RAH Day 10 AgendaRAH Day 10 AgendaRAH Day 10 AgendaRAH Day 10 AgendaGoal – to understand that US social and economic culture

following WWII changed and adapted to the post-war world and has many similarities to today

1. Questions from homework2. Complete Unit 2 Packet page 2 car culture and teensPacket page 2 car culture and teens–

Review3. Analyze Cartoon about Suburbs and answer related questions

Packet page 3Packet page 34. Complete chart analysis of the Baby boom - Packet page 4-5Packet page 4-55. Reading Comprehension Packet page 6 Packet page 6 – The Organization

Man answer questions 1-36. Discuss criticisms of the 50s culture bottom of page 2 page 2 7. Identify the paradox inherent in life in the 50s, including

paradoxes of the criticisms8. How does this chapter reflect your lives today?Rise of Suburbs

We Don't Want Another AgnewWe Don't Want Another Agnew• With Election Day only eight weeks away, Sarah Palin is

the least vetted member of a presidential ticket in recent history. The McCain team, of course, wants to keep it that way -- since the image they’re created of Palin as the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan and Betty Crocker seems to be a winner.

• The press can’t let that happen.• We fell for that trick once before, and America hasn’t

experienced a similar political nightmare since 1973. Lest we forget, another Republican presidential nominee pulled the same stunt that John McCain is trying to perform this year.

Causes Description effects

Returning soldiersPositive view of futureSocial pressures to get married & have kidsDelayed marriage due to depression and war while younger people got marriedMedical advancesEconomic 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 eachNew industries to cater to the new generation ie toys, gamesLate fifties teen culture

Advertising, suburbia, economic growth leading to widespread prosperity, social pressures to beat the Joneses, easy credit

Rise of consumerismPeople 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

Cultural social and economic changes in Cultural social and economic changes in the 50sthe 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 suburbsLarge #’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

ProsperityAccess to capitalDefense industriesBetter educated workersglobal 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

Cultural social and economic changes in Cultural social and economic changes in the 50sthe 50s

Causes Description effects

Prosperity and economic growth, GI Bill education, automation & technology, consumer demand and product diversification

Changes in laborFewer 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

ReligionLarge 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

Cultural social and economic changes in Cultural social and economic changes in the 50sthe 50s

Causes Description effects

Rise of suburbiaAdvertisingConsumer society of status awarenessInnovationsprosperity

Car CultureCars 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 boomProsperityTVGrowth of compulsory high school educationConsumerism and marketing

Teen CultureGenerational separation of music, arts, cinema, fashion and attitudinal values of young people from older people

Desegregation of music, popularity of rock’n’roll, concern about juvenile delinquency, promotion of post-materialist values, greater sexual “freedom”

Cultural social and economic changes in Cultural social and economic changes in the 50sthe 50s

1. Births dropped from 1943 to 1944 and from 1944 to 1945

2. Returning soldiers, changing attitudes about sex, marriage, and the future, economic prosperity.

3. a) 4.3 = millions of births

b) 4.6 = millions of total new people in population (births and immigration)

c) 1.66 = millions of deaths

d) (4.6m new people – 1.66 m deaths = 2.94 million person increase in population in 1959.

4. Births dropped more than immigration rose, resulting in a net decease in the number of total new people.

5. 1st year number of births dropped below 1946 levels was in 1972, but 1964 was the last year before significant drop in births, as well as last year before # of births dropped below 4 million and the birth rate dropped below 20/1000

6. Death rose consistently slowly. births rose steeply, then dropped big

The Baby BoomThe Baby Boom

1. A. O-man works in a hierarchical organization where he is not at the top, but hopes to be able to move up.

B. He lives in the suburbs in middle class neighborhoods

C. works in a collective for the betterment of the organization but loathes the word collective

D. Has given himself to the org. giving up individuality, family and spirit

E. Extols the idea of individuality while not having any

F. Is aware of the lack of control in his life but is delusional about his relationship between the reality of the collective and individuality

The Organization ManThe Organization Man

2. The protestant work ethic of the individual for individual gain does not jive with the demands and facts of the organization collective

The conflict between the American value of individualism and the fact of organization life is that:

individualism is not workable in a hierarchical organizational environment like corporate America or big bureaucracy government, university or research work.

The organization environment is a collective, similar to the collectivism of communist USSR.

Since the two cannot work together, the organization man deluded himself into thinking that he was an individual, that he was not part of a collective – which of course was really not correct.

The Organization ManThe Organization Man

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

Criticisms of the ’50s culture

Critics complained of homogenization, which occurred simultaneously to greater choices of books, magazines movies and artistic activities; and simultaneously to the angst about an invasion of communist ideology that would make people be the same.

The affluence promoted on television belied the 25% poverty rate and while promoting homogenization and conformity, also promoted dissatisfaction leading less to consensus but to racial and gender and class and generational conflict

While celebrating universal values of freedom, god, prosperity, equality, suburbia and the expectation of progress, the reality was that many were kept from all of these things and that behind the scenes and behind closed doors people behaved differently.

Paradoxes