1. The World's Economic Superpower Emerges Conformity: to be like everybody else – the post-war period is seen as a time of conformity when several things pressured Americans not to act in ways that challenged the dominant culture, a culture that stressed consumerism, materialism, traditional gender roles and morality. One reason for this is the prosperity that the nation witnessed in the two decades following WWII. After years of hardship, Americans could afford to buy things again. Added to that, a firm belief that the Great Depression was caused by a lack of consumer power (demand-side economics) took hold. It was good to buy “things” (cars, refrigerators, televisions): good because it was fun and good because it kept people working making those things and kept the economy humming.

2. Another reason was the rise of suburbia. All the homes looked alike; you could walk into a new friend’s suburban home that you had never visited before and know the basic floor plan (or notice how it differed from your house) An impression of equality emerged – you were basically the same as your neighbor. But when your neighbor bought something new, you might have sensed that you were falling behind; so you had to get that new thing, too. You had to “keep up with the Joneses.” The media helped foster these ideas, through advertising or consumer magazines.

3. Such stifling of individualism may help explain not only the culture of the 1950s, but also the reaction to it in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1955 film, Rebel Without a Cause, exemplifies the tension over conformity and personal expression. In it, the young superstar James Dean feels held back by his middle-class upbringing. He has every material thing he could want and his parents love him and treat him well, but he is dissatisfied. He needs to find his own character. But the dominant culture dismisses his rebelliousness. Life is good (better than it was for his parents in the Depression and War). He has no “cause” for which to rebel.

4. Ticky-Tacky Suburban Society: The Culture of Conformity, 1945-1964 “The Fifties:” In 1957, U.S. News & World Report called the previous ten years a “decade of miracles.” The U.S. had emerged as the world’s sole economic superpower. America was “a nation on the move” with “millions of babies... millions of pupils... millions of jobs... millions of households... [and for them] millions of new homes in new cities.” The U.S. comprised 7% of the world’s population, but held 42% of the world’s income and produced 50% of the world’s manufacturing output—43% of electricity, 57% of steel, 62% of oil, 80% of automobiles. It held 75% of the world’s gold. One reason behind the boom was the continued spending of the federal government to avoid a return to the Great Depression. In 1950, government spending reached $43 billion, more than four times 1939 levels. Spending included mortgage guarantees, highway construction, medical and scientific research, and the “military-industrial complex” of weapons systems. Not all Americans shared in the bounty, of course, and anxiety over the struggle against Communism abroad and at home made the decade less than perfect. But economically, as a nation, there is no question that the U.S. had become the world’s economic superpower.

5. The Baby Boom: The postwar years (1946-1962) saw the largest demographic bubble in U.S. history—70 million babies, almost two-fifths of the 1960 population of 190 million. The boom resulted not only from soldiers returning home, but also from an increase in marriages among those who delayed marriage because of the Depression and war and from people marrying younger. It did not occur because couples were having more children, rather because more couples were having children. The boom ended with the advent of the “birth-control pill” in the early 1960s, as couples married later, and as divorce became more accepted.

6. The G.I. Bill: Shortly after D-Day, Congress enacted the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the “G.I. Bill of Rights.” The Act stipulated that any veteran who had served at least 90 days in the military after September 1940 had the right to the following benefits: 1. access to a job finding program 2. unemployment benefits for a year 3. access to discount home mortgage loans 4. “education and training.” The last “right” became the most significant over time – veterans received up to four years of paid, full-time education, including money for college. By 1956, about 8 million veterans had taken advantage of the opportunities, including more than 2 million who went to college or university. The WWII generation was the first to have so many get beyond a high school education.

7. Levittown: First mass suburban tract built after WWII. William Levitt and Sons created an assembly line approach to home construction. Levitt divided the building process into steps, performed in sequence by a crew that repeated its same tasks on each home. Levitt claimed to finish a house every fifteen minutes. The first Levittown, on Long Island had 17,500 houses and 82,000 residents. “No man who owns his own house and lot can be a Communist. He has too much to do.”

8. The houses were small by today’s standards and came in two styles, a Cape Cod and a Ranch bungalow. The Cape Cod started at $7000; the ranch a bit higher. According to a Levittown resident in 2008, “you can’t get a house [here] for less than $400,000.” Along with new construction techniques, postwar homebuilders and buyers took advantage of new tax rules and low-interest loans sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration to create the post-war housing boom.

9. “I Like Ike”: Truman’s problems in Korea and the stress of his second term kept him from another run for the presidency. He talked Illinois Governor Adlai E. Stevenson II into running and Stevenson won the nomination. Republicans, meanwhile, considered Robert Taft (“Mr. Republican”), but searched for a more likely winner. They found Dwight Eisenhower. As hero of WWII, Eisenhower was a shoo-in with the public. The only question was whether conservative Republicans could be coaxed along. They were, with the selection of Richard M. Nixon as vice-presidential candidate. A political moderate, Eisenhower did not intend to dismantle the New Deal. He did not intend to do much of anything and that was what a conforming America wanted. Economic prosperity continued thanks in part to major public works projects. Although his was essentially a successful presidency, Eisenhower’s biggest oversight as POTUS was his slow support for the growing Civil Rights Movement. He had a settling influence on the American psyche despite the anxieties of the Cold War.

10. Costing an estimated $129 Billions, it changed the US economy, changed the relationship of the federal government to the states, reshaped cities, altered the landscape, and changed American culture. “The interstate is a wonderful thing. It makes it possible to go from coast to coast without seeing anything or meeting anybody. If [America] interests you, stay off the interstates.” Charles Kuralt Interstate Highway System: Inspired by the German Autobahn, it is a limited-access superhighway that serves a dual-purpose: to promote commerce, and increase national security.

11. Polio Vaccine: Invented by Jonas Salk in 1952, it all but eliminated child paralysis (poliomyelitis), a disease that affected 58,000 children in 1952 (killing 1,400) and had paralyzed Franklin Roosevelt. Albert Sabin produced an oral vaccine in 1962. The research was funded by government and through the work of such organizations as the March of Dimes. By 1962, there were only 910 recorded cases in the U.S. Ending polio boosted other disease prevention research and gave hope that science would end other childhood diseases, as well as cancer, heart disease, and stroke

12. Transistors: Semiconductors used for amplification and switching—the key components in modern electronics. Using less power and being much smaller than vacuum tubes, they facilitated portable electronic devices, such as transistor radios first developed by Texas Instruments in 1954. The pre-transistor portable radio was about the size of a notebook computer and contained several heavy batteries. By comparison, the “transistor,” as it became known, was small and operated off one 9V battery. Transistors became popular with youth in the early sixties, when their price came down from its original $50. They are replaced by the integrated circuit and microchip in the 1960s.

13. Television: Although invented much earlier, television receivers were not marketed to any great extent before the end of WWII (besides there was nothing to watch). In 1949, 2.3% of U.S. homes had black-and-white sets on which to watch the most popular viewing of the day— wrestling. By 1962, 90% had at least one TV and by the mid-1960s sets were color. In between, the two major radio networks, CBS and NBC, transformed many of their popular radio shows into television shows ( Amos and Andy, The Lone Ranger, etc.) many shown “live.” New TV stars established themselves —none bigger than Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy. Game shows were extremely popular, at least before being discredited in the “Quiz Show Scandal” where viewers of Twenty-One and $64,000 Question discovered that contestants had been given the answers before hand. Viewers became riveted by news programs and Congressional hearings involving McCarthy’s Red Scare and Kefauver’s investigations into organized crime. Finally, while important and cutting-edge dramas played on programs such as Playhouse 90, most shows were family fare – light, moralist, and suburban – blandly capturing the “American Dream.”

14. Hootenanny: In the late1950s, an acoustic folk music revival emerged to challenge the frivolousness of “pop music” and rock-and-roll. It built on work by “old folkies”, such as Woody Guthrie and The Weavers (notably Pete Seeger who was blacklisted for membership in the Communist Party USA). The breakthrough act of the revival was The Kingston Trio whose “Tom Dooley” (about the hanging of Tom Dula in Statesville for murder) exploded on the charts in 1959. For the next five years, folk music merged with the civil rights movement and competed with rock-and-roll for the youth market with artists, such as Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Phil Ochs. It reached a new level in Bob Dylan.

15. (Spoken recitation over musical accompaniment) Throughout history, there have been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This next one tells the story of Mister Grayson, a beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley. When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley must hang. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die. I met her on the mountain. There I took her life. Met her on the mountain. Stabbed her with my knife. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die. This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Hadn't-a been for Grayson, I'd-a been in Tennessee. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die. This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Down in some lonesome valley hangin' from a white oak tree. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die. “Tom Dooley” Frank Warner/John Lomax/Alan Lomax

16. The Beats: Group of writers, centered in San Francisco that led the bohemian anti-establishment movement known as the “counter culture”. Their followers became known as “Beatniks” or “Hipsters.” Led by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, they erupted on the literary scene in the mid-1950s with the publication of a poetry collection by Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”. The book scandalized publishing because of its explicit homosexuality, but it opened the way for new and more provocative works to follow.

17. Although other writers had success, the most successful was Jack Kerouac, whose books On the Road remains an icon of 1950s rebellion. Several Beats got caught up in experimentation with drugs, particularly LSD. Beats stayed at the center of the counterculture when San Francisco, specifically Haight-Ashbury, became the Mecca for hippies after 1965.

18. The Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963 Kennedy-Nixon Debates: First televised presidential campaign debates, between Sen. John F. Kennedy (Democrat) and Vice-President Richard Nixon (Republican). The debate turned on two things. (1) Image: Kennedy wore make-up which under the television lights made him look tan and healthy. Nixon did not; so he looked pale and pasty. The television audience believed Kennedy looked more presidential. (2) Cold War: Kennedy accused the Eisenhower-Nixon administration of letting the Soviets get the lead in the Cold War, notably through what Kennedy called a “missile gap”—there was no substantive difference between the Soviet and American arsenals. Nixon beat Kennedy on that and other policy points. The radio audience believed Nixon made the better arguments and having a better grasp of issues.

19. The Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963 “Ask not”: John Kennedy represented “a passing of the torch” from the WWI generation (Eisenhower) to the WWII generation. He sparked the imagination of youth by inviting them to volunteer. “Ask not what your country can do for you,” he declared in his inaugural address, “ask what you can do for your country.” New Frontier: Kennedy’s policy agenda, building on the idea of a new generation taking control of government. It called upon citizens to think anew about the problems facing the world. The main elements included: (1) a new approach to the Soviets—”Flexible Response, i.e. maintaining a strong military force while calling for a reduction of nuclear weapons and the ending the development of new weapons by banning nuclear weapons testing; (2) using government to spur advances in science to explore space—most notably racing to the moon—and to eliminate diseases; (3) improving relations with Latin America and holding off Communist expansion through the Alliance for Progress; (4) tapping into the idealism of the youth of America.

20. Agency led by Kennedy’s brother-in-law Sergeant Shriver. It called on college-age people to travel to under-developed countries to help grow food, increase crop yields, and improve health conditions. It built on Project HOPE, the Eisenhower program to have doctors give medical and nutritional aid to people in poorer nations. More than 5,000 applicants took the first exams to enter the Peace Corps. The first 51 volunteers went to Ghana in 1961. By the end of 1963, 7,300 were serving in 44 countries. Despite an obvious humanitarian value, the programs expected to help the U.S. Cold War effort by winning the “hearts and minds” of people. The Peace Corps:

21. Bay of Pigs Invasion: In 1959, Fidel Castro led a Communist revolution in Cuba. He took U.S. property and Cubans sympathetic to the old regime went into exile in Florida. The U.S. saw Castro as a direct threat. The Eisenhower administration developed a plan to help the exiles invade Cuba (entering at the Bay of Pigs) and oust Castro. After the 1960 election, Kennedy inherited the mission. In part because Kennedy failed to give adequate air support to the invaders, the April 1961 invasion ended in complete and utter failure. It was a major blemish on the new government. Among other important results, it put Kennedy on the defensive in international negotiations relating to Cuba and Castro and made him vulnerable to attacks by Republicans that his foreign policy was inept.

22. Vienna Conference: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had little respect for Kennedy (believing him to be weak and a fraud) and so he decided to test JFK’s mettle. He met with Kennedy in Vienna in June 1961. Kennedy, heavily drugged to control his severe back pain, performed poorly and admitted himself that Khrushchev walked all over him. Returning home, Kennedy claimed victory but feared that nuclear war was inevitable. He started to mobilize the military and asked Congress for a $3.2 billion defense appropriation.

23. Berlin Wall: Berlin remained a point of Cold War conflict after the airlift in the late 1940s. At Vienna, Khrushchev had threatened to block U.S. access to the city. But he had a problem: thousands of East Germans crossed to the West to escape Communism. To stop the flood of refugees, Khrushchev ordered a wall built through Berlin and the German countryside to keep East Germans in. The wall demonstrates the lengths to which the Soviets would go to control their people. It became a symbol of the tyranny and slavery of the Communist system, as JFK made a rousing visit to West Berlin in 1963 and gave his famous “ Ich Bin Ein Berliner ” Speech. And prompting President Ronald Reagan to tell the Soviets to "tear down this wall" during a visit to Berlin in 1987.

24. Cuban Missile Crisis: The critical moment of the Kennedy presidency. After pushing JFK around for more than a year, the Soviets went too far, placing nuclear missiles in Cuba. The missiles could target major U.S. cities. Kennedy ordered the Soviets to remove the missiles. The Soviets countered, demanding that the U.S. pull its missiles out of Turkey. Kennedy refused and a six-day stand-off resulted.

25. The world was never closer to nuclear war. Finally, Khrushchev backed down, removing the missiles. Kennedy claimed victory. What was not known or admitted at the time was that Kennedy had also backed down—he had pulled U.S. missiles out of Turkey. The crisis scared the U.S. and Soviets so much that they began talks to lessen the nuclear arms race.

26. The talks resulted in the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which banned testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. Though a small step, it was a step toward better relations between the USSR and the U.S.

27. On November 22, 1963, as JFK rode through Dallas in an open limousine, Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed him. Arrested the day of the shooting, Oswald was interrogated, but denied doing it. A couple of days after the assassination, Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner who claimed he wanted to avenge Kennedy. Oswald’s quick death left many questions unanswered and has led ever since to speculation of a conspiracy. Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy’s Vice-POTUS, became POTUS as a result of the murder. Assassination of John F. Kennedy:

28. "Camelot": After the murder and funeral of President Kennedy, a mythology developed that came to overwhelm the reality of the Kennedy years. In death, Kennedy became more universally popular in America than he was in life. He became the symbol of hope that, as the U.S. descended into disorder and careened from one disaster to another over the next twenty years, became a symbol of lost innocence and a dream destroyed. Chief among the mythmakers were his advisers, his staff, and his family. Shortly after the assassination, historian and Kennedy adviser Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., asked Jacqueline Kennedy what life was like in the JKF White House. Recalling the favorite Broadway musical of the day, she said that it was like Camelot" -- "In short there's simply not a more congenial spot for happ'ly-ever-aftering than here in Camelot." The myth stuck.

29. “The British Invasion”: In February 1964, as the U.S. dealt with JFK’s murder, The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr) landed in New York to play the Ed Sullivan Show. The crowd (mostly screaming girls) greeting them at the airport was the biggest thing rock music had seen since Elvis Presley broke on the scene. Over the next year, the Beatles dominated American culture (music, dress, hair, even movies). After them, came British acts of varying quality and popularity— from giants (Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton) to the big and then gone – changing the face of popular music. The synergy of the British invasion, America’s musical response (exemplified by The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan), the youth market, drugs, and the Vietnam War helped expand the counterculture on both sides of the Atlantic.