Day 9 Agenda

1
Day 9 Agenda

• Enduring Understanding
• Due to changing technology and new opportunities,
  American society in the 1950s headed towards a
  more simultaneously more diverse and more
  homogenous culture

• Consider how culture spreads in the past and in
  the present
• Create a poster displaying cause and effect for a
  given area in the 1950s
• Use your classmates posters to fill out Chapter
  4 Graphic Organizer
• Complete worksheet on cultural critics
• Decide whether you agree or disagree with the
  cultural critics

2
How did/does culture spread?

• Consider the above question in these five time
  periods
• Ancient History
• Colonial America
• 19th century
• Post World-War II
• Present Day
• Does technology lead to a more or less diverse
  culture?

3
Cause Effect Poster

• There were a variety of changes in Postwar
  America. These changes effected society, the
  economy, and individual lives.
• In groups of three, you will create a poster that
  demonstrates the Cause Effect of these
  changes
• Then you will hang up your posters and fill out
  the graphic organizer in your packet (pp. 2-3)
  using your classmates posters

4
Instructions for Poster

• Explain Cause Effect for your topic
• Cause What led to this change?
• Effect What impact did this change have on
  American society?
• Informative
• You can use diagrams, words, flow charts, or
  pictures to show cause effect of your topic.
• Be Creative!

5
Teen Culture

• Causes
• Baby boom
• Prosperity
• TV
• Growth of compulsory high school education
• Consumerism and marketing
• Effects
• Generational separation of music, arts, cinema,
  fashion and attitudinal values of young people
  from older people
• Desegregation of music (white people listened to
  black music), popularity of rocknroll,
  concern about juvenile delinquency, promotion of
  post-materialist values, greater sexual freedom

6
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes Description effects
Returning soldiers Positive view of future Social pressures to get married have kids Delayed marriage due to depression and war while younger people got married Medical advances Economic prosperity Baby boom Large number of children born from 1946 to 1964. Largest generation in terms of birth rate and number of children born (the current generation is bigger by number, but smaller by birth rate Changes in baby and childcare (Spock) Housing and school crunch leads to boom in building each New industries to cater to the new generation ie toys, games Late fifties teen culture
Advertising, suburbia, economic growth leading to widespread prosperity, social pressures to beat the Joneses, easy credit Rise of consumerism People buying lots of stuff that make life easier and more enjoyable Economic boom, 2 income households building malls, consumer society equates stuff w/ class, minority feelings of relative deprivation, debt
7
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes Description effects
Levittowns and other developments made low cost housing for middle class, GI Bill, FHA loans, changes in the tax code, returning soldiers having babies, TV entertainment defined the American Dream Rise of suburbs Large s of people moving to areas outside cities to larger plots of land, newer schools, safer neighborhoods, privacy Decline of cities and their tax base, services moving out to suburbs, weakened public transport, malls, suburban sprawl, pollution, 85 of new homes after 48 built in suburbs, commuting to cities
Prosperity Access to capital Defense industries Better educated workers global trade begins Rise of Corp. Am. Consolidation vertically horizontally of the means of production in to the hands of a few 53 of income earned by 600 firms Increased productivity by using technology and economy of scale, concentration of wealth income, homogenized of jobs products, increased investment and political power of defense contractors
8
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes Description effects
Prosperity and economic growth, GI Bill education, automation technology, consumer demand and product diversification Changes in labor Fewer blue-collar jobs, more white-collar jobs, more specialized skills needed, more service jobs Decline in blue-unions, small increase in white-union members, more low-paying white collar, good relations b/t business labor begat better health pension benefits, origin of union decline,
Television, fear of communism, reaction to consumerism, promotion of American values reassurances in a time of fear of communism loss of security due to rapid changes Religion Large increase in church attendance and membership, TV preachers, growth in bible sales, public displays of religiosity, Under God 54 In God We Trust 55 Religious movies, televangelists having social and political influence, but not necessarily an increase in a deep commitment to faith commensurate with the large increase in public religiosity
9
Cultural social and economic changes in the 50s
Causes Description effects
Rise of suburbia Advertising Consumer society of status awareness Innovations prosperity Car Culture Cars become the center of transportation and a symbol of prosperity Interstate Highway Act, malls, drive-ins, travel, mobility of families, homogenization, competition, jobs, weakening of cities, pollution, decline of public transportation
Baby boom Prosperity TV Growth of compulsory high school education Consumerism and marketing Teen Culture Generational separation of music, arts, cinema, fashion and attitudinal values of young people from older people Desegregation of music, popularity of rocknroll, concern about juvenile delinquency, promotion of post-materialist values, greater sexual freedom
10
Criticisms of Cultural Change

• Religious leaders thought that the culture was
  getting away from traditional American values
  because there was the promotion of sex, gender
  role changes, the evil of greed, covetousness
  through advertising and consumerism and increased
  violence in media.
• Writers/artists thought that the culture was
  too conformist and stifling, too homogenized,
  lacking in creativity and individuality too
  bland.
• Sociologists thought there was too much peer
  pressure, too inner directed with individualized
  goals rather than social communal and
  outer-directed goals. They believed there was a
  loss of individual personality due the need to
  work within an organization system

11

• Was cultural change in the 1950s positive or
  negative?
• Did it lead to more or less diversity?