Announcements, March 1, 2007

1. Punch line of Nixon’s Checkers Speech

2. Film this Sunday and Monday, “Freedom on My Mind” on Freedom Summer in Mississippi, 1964 (and short, “Teen Girls” from late 1940s)

3. See obituary in today’s New York Times, p. 1, for Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., once a Harvard historian and special assistant to JFK

4. From Ben Waterhouse: for more on political campaign materials (debates, advertisements, etc.) see website: http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us or go to Daisy ad on LBJ week and get into it that way.

5. From Alex Stokes: for episode of Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour on women’s roles in 1950s see www.alluc.org; also episode of “Leaver to Beaver” and maybe others. Exact address for this show is http://www.alluc.org/alluc/tv-shows.html?action=getviewcategory&category_uid=6302

6. Recommendation from Nico Slate: current film, “The Lives of Others,” about McCarthyite repression in East Germany

7. Two handouts on Beats, Kerouac and Ginsberg

HS A-85, “Gender and Generations”Thursday, March 1, 2007

I. Powerful norms in place in 1950s making dissent difficultA. Political intolerance—anti-communism & Cold WarB. Conformity of mass consumption-oriented economy & cultureC. Rigid social prescriptions around gender rolesD. Race—some progress in de jure realm, less in de facto

II. Given difficulty of political dissent, cultural protests more viableA. Beats (reject many aspects of status quo, seek individual freedom and expression, male bonding, violate racial taboos)B. Abstract expressionist painters like Jackson Pollack (improvisational like jazz musicians)C. Bebop jazzD. Elvis Presley in popular music (commercial success but still challenged social and sexual norms)