Dad is the bread winner Mom is the happy homemaker
Slide 3
Slide 4
In the 50s, it was said that women went to college for a Mrs.
degree, not a B.A. Women were not thought of as ambitious and
werent encouraged to be Women became dissatisfied with cleaning and
baking Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique Women who want a career
are ambitious and motivated - they are not flawed or
unfeminine
Slide 5
Birth of television Shows like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners
were the most popular TV shows of the 50s By 1957, there were about
40 million television sets in use and TV became an important source
of information
Slide 6
Slide 7
Pop Culture of the 1950s Father Knows Best 1954-1958 The Ozzie
and Harriet Show 1952-1966 Leave it to Beaver 1957-1963
Slide 8
Hollywood: apex of the biblical epics. Its un-American to be
un-religious! -- The Christian Century, 1954 The Robe The Ten
Commandments Ben Hur 1953 1956 1959 The Robe The Ten Commandments
Ben Hur 1953 1956 1959 Pop Culture of the 1950s
Slide 9
First McDonalds (1955) America became a more homogeneous nation
because of the automobile. Drive-In Movies Holiday Inn The
Automobile Culture
Slide 10
Birth of Rock n Roll In the 1950s, many teenagers rebelled
against the middle-class suburban values, particularly conformity
and wanted to be unique. It was during this period that many youths
turned to new and unconventional styles of music Soon white artists
began making music that was based on African American rhythm and
blues This form of music became known as rock n roll and it became
wildly popular with the nations teenagers
Slide 11
Elvis Presley The King of Rock n Roll Presleys extraordinary
popularity established rock n roll as an unprecedented mass-market
phenomenon His reputation as a performer endured up to his death in
1977 at the age of 42. Graceland, his home in Memphis, is now a
public museum visited by upwards of 600,000 people annually.
Slide 12
The Generation Gap Many parents viewed rock n roll as loud and
dangerous. The music was banned in some communities. The music
united teens in their own world and helped to create what became
known as the generation gap. The generation gap was the cultural
separation between children and their parents.
Slide 13
The Beat Generation The major works of Beat writing are Allen
Ginsberg's Howl, William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch and Jack
Kerouac's On the Road Members of the Beat Generation were referred
to as beatniks and set the stage for the rise of the counter-
culture and hippies during the 1960s The Beat Generation was the
cultural movement of the 1950s when young people often writers
ditched societys normal standards for new ways of thinking
Slide 14
Juvenile Delinquency Another problem facing the nation was
juvenile delinquency, which was antisocial or criminal behavior by
teenagers Juvenile crime rose 45% between 1948 and 1953. Car thefts
by juveniles increased and more teenagers joined street gangs Many
attributed this rise in teenage rebellion to movies such as Rebel
Without a Cause and books like J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the
Rye
Slide 15
Pop Culture of the 50s The Lone Ranger TopTVShows The
Honeymooners Father Knows Best