Day 9 Agenda

Enduring Understanding• Due to changing technology

and new opportunities, American society in the 1950s headed towards a more simultaneously more diverse and more homogenous culture

1. Consider how culture spreads in the past and in the present

2. Create a poster displaying cause and effect for a given area in the 1950s

3. Use your classmates’ posters to fill out Chapter 4 Graphic Organizer

4. Complete worksheet on cultural critics

5. Decide whether you agree or disagree with the cultural critics

How did/does “culture” spread?

• Consider the above question in these five time periods– Ancient History– Colonial America– 19th century– Post World-War II– Present Day

• Does technology lead to a more or less diverse culture?

Cause & Effect Poster

• There were a variety of changes in Postwar America. These changes effected society, the economy, and individual lives.

• In groups of three, you will create a poster that demonstrates the “Cause & Effect” of these changes

• Then you will hang up your posters and fill out the graphic organizer in your packet (pp. 2-3) using your classmates’ posters

Instructions for Poster

• Explain Cause & Effect for your topic– Cause: What led to this change?– Effect: What impact did this change have on

American society?

• Informative• You can use diagrams, words, flow charts, or

pictures to show cause & effect of your topic.• Be Creative!

Teen Culture• Causes– Baby boom– Prosperity– TV– Growth of compulsory high school education– Consumerism and marketing

• Effects• Generational separation of music, arts, cinema, fashion and

attitudinal values of young people from older people• Desegregation of music (white people listened to “black”

music), popularity of rock’n’roll, concern about juvenile delinquency, promotion of post-materialist values, greater sexual “freedom”

Causes Description effects

Returning soldiersPositive view of futureSocial pressures to get married & have kidsDelayed marriage due to depression and war while younger people got marriedMedical advancesEconomic prosperity

Baby boom Large number of children born from 1946 to 1964.Largest generation in terms of birth rate and number of children born (the current generation is bigger by number, but smaller by birth rate

Changes in baby and childcare (Spock)Housing and school crunch leads to boom in building eachNew industries to cater to the new generation ie toys, gamesLate fifties teen culture

Advertising, suburbia, economic growth leading to widespread prosperity, social pressures to beat the Joneses, easy credit

Rise of consumerismPeople buying lots of stuff that make life easier and more enjoyable

Economic boom, 2 income households building malls, consumer society equates stuff w/ class, minority feelings of relative deprivation, debt

Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s

Causes Description effects

Levittowns and other developments made low cost housing for middle class, GI Bill, FHA loans, changes in the tax code, returning soldiers having babies, TV & entertainment defined the American Dream

Rise of suburbsLarge #’s of people moving to areas outside cities to larger plots of land, newer schools, safer neighborhoods, privacy

Decline of cities and their tax base, services moving out to suburbs, weakened public transport, malls, suburban sprawl, pollution, 85% of new homes after ’48 built in suburbs, commuting to cities

ProsperityAccess to capitalDefense industriesBetter educated workersglobal trade begins

Rise of Corp. Am.Consolidation vertically & horizontally of the means of production in to the hands of a few – 53% of income earned by 600 firms

Increased productivity by using technology and economy of scale, concentration of wealth & income, homogenized of jobs & products, increased investment and political power of defense contractors

Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s

Causes Description effects

Prosperity and economic growth, GI Bill education, automation & technology, consumer demand and product diversification

Changes in laborFewer blue-collar jobs, more white-collar jobs, more specialized skills needed, more service jobs

Decline in blue-unions, small increase in white-union members, more low-paying white collar, good relations b/t business & labor begat better health & pension benefits, origin of union decline,

Television, fear of communism, reaction to consumerism, promotion of American values & reassurances in a time of fear of communism & loss of security due to rapid changes

ReligionLarge increase in church attendance and membership, TV preachers, growth in bible sales, public displays of religiosity, “Under God” ’54 & “In “God We Trust” ‘55

Religious movies, televangelists having social and political influence, but not necessarily an increase in a deep commitment to faith commensurate with the large increase in public religiosity

Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s

Causes Description effects

Rise of suburbiaAdvertisingConsumer society of status awarenessInnovationsprosperity

Car CultureCars become the center of transportation and a symbol of prosperity

Interstate Highway Act, malls, drive-ins, travel, mobility of families, homogenization, competition, jobs, weakening of cities, pollution, decline of public transportation

Baby boomProsperityTVGrowth of compulsory high school educationConsumerism and marketing

Teen CultureGenerational separation of music, arts, cinema, fashion and attitudinal values of young people from older people

Desegregation of music, popularity of rock’n’roll, concern about juvenile delinquency, promotion of post-materialist values, greater sexual “freedom”

Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s

Criticisms of Cultural Change• Religious leaders – thought that the culture

was getting away from traditional American values because there was the promotion of sex, gender role changes, the evil of greed, covetousness through advertising and consumerism and increased violence in media.

• Writers/artists – thought that the culture was too conformist and stifling, too homogenized, lacking in creativity and individuality – too bland.

• Sociologists – thought there was too much peer pressure, too inner directed with individualized goals rather than social communal and outer-directed goals. They believed there was a loss of individual personality due the need to work within an organization system

• Was cultural change in the 1950s positive or negative?

• Did it lead to more or less diversity?