AMST 3100 The 1960s

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AMST 3100 The 1960s

• Pre-1960s

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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.

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End of Cold War section
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 .

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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)

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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).

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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.

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Popular Culture of the 1950s
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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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Sources of Discontent
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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

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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

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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.

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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)

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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.

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End of this section.