Date: 11/22/13

Activity: 1950s

Warm Up: How do you think many Americans of the 1950s felt about the Beatniks and Rock and Roll?

Homework:

*Study guide due Monday

*Large Quiz on 1950s Tuesday 11/26

Pg Assignment Date

57 Red Dot Game Debrief 11/18

58 Red Dot Game/Connections 11/18

59 Red Scare Notes 11/18

60 Magazine Review 11/21

61 Postwar America 11/21

62 The Other America 11/21

63 Unit 3 (1950s) Study Guide 11/21

64 Unit 3 Learning Targets 11/22

Welcome to Contemporary U.S. and World History

Big themes of the 1950s…

Truman • Truman put his presidency on

the line in order to secure equal rights.– Attempted to get anti-lynching

laws, ban on poll taxes, and a permanent civil rights commission.

– 1948 issued an executive order for integration of the armed forces

– Ordered an end to discriminating against government employments

Big themes of the 1950s…

1948 Election

– Dixiecrats• Southern Democrats who protested

Truman’s civil rights attempts • Nominated Governor J. Strom

Thurmond of S. Carolina

– Republicans • NY Governor Thomas E. Dewey • Expected to win

– Democrats • Truman • “Whistle-stop campaign” wound up

winning him the election in a surprising upset.

Big themes of the 1950s…

Truman’s Fair Deal

• Extension of FDR’s New Deal

• Raised minimum wage• Extended social security to

about 10 million more people• Flood control & irrigation

projects• Financial support to cities

Big themes of the 1950s…

1952 Election

– 1952 Election Eisenhower (Ike) was the Republican candidate running against Democrat Adalai Stevenson

– People were scared of communism and tired of the war in Korea and wanted a change

– VP running mate (Richard Nixon) almost lost it for him due to a scandal

– Won 55% of the pop vote and a majority of the electoral college

Big themes of the 1950s…Dwight D. Eisenhower

– “Dynamic Conservatism” or “Modern Republicanism”

– Followed the middle of the road to avoid controversy

• Didn’t do much for civil rights

– Domestic accomplishments • Balanced budget & cut taxes

• Raised minimum wage

• Extended social security and unemployment benefits

• Increased funding for public housing

• Backed creation of interstate highways, Department of Health, Education & Welfare

• Re-elected in 1956

Big themes of the 1950s…

Subculture Emerges

– The Beat Movement: • Against conformity • Expressed the social and literary

nonconformity of artists, poets, and writers.

– Beats, or beatniks• Often shunned regular work, followed

Buddhism, music and sometimes used drugs.

– “Original” Hippies

Big themes of the 1950s…

Rock ‘n’ Roll

– Grew out of rhythm and blues and country and pop

– Listened to mostly by whites, but musicians were often African American.

– Elvis Presley “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Big themes of the 1950s…

Emergence of the Teenager

– Teenage years finally recognized as an important transitional time

– Teenagers targeted as a market for the first time

– Movies and music targeted towards teenagers

Big themes of the 1950s…

Social Unrest

– After serving in WWII, African Americans returned with a renewed desire for equality

– Violence erupted in the South

– The beginning of the civil rights movement took place

• Brown vs. Board of Education • Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott

Big themes of the 1950s…• Automobile Culture

– Inexpensive • Gasoline was plentiful and

therefore cheaper• Easy credit terms (loans) and

advertising influenced many to buy automobiles

– New Necessity • Suburbs didn’t have public

transportation • More spread out in suburbs so

couldn’t walk everywhere

Big themes of the 1950s…

• Automobile Culture

– Interstate highway system• “Automania” spurred the

Interstate Highway Act (signed by Eisenhower in 1956) to build a nationwide highway network linking major cities

– Effects: Negative: •Pollution •Traffic •Accidents•Economic differences between suburban and city dwellers expanded

Positive:

Stimulated business for drive-in movies and restaurants & shopping malls

Big themes of the 1950s…Mass Media

– TV first widely available in 1948By 1950, 9% of American homes had TVs

By 1954, 55% of American homes had TVs

– Rapid growth of TV stations– Radio and Movies survived – Regulated by the FCC – “Golden Age of TV” – Advertising and TV dinners increased – Criticized for violence and stereotyping

Big themes of the 1950s…• Changes in the family

– Women’s Roles • Wartime workers supporting the

family while husbands were away at war

• Now expected to take on the domestic role of homemaker

– Divorce• Many women didn’t like the

changes after WWII• Loss of independence • Over 1 million divorces by 1950.

Big themes of the 1950s…Medical Advances

• Polio Vaccine • Cardiac Pacemaker

– Very different than today, painful and needed sedation. But still revolutionary

• Heart-Lung Machine – Helped patients survive during

intercardiac surgery

• Coronary Angiography – Diagnostic images in the heart

Big themes of the 1950s…

• Return of Soldiers after WWII – Approximately 10 million

soldiers returned home from war – GI Bill of Rights was enacted in

1944• Paid partial tuition• Guaranteed unemployment pay for

up to a year while job hunting• Offered low interest, federally

guaranteed loans.

– Helped to buy homes and establish businesses

Big themes of the 1950s…• Suburbia

– Returning veterans faced a housing shortage

– Assembly line methods were used to build homes cheaply and quickly

– Levittown – homes sold for less than $7,000

– Homes looked alike and had zoning laws to ensure they would stay that way.

**CONFORMITY

– People still liked the suburbs because of openess and small-town feel

Big themes of the 1950s…• Baby Boom:

- Between 1946 & 1960 birthrate soared as soldiers came home and settled down in suburbia.

– This led to the largest generation in US history

Big themes of the 1950s…

• Organization & The Organization Man

– More people working in higher-paid, white collar positions

– Companies rewarded employees for teamwork, cooperation and loyalty; encouraged conformity

Big themes of the 1950s…• Conformity

– As war gave way to peace, America began a period of remarkable sameness, where media, corporations, and communities reinforced established norms

– Some question whether pursuing the American dream exacted too high a price, as conformity replaced individuality.

Big themes of the 1950s…

Consumerism

– Buying of material goods became equated with success

– Planned Obsolescence • Becoming a “throw-away society”

– Credit purchases • More than ever before• Private debt increased from $73 bil to

$179 bil

– Spending, not saving

Notes:

Notes:

Notes:

Notes:

Date: 12/3/12 Activity: Review of the

1950s

Warm Up: Talk with group about last minute changes/additions to be able to turn in your final magazine tomorrow.

-Homework:

*Final Magazines due TOMORROW 12/4

Pg Assignment Date

55 Role Chart 11/19

56 Project Calendar 11/19

57 Research Notes 11/19

58 Task Sheet 11/19

59 Rubric 11/19

Welcome to Contemporary U.S. and World History

THE COLD WAR GETS COLDER

END OF THE ATOMIC MONOPOLY

• 1949 – USSR DEVELOPS ATOMIC BOMB:– CREATES PUBLIC HYSTERIA IN U.S.– TRUMAN RESPONDS:– CREATES FEDERAL CIVIL DEFENSE

ADMINISTRATION:• YOU CAN SURVIVE NUCLEAR WAR BY:

– BUILDING UNDERGROUND BOMB SHELTERS

– CONDUCTING SCHOOL DRILLS (“DUCK & COVER”)

– U.S. BEGINS TO DEVELOP HYDROGEN BOMB (H-BOMB)

– NEW IDEA: YOU CAN ONLY PREVENT WAR BY HAVING MORE NUKES THAN THE USSR!!!

CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

• 1952 ELECTION: EISENHOWER (REPUBLICAN) WINS

• 1953: STALIN DIES (HELPS LEAD TO END OF KOREAN WAR)

• NEW SOVIET LEADER: NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

A NEW COLD WAR STRATEGY

• “CONTAINMENT” POLICY CONTINUES BUT WITH A NEW STRATEGY:– MASSIVE RETALIATION:

• U.S. WOULD NOT HESITATE TO USE ALL OF ITS NUCLEAR FORCE VS. AGGRESSOR NATIONS

• BRINKSMANSHIP (GOING TO THE BRINK OF WAR)

• MAD (MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION)

DO NOW

• THINK OF AND LIST AS MANY ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE U.S. POLICY OF MASSIVE RETALIATION AS YOU CAN.

MASSIVE RETALIATION

• ADVANTAGES:– SAVE $ (SMALLER CONVENTIONAL MILITARY

NEEDED)• DISADVANTAGES:

– BECOME DEPENDENT UPON NUKES– LEADS TO ARMS RACE– LOSE FLEXIBILITY & CAPABILITY TO FIGHT

LIMITED WARS (ALL OR NOTHING)– ALLIES MIGHT QUESTION U.S. RESOLVE TO

PROTECT THEM IF IT MEANS NUCLEAR WAR– EFFECTS OF RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT

(RADIATION)