History 2710    MacKay  

 American Society 1950s-1980s

From Spigel Catalogue, 1950s                                              "Priscilla Johnson," 1966, by Alice Neel

The Cold War and the spread of Communism in Eastern Europe, China, and Korea in the late 1940s and early 1950s prompted the United States to increase dramatically its defense spending. As more and more companies came to rely on defense contracts, the power of the military-industrial complex grew. One domestic result of this was relationship was a wave of prosperity and the growth of the middle class in the United States.

During the 1950s, the real weekly earnings of factory workers increased 50%. The traditional "pyramid" of income distribution began to look more like a "diamond" with the burgeoning middle class. If we consider an annual income of $10,000 a middle-class income, then, in the 1940s, 9% of families fit that definition. By 1960, however, more than 30% of the population was middle class. Changes in education and housing further demonstrated the growth of the middle class. The year 1960 marked the first time in United States history that a majority of high-school aged people actually graduated from high school. Aided by the GI Bill, college enrollments also increased. Owning a home also became a tangible reality for more and more Americans, as the availability of housing increased and veterans could secure low-interest mortgages. By 1960, 25% of all housing available had been built in the prior decade. In other words, we became a middle class nation because of government spending and re-distribution of the wealth.

By 1960 government had become an increasingly powerful force in people's lives. During the 1930s, The White House had initiated legislation and worked closely with Congress to ease the trauma of the Great Depression. New executive agencies were created to deal with many aspects of American life. The number of civilians employed by the federal government rose from 1 million to 3.8 million during World War II, then stabilized at 2.5 million throughout the 1950s. Federal expenditures, which had stood at $3.1 thousand-million in 1929, increased to $75 thousand-million in 1953 and passed $150 thousand-million in the 1960s.

Most Americans accepted government's expanded role, even as they disagreed about how far that expansion should continue. Democrats wanted the government to use its power to ensure growth and stability. They wanted to extend federal benefits for education, health and welfare. Republicans, while accepting government's basic and necessary responsibility, hoped to cap spending and restore a larger measure of individual initiative.

The agitation for equal opportunity sparked other forms of upheaval. Young people in particular rejected the stable patterns of middle-class life their parents had created in the decades after World War II. Some plunged into radical political activity; many more embraced new standards of dress and sexual behavior.

The visible signs of the counterculture permeated American society in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer and beards became common. Blue jeans and tee shirts took the place of slacks, jackets and ties. The use of illegal drugs increased in an effort to free the mind from past constraints. Rock and roll grew, proliferated and transformed into many musical variations. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other British groups took the country by storm. "Hard rock" grew popular, and songs with a political or social commentary, such as those by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, became common. The youth counterculture reached its apogee in August 1969 at Woodstock, a three-day music festival in rural New York State attended by almost half-a-million persons. The festival, mythologized in films and record albums, gave its name to the era -- The Woodstock Generation.

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Recommended Readings:

Discussion Forum Topic: using specifics from the above texts, what do you understand are major differences in American life from the 1950s to 1980s? in women's lives? in families?

Project #10: Work with the materials about 1950s Fashions. Use at least 5 contemporary images of women in advertising to talk about the changing expectations about women from the 1950s to present day. Do we expect women today to be more independent of men? more sexually available to men? to assume roles not available to men?