During the 1950s, a sense of uniformity pervaded American society. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patterns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed. Men expected to be the breadwinners; women, even when they worked, assumed their proper place was at home. Sociologist David Riesman observed the importance of peer-group expectations in his influential book, The Lonely Crowd. He called this new society "other-directed," and maintained that such societies lead to stability as well as conformity. Television contributed to the homogenizing trend by providing young and old with a shared experience reflecting accepted social patterns.

The Cold War

After World War II, the United States clashed with the Soviet Union over Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, the control of atomic weapons, and the Soviet blockade of Berlin. The establishment of a Communist government in China in 1949 and the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 helped transform the Cold War into a global conflict. The United States would confront Communism in Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon, and elsewhere. In an atmosphere charged with paranoia and anxiety, there was deep fear at home about “enemies within” sabotaging US foreign policy and passing atomic secrets to the Soviets.

Socio-Economic Disparity and Exclusion

Between 1950 and 1970, for every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution in the US, the top .01 percent earned $162.

by 2007, the top .01 percent received $18,000 for every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90%. That huge disparity began in the 1950s, when The Greatest Generation barred from employment those who weren’t white, happily married or Protestant enough. All forms of socialization—from workplaces to schools to social clubs to churches—were designed to pre-emptively exclude those who didn’t fit in. They abandoned their inner cities and built an infrastructure devoted to mass-produced suburbs and shopping malls. They invented the commute.

More perniciously, they built a society where classes rarely come into contact with each other. As the physical geography changed, neighborhood institutions and social structures could more restrict themselves to a narrow demographic band. Neighborhood churches and schools became increasingly focused on servicing the universally rich (or universally poor) residents who lived near them.

The Beats

But not all Americans conformed to such cultural norms. A number of writers, members of the so-called "beat generation," rebelled against conventional values. Stressing spontaneity and spirituality, they asserted intuition over reason, Eastern mysticism over Western institutionalized religion. The "beats" went out of their way to challenge the patterns of respectability and shock the rest of the culture.

During the early 1970s, films like American Graffiti and television shows like “Happy Days” portrayed the 1950s as a carefree era—a decade of tail-finned Cadillacs, collegians stuffing themselves in phone booths, and innocent tranquility and static charm. In truth, the post-World War II period was an era of intense anxiety and dynamic, creative change. During the 1950s, African Americans quickened the pace of the struggle for equality by challenging segregation in court. A new youth culture emerged with its own form of music—rock ‘n' roll. Maverick sociologists, social critics, poets, and writers—conservatives as well as liberals—authored influential critiques of American society.

Events

1950	North Korea’s Soviet-backed army invades South Korea; in response, the US enters the conflict in support of South Korea. The US sends 35 military advisors to South Vietnam to give military and economic aid to the anti-Communist government. The Mattachine Society, the first homosexual rights group, is founded. Albert Einstein discovers the general theory of gravitation. Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic makes its national debut. Diners Group, the first credit card, is launched.
1951	The American Committee for Cultural Freedom is founded. W. E. B. DuBois is tried for treason. The Selective Service Bill lowers the military draft age to 18 ½. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage and sentenced to death. Debut of I Love Lucy.
1952	Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected the 34th President. Duck and Cover, a US. Federal Civil Defense Administration instruction film for schoolchildren, is released. It demonstrates what to do in the event of nuclear attack: hit the ground under nearby shelter. The first US hydrogen bomb is detonated, at Eniwetok in the Pacific. Paul Robeson is awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head is the first child’s toy advertised on TV.
1953	Elvis Presley begins his musical career. The three-dimensional structure of DNA is discovered. Mt. Everest is summited for the first time. Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of England. Cinemascope and 3-D film are introduced. Playboy magazine is founded; Marilyn Monroe is the first centerfold.
1954	The Senate censures Joseph McCarthy following the Army–McCarthy hearings. The Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v the Board of Education. President Eisenhower signs a bill outlawing the Communist Party. US tests a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The Comics Code is set up after the publication of Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. The Soviet Union is the first country to generate electricity by nuclear power. Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1955	18 Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by 34 more laureates. Albert Einstein and James Dean die. The US agrees to train South Vietnamese troops. Disneyland opens. Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus.
1956	Congressmen from Southern states issue the Southern Manifesto, calling for massive resistance to the Supreme Court ruling on desegregation. IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, the first commercial computer with a hard drive that uses magnetic disk storage. It weighs over a ton. The US Interstate highway system begins. The first transatlantic telephone cable is laid.
1957	President Eisenhower is inaugurated for his second term in office. The US Congress approves the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, with additional protection of voting rights. The US National Guard is called to duty by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to keep nine black students from attending a previously all-white school. President Eisenhower dispatches federal troops to Little Rock to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite, which was about the size of a beach ball.
1958	The European Economic Community (AKA the European Common Market) starts operation. Explorer I, the first US space satellite, is launched. An earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska registers 7.5 on the Richter scale, producing a megatsunami with a wave higher than the Empire State Building. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is founded; it’s symbol, the peace sign, is first used.
1959	Fidel Castro foments the Cuban Revolution. Alaska and Hawaii become US states. An uprising in Tibet against China leads to the exile of the Dalai Lama. The first confirmd case of HIV is in a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Beginning of the Vietnam War.

Back to Post-WWII US Culture