POSTWAR PROSPERITY

• Americans were eager to produce and spend– 6% of world’s population – made

and consumed 1/3 of the world’s goods and services

– America’s GNP increased 51% during the 1950s, partially due to defense spending

– Baby boom – 29 million Americans were born in the 50’s

– Increasing population meant increase in consumption

– Automation helped meet demand for more goods

POPULATION PERCENTAGES

WEALTHY

MIDDLE

POOR

WEALTHY

MIDDLE

POOR

• Growth of the middle class: earned income of factory workers 50%

• Americans became obsessed with collecting stuff

– Teenagers became major consumers (jeans, rock & roll)

• Television– Technology that had existed since the 1920s

began to be mass produced after the war– By 1953, ⅔ of American homes owned a TV– Political campaigns

• 1952 – Eisenhower used televised ads for his campaign

• 1960 – First televised presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy

– Many observers blamed Nixon's loss to JFK on his poor appearance in the debates. JFK looked cool, collected, & presidential. Nixon, according to one observer, resembled a "sinister chipmunk."

ConformitySuburban life = Levittowns and

“keeping up with the Jones’s”– Housewives; husbands climbing

the corporate ladder, 2.4 kids

• Television added stereotypical views of suburban life – “Leave it to Beaver”

COUNTERCULTURE• Youth rebelled against the conformity of

tract housing, “Father Knows Best” and the nuclear family

– Abstract Expressionism – painting and sculpture (but not limited to an artistic style)• characterized by a spirit of revolt and a belief in

freedom of expression • Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Mark

Rothko

– Beat Generation – group of influential writers interested in experimenting and challenging the status quo• Jack Kerouak, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, &

William S. Burroughs• Created slang and paved the way for the “mind

expansion” and hippie generations that followed

– Bebop – innovative jazz style that that had an impact on the Beats• Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis