One level of conformity that emerged in the 1950s was the consolidation and standardization of corporations. Mergers were taking place frequently and mass production soon became an American Industrial characteristic. Oligopolies sprang up as specific industries were run by just a few major firms. In addition to oligopolies, conglomerates increased in popularity as well. (conglomerates were firms who had holdings in a variety of industries in order to protect themselves against instability in a particular area.
"As corporations changed, so did the world of work." After WWII the U.S. became less of a goods producer and more of a service provider. As a result a huge shift in the workforce occurred. Small rural, agricultural workers/farmers were severely hit by the agribusiness (introduced by the technological advancements). Thus, more and more blue collar jobs were being left behind for white collar jobs. As the shift occurred the over-all appearance of everyday workers became official and conformed. Many looked the same and adapted to the same personalities and mindset. "Work in the huge corporations became ever more impersonal and bureaucratic." A depiction of the conformity was an evident epidemic as seen in The Man With The Grey Flannel Suit.
Thirdly, the domestic sphere of women became as boring and predictable as ever. This period erupted when suburbs became the hottest new thing. Many women strived to be the perfect house wife with short, neat, curly hair, vibrant skin, in good shape, wearing small heals and a skirt with a neat blouse to clean the house, pick up the kids and make dinner. There tole in society became ridiculously confined and outlined for them. Women were expected to produce and caretake. They were to cater to every one of their man's needs, putting him first, her children, the house, and lastly herself.
Cultural Rebels:
Those different from the conformed society rebelled against because of its values. Some were sick of trying to fulfill expectations made of them, others just struggled with the way of life. An inspiring novels to many was the catcher in the rye (which was about a boarding school student who rebelled against a plain, simple, unadventurous society and rebelled against the 'phonies' around him). Spontaneity and spirituality became thematic points throughout various works written by the beat generation. Children rebelling wanted to break out of the mold, follow their intuition and not simple reason. Sexuality also became a hot topic but met opposition by elders as it was a subject not openly discussed... Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe became the generation's leading teen figures as they promoted an alternative to expressing oneself in society. Elvis with his jazzy rockin' n' Roll and swingin' hips and Monroe with her double standard of beautiful/classy combined with a comfort in her sexuality. Lastly art broke away from conformity. Literature was already doing so but shortly after, American painters were doing so as well. they were moving away from the european influences and became part of the cultural rebellion. As a result Abstract expressionism emerged.
Felicity Saucier Mr. Everett APUSH Learning Goal 1.) Characterize the religious life of America in the 1950s. The religious life of American citizens in the 1950’s was predominated by a sense of expansion and revivalism; religions such as Evangelical realism, Catholicism, and Judaism all grew exponentially in this time period. A staggering ninety-five percent of Americans had some sort of religious affiliations after the close of WWII. Perhaps the common saying, “The family that prays together stays together” encompasses the feeling that presided over the United States in the 1950’s. Tele-Evangelists, like Preacher Billy Graham, utilized the radio and new phenomenon television to bring their sermons to the masses. Religion sought to broaden its horizons; for example Catholic churches replaced archaic Latin segments of its sermons with modern English, and Jewish communities turned more towards Conservative degrees of Judaism. President Dwight Eisenhower also was a great representation of the swelling religious presence in America; he began opening inaugural addresses with a prayer and added both “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God we trust” to all modicums of currency. In conclusion, the effects of an increased role of religion in the daily lives of Americans in a myriad of different ways.
Many of the people considered as members of the “affluent society” actually lived in poverty. It seemed as if economic benefits continued to be limited to the upper class. Surveys were done to help identify the amount of people living in poverty. In fact, one 1960 Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that 40 million people lived below the levels of substance-level income, 27 percent of which were migrant workers. Aside from poverty, discrimination haunted minorities. For instance, in 1951, a black couple attempting to purchase a home was driven away when an angry crowd broke the house’s windows, defaced the walls, and shouted vile insults. This is just one of the many prejudices African Americans faced. Another effect of discrimination was the formation of the black “ghetto”. The term was used to describe the slums in which African Americans lived separated from whites.. Finally the “separate but equal” doctrine discriminated blacks from entering white schools as well as many other public places like theaters and restaurants.
1. Describe the postwar economic boom and its effects on the corporate world, workers’ world, and agricultural world, as well as the environment.
The postwar economic boom is characterized by the government’s increasingly active economic role both stimulated and sustained the expansion. After 1945, the major corporations in the United States tightened their hold on the American economy. Mergers were occurring along with the booming economy which encouraged the development of conglomerates. Small companies were developing into franchises like McDonalds and bigger corporations were expanding across to other countries.
In the workers’ world, the jobs were moving from blue collar to white collar. The number of salaried, middle-class employees rose 61% after WWII and the work in the huge corporations were impersonal, bureaucratic, and conformed. Majority was working for that middle-class, suburban life where they transferred into the city everyday to work.
The agricultural world was quickly changing. New technology revolutionized farming and some 15 million rural jobs disappeared. Improved planting and harvesting caused a massive increase in productivity causing farms to specialize in cash crops. Farms double in size and were becoming big business, giving little farms poor success. The agribusiness caused migrations to cities in the midwest and blacks from the south to the north.
The environment was also changed due to the postwar economic war greatly. The baby boom occurred after WWII and peaked in 1957 and the creation of new vaccines and medications helped the population growth. More started moving west again for new job opportunities available. Millions of white middle-class Americans were moving into the suburbs making some major cities actually drop in population. The rapid expansion of suburbanization took place without extensive planning, taking away from the attractive landscape of the rural areas. Highways were being built very quickly and fast food restaurants and stores were being built around them. There were areas for living, eating, and shopping connected by the highways. The homes were all the same in the suburbs across the nation. The environment was not taken under consideration during this time, decimating hundreds of thousands of acres of land for the suburbanized area. Peter Blake referred to suburbanization as “uglification”. The environment was not fully put into consideration but steps were taken for the need for Americans to recognize open space in their communities in order to compensate for the urban overdevelopment. “They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot.” Joni Mitchell
8. Describe the consumer culture of the 1950s, the ways the media promoted it, and some of the results.
The consumer culture of the 1950’s consisted of new ownerships, a rise in automobile sales, a rise in television sales, and a rise in many other consumer products that the vast majority of Americans bought during the post World War II years.
New ownerships were spurting up all over the country due to the construction of suburbs surrounding all the major cities and a shine in the real estate marketing. World War II veterans were also granted a low rate in mortgages and reasonable payment terms due to government handlings which brought a drastic increase to the percentage of Americans buying new homes.
The sales of automobiles raised a significant amount because prior to the war, only the wealthy Americans could afford an automobile but in the 1950’s, the economy evened out giving the less fortunate population a new middle class advantage. The price of automobiles also decreased, making the product more affordable to the average American. The government promoted the sales of automobiles by spending billions of dollars on new highways and road transportation. Drive-in movies were created along with the first “McDonald’s” drive-in during the 1950’s that became prominent aspects of the American youth and popular culture for all ages in general. By promoting the usage of the automobile, more and more Americans began to view the product as a necessity rather than a luxury.
Television sales also sky-rocketed in the 1950’s due to the better availability for the growing middle class, at a cheaper price then a television had ever been before. The television acted as a sense of unity for the American people, uniting them under a similar interest and granting the government control over what the people watched. In 1945, there were 7,000 televisions owned by the United States population with nine television stations across the country. Just five years later in 1950, 3.8 million homes owned televisions with ninety-eight television stations sweeping the nations. The government used the television as a way to unite the people and sway them against the evil practices and beliefs of communism.
A major result of the three most prosperous consumer products of the 1950’s that resulted in a change of culture and society include conformity. The idea of conformity was spreading from coast to coast. From the common business man to the common house wife, every middle class American family owned an automobile, owned a television set, and lived in a household.
Give some examples of challenges to that culture of conformity.
The fifities and early sixties is often shrouded in the culture of conformity and conservatism, but many people rose against the ideals of a heterogenous society. For example, the traditional role of woman and sexuality was challenged. The role of women was criticized by Betty Freidan in her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique in which she challenged the conventional image of a typical American woman promoted by the media and the American society. Alfred Kinesy shocked the American people with his statstics on premartial and extramartial affairs in his book, the Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. The book was soon followed with the Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. The famous movie star, Marilyn Monroe, with her va-voom figure and good-looks, was an image of promisciousity. In the world of arts, the Beat Generation, also known as "Beatniks", was led by writers like Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burrough, and Jack Kerouac, wrote literature in unconvential forms, criticized this culture of conformity and culturism, and led free sex lives. Besides literature, American painters, like Jack Pollock and others part of the "New York school", dismissed the traditional, European influences of art and created unconvential pieces filled with abstract expressionism. The youth culture and its rebellious image blossomed in the fifities. Houlden Caulfied from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, James Dean, and Elvis Presley became the image of the typical "rebellious teenager", one who cut against the grain of American society.
