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AMST 3100 The 1960s

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Title: AMST 3100 The 1960s


1
AMST 3100 The 1960s
  • Pre-1960s

2
Pre-World War II America
  • 1. International Depression
  • FDRs New Deal
  • 2. U.S. foreign policy relations
  • Anticommunist
  • Fairly isolationist
  • 3. U.S. domestic policies
  • Racism and sexism prevailed
  • Jim Crow system in the South

3
Wartime Mobilization
  • 1. Propaganda themes
  • American moralism
  • The myth of polarity
  • 2. Mobilizing the economy
  • Military spending put people to work
  • Rapid technological breakthroughs
  • Rising oligarchy (the military-industrial
    complex)
  • Rising affluence, esp in savings

4
Wartime Mobilization
  • 3. Women new opportunities
  • From traditional housewives to Rosie the Riviter
  • Gender attitudes were less rigidly patriarchal
  • 4. African Americans rising expectations
  • Jim Crow segregation in the South (and North)
  • Even the U.S. military was segregated
  • Massive 10-year migration to Northern cities
  • Shift from traditional service jobs toward
    industrial jobs

5
Origins of the Cold War
  • 19th century imperialism by Western
    industrialized nations created global tensions
  • Western-style industrial capitalism was
    controversial
  • Western values were controversial
  • Rise of Marxist resistance against capitalism
    brings a global conflict over opposing
    ideologies capitalism versus communism
  • Cultural differences
  • American moralism versus Soviet pragmatism

6
Origins of the Cold War
  • Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (1917)
  • American, British and Japanese invade Russia to
    quell the Bolshevik revolution (1918), but fail.
  • Fear culture prevailed in the West
  • First American Red Scare (1918)

7
Origins of the Cold War
  • The War Years fragile alliance
  • 1. Mutual distrust between U.S. and Soviets made
    military aid for Soviets difficult
  • 2. D-Day was initially promised for 1942, but
    postponed ultimately 2 years, angering Stalin.
  • 3. How would Europe look after the War?
  • Soviets refused to restore autonomy to Eastern
    Europe, angering the Americans and British

8
Origins of the Cold War
  • 4. FDRs sudden death leaves a diplomatic vacuum
  • 5. 1945 issues that are the immediate causes of
    the Cold War
  • 1. Poland and Eastern Europe Soviet occupation?
  • 2. Germanys fate reindustrialize?
  • 3. Economic reconstruction of Europe, but no aid
    for the Soviets?
  • 4. Nuclear issues sharing nuclear information?

9
Origins of the Cold War
  • Long term origin
  • Ideological differences capitalism versus
    communism
  • Cultural differences moralism v. pragmatism
  • Short term origin
  • Soviet occupation of Central Europe, drawing an
    iron curtain around it
  • Trumans moralistic get-tough policy toward Stalin

10
Declaration of Cold War
  • 1. The Truman Doctrine (1947) military aid
  • 2. The Marshall Plan (1947) economic aid
  • 3. U.S. policy of containment (George Kennan)
    emphasis on military over diplomatic approach
  • Three problems with the containment policy
  • 1. it assumed Soviets would not negotiate
  • 2. it assumed Soviets were behind every
    insurrection
  • 3. it pushed the Soviets toward a military
    response

11
Advent of the Atomic Arms Race
  • The U.S. had a huge military advantage over the
    Soviets after WWII
  • By 1949, the Soviets managed to get the A-Bomb.
  • Now there was a balance of power.
  • U.S. pursues new atomic technologies, upsetting
    the balance of power with the H-Bomb (1952)
  • Soviets have the H-Bomb by 1953
  • H-Bomb brings issue of MAD (Mutual Assured
    Destruction) a stalemate existed under MAD, yet
    each side provoked.
  • The Arms Race both sides were locked in a
    massive, expensive, and frightening nuclear arms
    race.
  • Because the U.S. was typically ahead in the arms
    race, the U.S. resisted nuclear treaties and
    other restraints in development.
  • The arms race benefited the military industrial
    complexes of the U.S. and USSR, but was harmful
    to diplomacy, the economy, and psychological
    security.

12
End of Cold War section
13
The domestic scene (1940s-50s)
  • The politics of anti-communism stifled
    progressive reform movements
  • Many conservatives labeled reformers interested
    in securing rights for women, blacks, students,
    or workers as communist sympathizers.
  • A true American was patriotic, machismo,
    believed in a Christian God, was opposed to
    social agitation, and hated communists.
  • The Cold War was fed by the rhetoric of moralism
    we were free and our enemies were tyrants
    (good versus evil).
  • A fear culture prevailed and fear of domestic
    communism meant civil rights could be sacrificed.

14
Four norms aimed at youth
  • 1. obey authority
  • 2. control your emotions
  • 3. fit in with the group
  • 4. dont even think about sex
  • These messages reveal the desire for normalcy
    and security in a post-Depression, post-war
    conservative culture. In the 60s, these norms
    would be rejected by the youth counterculture.

15
Despite the politics of anticommunism, changes
were occurring
  • Between 1945-1960, the GNP grew by 250.
  • At the start of WWII, only 40 of citizens owned
    their own home. By 1960 it would be 60.
  • By 1960, about 60 of citizens were in the middle
    class, compared with only 31 before the 1930s.
  • The rise of television greatly altered leisure
    time activities.
  • the home became more privatized.
  • Less going out to public life activities like the
    movies, restaurants, the ball game, etc.

16
Economic shifts rise of a post-industrial economy
  • White collar workers began to outnumber blue
    collar workers
  • A new managerial class was emerging college
    trained workers for large corporations who were
    specialists
  • Large corporations promoted a new managerial
    personality that some called the organization
    man
  • Conformist to corporate rules
  • Sociable and sharp
  • The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan
    Wilson, 1956
  • Rising dissention the organization man was too
    plastic or conformist. Authenticity of self
    would be an issue.

17
Suburbia and Consumerism
  • Between 1950-60, 18 million people would move to
    the 11 million homes being built in the suburbs.
  • By 1960, one-fourth of the U.S. population lived
    in a suburb. Suburbs represented the good life.
  • relative affluence
  • a materialistic, consumption-oriented lifestyle
  • stability and community (in a volatile world)
  • privacy
  • a nuclear family oriented around the kids

18
Suburbia and Consumerism
  • The new consumerism focused on recreation and the
    new expectation that life should be fun
    (hedonism), as promoted in corporate TV ads.
  • Families were encouraged to take vacations
  • new sources of hedonistic pleasures, like
    Disneyland.
  • The station wagon was the family car - the
    vacation car.
  • Rise in motels, McDonalds catered to this new car
    culture.
  • Suburbia was to be fun too.
  • Playboy Magazine catered to this new consumer
    hedonism and signaled rising sexual hedonism.
  • These new, high expectations influenced youth .

19
The Price of Suburbia
  • Suburbs promote a form of group living that
    undermined individualism (a core value)
  • Too conformist, too bland, too uniform, too
    plastic, too cookie-cutter, too rationalized.
  • Who would reject suburbia? Non-conformists, and
    those concerned about authenticity of self.
  • Existentialists and radicals
  • Artists
  • Social marginals (delinquents, rockers, and other
    elements of the emerging youth culture)

20
Womens Lives
  • Traditional gender roles placed women in the home
    as housewife and mother.
  • The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan, 1963)
  • Young women were socialized to yearn for
    marriage and children as the single source of
    fulfillment. This was normalcy for females.
  • any deviation was improper.
  • This book touched a nerve among women, who began
    to question this patriarchal system.
  • Women were in a tug-of-war between traditional
    family values (patriarchal) versus modern values
    (equality).

21
Womens Lives, cont
  • Anomic conditions could even be found in the
    1950s suburbs
  • Rising alcoholism and tranquilizer usage
  • What was Mothers Little Helper - that little
    yellow pill that the Rolling Stones referred to
    in 1966?
  • Rising divorce rates
  • Millions of women had wage jobs, despite the
    feminine mystique, and most liked their jobs.
  • It was clear by the middle of the 1960s that
    women were ready for a change, and patriarchy
    would come under attack by these emerging
    feminists.

22
Popular Culture of the 1950s
23
1. Growth of television
  • TV dominated the popular culture of the 50s.
  • TV encouraged a national shared culture.
  • The family itself adopted and adapted to TV life
    and schedules.
  • TV mainly reinforced conservative values, but
    also teased with breakthrough programs like
    Twilight Zone, Kraft Television Theater,
    Playhouse 90, etc.
  • Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Donna Reed
    Show, Ozzie and Harriet, etc emphasized
    importance of suburbia, traditional conservative
    values, the family.

24
1950s Television, cont
  • TV was a commercial tool used to reinforce the
    dominant values of the era
  • Materialism and consumerism as a way of life
  • Hedonism, as defined by capitalists
  • Progress (capitalist/technological/bureaucratic
    growth)
  • Suburbia and the nuclear family
  • Traditional gender and race roles (sexism,
    racism)
  • Law and order
  • Conformity to authority and to bureaucratic rules
  • Patriotism and a strong military
  • Fear of communism and deviance

25
2. Films of the 50s
  • Unlike TV, films had more variation, more
    substance, and more aesthetic interest.
  • Gender messages were ambiguous
  • Doris Day versus Marilyn Monroe
  • Women were increasingly sexualized
  • The ideal man was a rugged individualist

26
3. Rise of Existentialism
  • Backdrop is the rise of mass society and powerful
    forces that bring a sense that life is absurd.
    (Example Kafkas The Trial)
  • Big Business, Big Govt, Big Militaries, and
    other over-rationalized, hierarchal systems
    reduce the individual to an insignificant atom.
  • Failure of traditional religion to answer modern
    questions.
  • To the Church, meaning is inherent. But to the
    existentialist, meaning is not provided by the
    natural order. It must be made in the now.
  • Meaning comes from action, so make your actions
    count.
  • Carpe diem.
  • Become self-aware.

27
Existentialism, cont
  • Themes supported by existentialism
  • 1. Individualism against collective conformity
  • 2. Free will against determinism
  • fight the power of the machine/bureaucracy to run
    your life
  • 3. Rebellion against the system

28
4. Rise of Youth Culture
  • Before WWII, the generation gap was not wide, and
    the popular culture of teens was not that
    different from their parents. The rise of youth
    culture radically altered the social landscape of
    the 50s, and especially the 60s.
  • The baby boom
  • The sheer number of teens gave them a sense of
    their own identity as teens.
  • Rising affluence and consumerism
  • Teens began to get an allowance and became
    consumers, allowing them to forge their own
    consumer styles.
  • Rise of suburbia.
  • Suburbs allowed larger families centered around
    the children. Teens developed high expectations
    about life and fun.

29
Rise of youth culture, cont
  • Emphasis on school, a differentiated institution
    with differentiated statuses.
  • Institutional differentiation encouraged status
    differentiation, and the teenager became an
    age-differentiated status, complete with
    different role expectations. Teens hung out with
    each other, fostering their own identities apart
    from adults. Peer groups of teens were powerful
    influences.
  • Schools were becoming rationalized, with
    obedience to rules required.
  • Teens began to differentiate themselves from the
    adult oligarchy, and this fostered rebellion
    against school rules and authority.

30
Teen traits Adult traits
  • Anti-authority
  • Anti-rational
  • Expressive behavior
  • Spontaneous
  • Unconventional
  • Informal and loose
  • Personal freedom
  • Instant gratification
  • Irreverent
  • Openly sexualized and hedonistic
  • Pro-authority
  • Rational
  • Instrumental beh.
  • Calculating
  • Conventional
  • Formal
  • Conformity
  • Delayed gratification
  • Serious minded
  • Less openly sexual and hedonistic

31
Rise of youth culture, cont
  • Teen Values
  • Teens forged their own subculture, complete with
    its own distinguishing values hedonism,
    irreverence (to authority), freedom, rejection of
    rationality, passionate romanticism.
  • Rocknroll emerged as the voice of teen culture
  • Hedonistic, sexualized, individualized, youth
    oriented
  • Irreverent

32
Sources of Discontent
33
1. The Existentialists
  • Intellectuals, college campuses, very influential
  • Provided an ideological basis for criticism of
    Western culture
  • Emphasis
  • Freedom
  • The now (live for today, seize the day)
  • Viewing the system as the root problem
  • Action, change oriented
  • Albert Camus, John Paul Sartre

34
2. The Beats
  • Mainstream American had lost its soul
  • Too bland, materialistic, conformist,
    hypocritical, racist, militant, corporate,
    bureaucratic
  • The Beats (late 1940s to mid-1960s) rejected
    suburbia and prided themselves on non-conformity
    and living life to the fullest.
  • Open to new experiences (sex, drugs, and be bop)
  • They made their own rules (do your own thing)
  • Bohemian existentialists
  • Rejected the system but did not try to openly
    challenge it, preferring to live underground.
  • Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs

35
3. Juvenile Delinquents
  • Rebels without a cause.
  • Teens and young adults who felt alienated from
    their parents, the system, and mainstream adult
    authority.
  • Rejected the system but offered no constructive
    alternatives other than living in the now and
    acting out.
  • Hollywoods Rebel Without a cause (James Dean)
    and The Wild Ones (Marlon Brando) sensationalized
    the juvenile delinquent.

36
4. Rock n Roll
  • Helped galvanize youth culture into their own
    differentiated identity apart from adult
    authority
  • Rejection of old (parental norms and values)
  • Fed the growing generation gap
  • Crossed the race barrier, bringing changes.
  • Emphasis on physical sensation, pleasure, soul,
    expressive behavior (loosen up and be free)
  • Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and ELVIS (the white
    version of black soul)

37
5. Civil Rights Advocates
  • Criticized the status quo and its injustices
  • Early emphasis on the need for racial equality
  • Advocated a distinct, constructive ideology that
    promoted humanism and social justice
  • Equality
  • Freedom
  • Well organized, strong leaders
  • Supported by the black church and many white
    churches
  • Together with the rise of youth culture, this is
    the most significant force of change to affect
    the 1960s.
  • Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.

38
End of this section.
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