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• 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
• 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