MOCK EXAM 1
Aim: Why did consumer culture become such a fixture of American life in the postwar decades, and how did it affect politics and society?
Bell Ringer: Grade Cold War Exam (10 min)
Agenda:
1. Complete Mock Exam 1 (15 min)
2. Review Journals
*Journal 147 - How did the tastes and values of the postwar middle class affect the country?
A: Advertisers in the 1940s and the 1950s encouraged Americans to buy various goods in order to assist their families and create a wholesome family life. As Americans increasingly had more money to spend on goods, they purchased washing machines, TVs, and other products that supported the postwar cultural emphases on large nuclear families, domestic mothers, consumerism, and suburban homes. The large baby boom generation for after WWII became the perfect vehicle for advertisers to deliver the message that a stable family life stems from an increase in materialism at home. The middle class bought into these messages. Cars, refrigerators, and other households goods characterized this type of consumerism and became clear class markers in American society.
*Journal 148 - How did rebellion become an integral part of consumer culture in the postwar period?
A: Youth rebellion was a party of the new consumer culture as well as a critique of the new suburban America. Rebellion was a part of consumer culture because it stemmed from a new generation of youngsters who went to school longer, worked less, and had disposable income to spend on cars, gas, burgers, and the rebellious music of rock 'n' roll. Some dissenters such as the Beats critiqued the conformity of suburbia and stepped away from the need to accumulate in favor of the need to experience.
*Journal 149 - Why was there an increase in births in the decades after WWII, and what were some of the effects of this baby boom?
A: Birth increased after WWII because of growing prosperity, marriage stability, and the growing cultural importance of families. The boom fueled the economy but also contributed to a tight labor market during the 1970s, fueled a second baby boom in the 1980s when baby boomers belatedly began having children on their own, and, more recently, has contributed to funding problems with Social Security and medicine.
*Journal 150 - What transformation in women's economic role took place in the 1950s and 1960s?
A: Between 1950 and 1970, working mothers increased dramatically (40 percent of wives worked in 1970), although in most cases, working mothers still bore full responsibility for child care and household management.
note: It is important to understand how the image of the traditional nuclear family was challenged by the profound changes related to the increasing numbers of working women.
*Journal 151 - What were the contradictions in postwar domesticity and middle class morality?
A: According to Kinsey, middle-class morality did not reflect the reality of the sexual behaviors of Americans. In his two studies, Kinsey found that a sexual revolution was taking place in America in the 1950s, although it was a hidden revolution that was inconsistent with the professed middle-class morality of the decade.
note: A great challenge to traditional morality occurred in December 1953, when Hugh Hefner published the first edition of Playboy magazine. Marilyn Monroe was the first playmate of the month. The magazine was published without a date, and without Hefner's name, and sold for $.50 per copy. Hefner sold 54,175 copies!
3. Exam Alert: The 2001 DBQ included a question about how successfully the Eisenhower administration addressed the Cold War fears of the American people.
4. Postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes impacted American society (economic growth, suburbanization, growth of the middle class, etc.). The Affluent Society is a possible illustration of how these changes contributed to a homogenous mass culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1FoplRkFlM (4 min)
5. American Voices Qs 1-5 (page 852-853)
Q1. The "fraternity boys" were the elite and GIs were the veterans who needed government assistance to begin college. GIs had major conflicts with traditional college students.
Q2. During the war women of Friedan's generation focused on assisting soldiers abroad and at home. During the 1940s and 1950s, radical issues included everything but women's rights movement, anticommunist hysteria, and nuclear weapons proliferation. Postwar life favored male advancement at the expense of women like Friendan, who was displaced from her wartime job after the return of soldiers after the war.
Q3. Toth's experiences suggest that Americans had extreme Cold War anxieties regarding communism. Authority figures viewed their role as providing a bulwark against communist advancement. Americans were to not question the supremacy of American values over communism. Her question caused embarrassment and ridicule because the U.S., a nation that championed freedom of speech, was more authoritarian than most Americans wanted to admit at the time.
Q4. Beal's experience demonstrates that the indignities faced by young people existed in both private and public spaces. It also demonstrates that the cultural practices were illogical and closely guarded by whites. These experiences helped to shape a generation of young, black southerns who wanted to challenge the system of segregation.
Terms to know: World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), military-industrial complex, Sputnik, The Affluent Society, Veterans Administration (VA), collective bargaining, teenager, baby boom,
Home Learning:
1. Read pages 856 - 865 (including Thinking Like a Historian)
2. Journal 152 - How did the national government encourage suburbanization?
3. Journal 153 - In what sense was the U.S. becoming, in the language of the Kerner Commission report, "two societies"?
4. Journals 121-150 will be graded tomorrow (2 grades)
Enrichment:
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