claims, but many people nevertheless took them at their face

value.
Reelected in 1952, McCarthy began a full-scale assault on
anyone and everyone he deemed subversive.
In March of 1954, the esteemed Columbia Broadcasting System
newsman Edward R. Murrow aired a special program on his series, See
It Now. He titled the special A Report on Senator Joseph P.
McCarthy.
The senators crude, intimidating attacks on individuals and
institutions smacked of a tyrant, a browbeater, a thug. In 1956, the
Senate took away his chairmanship of the investigative committee. The
Senate eventually censured him and any remaining influence ended.

Blacklisting and Censorship

With a distant war in Korea being waged against Communist

adversaries, and McCarthy's claims of Communist infiltration at all

levels of government, a climate of fear and suspicion descended on
the nation.
As McCarthy grew more shrill in his accusations, few would challenge
him. He was aided and abetted by an organization calling itself AWARE,
which in 1950 commenced publishing a newsletter titled Red Channels;
it purported to identify 151 individuals from the performing arts
that the organization found subversive.
No onefrom networks to studios to sponsorsoffered to stand up and
challenge these vicious attacks, and innocent people found themselves
blacklisted, unable to work in radio, film, or television.
For many, the stigma of the blacklist lingered until well into the 1960s,
and the damage proved permanent.

Blacklisting and Censorship

This divisive atmosphere struck Hollywood

particularly hard.
The House Un-American Activities Committee
(or HUAC, for short), an investigative arm of
Congress, seized on the issue of dangerous influences
corrupting the nation's entertainment center.
A number of congressmen, convinced the content of
movies had been colored by subversive elements
intent upon spreading Communist lies and
innuendo, enthusiastically joined the fray.

Blacklisting and Censorship

The media have always been suspect in the eyes of some

government agencies and elected representatives, and the chance

to denounce what they perceived as treasonous activity proved
irresistible.
Hearings were held, and many Hollywood personalities received
calls to testify. Actors, producers, directors, and writers faced a
dilemma: whether or not to inform on their colleagues about
possible Communist ties.
See Elia Kazin's movie On the Waterfront (1954). Kazin had
been deeply involved in the hearings and did indeed offer
evidence that proved detrimental to some of his colleagues, and
the film indirectly comments on the whole process and its
impacts on belief systems.

The Rise of Television

Eisenhower, a seasoned military leader, had been

elected to the presidency in 1952, and his

conservative, patriarchal approach to a
dangerous world reassured nervous citizens. He
was everybody's grandfather.
His golf game, his weekend painting, and even
his health problems elicited more popular
attention than did his abilities as a leader. For
most Americans, he presented an image of calm
authority.
The decade marked, in fact, the increasing use of
public relations and advertising techniques in the
political arena.
That Eisenhower could project such a picture of
fatherly confidence overshadowed the difficulties
he had articulating issues, and Americans voted
their preference for imagery over content in both
the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections.

1956 President Eisenhower throws out

the ceremonial first pitch on opening day
as Casey Stengel (Major League Baseball
outfielder and manager) looks on.
Sports Illustrated CNN.

The Rise of Television

The importance of strong media ties could be seen in the

Republican and Democratic national conventions held in

July 1952.
The first such political conventions to be televised, delegates were
aware of cameras and microphones everywhere, and their
presence had a clear effect. Little deal making could take place
outside the range of the omnipresent cameras, a decided change
from the smoke-filled rooms of the past.
As Republican enthusiasm for Eisenhower grew, the unblinking
gaze of national media helped him win on the first ballot. On
the Democratic side, it took three ballots to nominate Adlai
Stevenson, but the party did not wish to appear divided to a
national television audience.

The Rise of Television

In the midst of the 1952 campaign, Eisenhower's running mate,

California Senator Richard M. Nixon, was accused of improperly

using funds and accepting gifts.
Alarmists urged Eisenhower to drop Nixon from the ticket. In response,
Nixon turned to television and delivered his famous Checkers
speech, a moment in television history that illustrates the enormous
power the medium could wield.
An audience estimated at 58 million heard and saw his denials. Checkers
was a cute cocker spaniel, a gift Nixon challenged anyone to take from his
daughters.
His somewhat melodramatic defense played well; audiences viewed the
charges against him as hamhanded attempts by overzealous Democrats to
discredit him. In short, popular imagery overrode any reasoned
investigation.
Eisenhower retained Nixon in his campaign, and the two savored a strong
victory.

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

For many American intellectuals, the specter of an

undifferentiated mass culture that could lead public opinion

seemed far more frightening than any Russian warheads.
They saw the nation falling into a kind of mindless conformity,
accepting, without question, the nightly offerings of network
television, along with Top 40 radio programming and big box-office
movies.
Those elements, coupled with the paternalistic philosophy of the
Eisenhower administration, created undercurrents of dissent
and revolt that simmered throughout the decade.
Read Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) /
watch the eponymous movie directed by Milos Forman.
With Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman,
Peter Brocco (1975)

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

Jack Kerouac set out to rewrite

the American novel

Jackson Pollock challenged his
fellow artists with abstract drip
paintings
the suspect insolence of Elvis
Presley and James Dean
bothered many.
Marlon Brando sweated and
grunted to the delight of adolescents
everywhere, and Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie took jazz
places it had never been before.
Jackson Pollock, Easter and the
Totem, 1953.

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

For a literary representation of this outlook on the

everyday life in the 1950s also read: Jack Kerouac,

On the Road (1957); William S. Burroughs,
Naked Lunch (1959)
Still, Ernest Hemingway's heroes still adhered to a
manly code of behavior, Norman Rockwell's
Saturday Evening Post covers continued to
captivate millions, Gary Cooper represented all that
was good in the Western myth, Perry Como
crooned in a reassuring baritone, and good, old
traditional Dixieland Jazz enjoyed something of a
revival.

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

Depending on one's focus during the fifties, the decade could seem

complacent and conformist, or it could be filled with threatening

change and shrill individuals who turned their backs on anything held
dear by generations of Americans. (Young 21)
For the average American, however, the intellectual debates of the
era occurred offstage, unseen and unheard.
With the reality of the Cold War intruding into daily lives, the thought of
a cultural consensus sounded reassuring, not threatening.
Rock 'n' roll seemed far more challenging to worried parents than
discussions of cultural hegemony.
Added to that were the changes brought about by civil rights
legislation, by school integration, and by a sense of rebellion on the
part of youth across the nation. Nothing was as it used to be. (Young 21)

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

In the popular mind, people conformed during the 1950s. T
he sprawling suburbs of ranch and split-level homes (on

different levels: describes a house or room built on two levels with

steps between them) exemplified this social conformity.
The typical suburbanite earned slightly more than his citydwelling counterpart and differing lifestyles reflected this
inequality.
The suburbs also quietly exploited other, more unfortunate, kinds
of conformity: racial, ethnic, and social. Blacks, Hispanics,
Asians, Jews, and a host of others were kept out of most
developments.

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

The men in the gray flannel suits were white and

Christian, heads of nuclear families, and proudly

middle class.
Their clothing, their architecture, their jobs, and
their leisure all supported this kind of sameness.
Hollywood, ever observant of social trends, exploited
the move to suburbia in No Down Payment (1957), a
melodramatic tale of several families and their
problems living in what had been promised to be
paradise.

The Cultural Ferment of the 1950s

Read Philip
Roths
short
stories
from
Goodby,
Columbus
(1956) for
an
outspoken
reaction to
the middle
class
milieu.
1950s suburbia: Levittown, N.Y.

1950s in Brief
Social critics identified conformity as the main characteristics

of the 1950s and a dedication to the active pursuit of

economic and financial success accompanied by an increasing
concern with material comfort
Increasing number of people attending higher education due
to the GI Bill: 50% of population was college educated
Graduates targeted and worked for more sophisticated
companies (e.g. IBM)
College education ensured higher incomes which gradually
triggered the creation of the suburbs = satellite towns at the
outskirts of the cities in which middle-class and upper-middle
class families lived.

1950s in Brief
The construction of the Interstate Highway started

in 1955: increased the mobility of the American

population.
By the early 1960s, an American family moved to a
new place of residence once every five years.
The working class benefited from the overall
economic boom; it organized itself better into
unions.
Generally: an affluent, dynamic environment.