SOCIETY IN FLUX

• A Society on the Move– this period saw the population grow

dramatically and shift from the North and the East to the South and the West

– at the same time, people moved from cities to suburban peripheries

– these shifts in population were made possible by advances in transportation, technology, and communication

– automobiles made commuting possible, air

conditioning made the warm climate of the

Southwest more desirable, and jet aircraft

spurred the growth of commercial air travel

• The Advent of Television– television grew dramatically during the 1950s

– it rapidly became an indispensable means of political communication

– TV both covered the news and provided a vehicle for political advertising

– in doing so, it changed American politics

– although it produced some quality dramas, documentaries, and children’s programs, the general level of programming was poor

– yet children and their parents found the new

medium fascinating

– in the 1980s, the rapid growth of cable

television diminished the importance of the

networks and increased the variety of

programming available to viewers

– videotape recorders also changed the viewing

habits of Americans

• The Growing Middle Class

– the middle class expanded rapidly and at the

same time became more culturally

homogeneous

– tens of thousands of blue-collar workers

entered the middle class, and the percentage of

immigrants in the population declined

• Religion in Changing Times– after World War II, attendance at churches and

synagogues rose, and religious toleration became much more the norm

– churches became more secular in orientation and contributed to growing trend of conformity

– civil rights movement involved many mainstream clergymen and religions in political activism

– feminist critics challenged religious assumptions

– science and technology also influenced religion

– some people had never made peace with Darwinian theories of evolution and wanted creationist theories taught in schools

– television provided a pulpit from which religious leaders could reach larger audiences

– evangelical preachers proved to be the most adept at using the electronic media

– by the 1970s, a militant fundamentalist brand of preachers dominated the airwaves

– they preached conservative religious values, and conservative political and social views

– a series of scandals in the 1980s diminished the influence of the televangelists

• Literature and Art– although it did not equal the outpouring of

literary effort after World War I, the postwar era produced some fine writers, particularly novelists such as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and John Updike; sales of paperbacks grew enormously

– the expansion of the book market had drawbacks as well as benefits

– with enormous profits to be made, publishers tended to favor established authors, which made it even more difficult for unknown writers to earn a living

– a genuinely American expression of art

emerged with the “New York school”

– abstract expressionists, such as Jackson

Pollock, approached art subjectively

– other experiments included op art (the use of

pure complementary colors to produce dynamic

optical effects) and pop art, which satirized

aspects of American culture

• The Perils of Progress– Americans seemed to confront two dilemmas in

the 1960s– first, progress was often self-defeating– consumer products, designed to make life

better, often produced waste products that polluted the environment

– second, modern industrial society placed a premium on social cooperation, but, at the same time, it undermined the individual’s sense of importance in society

– President Johnson responded by trying to build a “consensus,” but none emerged

• The Costs of Prosperity– the economy continued to expand rapidly, and

inflationary pressures built– technological advances that created new

products and new industries accounted in part for the economic expansion

– computers began to revolutionize business and production

– technology increased the capacity to support a larger population, but the growing population strained the supply of resources

• New Racial Turmoil

– in spite of significant gains, radicalism won

more and more converts among black activists

in the 1960s

– SNCC, an organization born out of the sit-ins

and committed to integration, rejected

integration and interracial cooperation after

experiencing violence and intimidation while

trying to register black voters and to organize

schools for black children in the Deep South

– the election of Stokely Carmichael as chairman

of SNCC indicated the growing strength of

“Black Power”

– urban riots also manifested black impatience,

frustration, and despair

– rioting, along with affirmative action programs

and busing, generated a white backlash

• Native-Born Ethnics– Mexican-Americans had similar grievances to

those of black Americans– in the 1960s, they began to organize to demand

equal rights and equal access to the advantages of American society

– like the black movement, Chicanos stressed cultural pride and demanded citizenship rights

– also like the black movement, the Chicano movement gave rise to nationalist and separatist groups

– the most influential Chicano leader, however, was the more mainstream Cesar Chavez, who concentrated on organizing migrant farm workers in California

– Native Americans also mobilized and called for Red Power and a revival of tribal customs

– AIM demanded the return of lands illegally taken from their ancestors

– a resurgence of cultural pride also took place among Polish-Americans, Italian-Americans, and other groups of what had been called “new immigrants”

• Rethinking Public Education

– after World War II, and particularly after the

Soviet Union launched Sputnik, progressive

theories of education, which stressed a “child-

centered” approach and “adjustment” over

traditional subjects, came increasingly under

attack

– critics noted that the system produced poor

work habits, fuzzy thinking, and plain

ignorance

– James B. Conant’s The American High School

Today, a critical look at progressive education,

sold nearly half a million copies

– demand for greater academic training and

skills, along with the baby boom, caused an

explosion of enrollments at American colleges,

universities, and junior colleges

• Students in Revolt– students in the 1960s became less and less

tolerant of the failure of government to regulate the economy in the general interest and to protect the civil rights of all citizens

– the persistence of racism and of poverty in the richest country in the world seemed immoral

– hard-line anticommunism, in the age of atomic weapons, seemed suicidal

– such sentiments drew students to SDS, the goals of which were set forth in its Port Huron Statement of 1962

– controversy over political organizing on campus gave rise to the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley

– SDS and black students at Columbia occupied university buildings in 1968

– SDS’s influence waned as the 1960s drew to a close

– Black students demanded larger black enrollments, more black faculty, and black studies courses

• The Counterculture– some young people, generally known as

hippies, rejected the modern world– they found refuge in communes, crash pads,

mystical religions, and drugs– their culture was opposite, or counter, to that of

their parents– although the counterculture was generally

apolitical or even anti-political, there were points of juncture with the New Left

– yippies, led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, combined elements of both

• The Sexual Revolution– traditional ideas about sexual behavior and the

acceptance of the depiction of nudity and sexual acts in words and pictures changed dramatically in the 1960s

– even if the majority of Americans did not alter their beliefs or practices radically, no longer were their standards accepted as only valid ones

– more efficient methods of birth control (the Pill) and antibiotics that cured venereal disease removed two impediments to sex outside marriage

– Kinsey Report revealed that many Americans

engaged in sexual practices that society

proscribed

– sexual revolution reduced irrational fears and

opened new doors for relations between sexes

– it also was accompanied by a rise in the number

of illegitimate births and an increase in

instances of sexually transmitted diseases

• Women’s Liberation– sexual freedom, women’s increasing role in the

work force, and the experiences of women in the civil rights movement and New Left gave rise to demands by women for greater equality for themselves

– the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique signaled a revival of feminism in the United States

– Friedan and other middle class and professional women formed organizations such as NOW

– younger, more radical women rejected NOW’s

hierarchical structure and its emphasis on

lobbying and education

– these women demanded more radical changes

in society

– Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics attacked the

“institution of patriarchy”