1. The 1950’s: Conservatism and Contentment, or Anxiety and Alienation?
Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower wins 1953 presidential election.
Republican
Five Star General – WWII
“Grandfather” figure.

2. The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic growth and rising social contentment and conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing affluence and comfortable domesticity, social critics expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture in the 1950s.
Assess the validity of the above statement and explain how the decade of the 1950s laid the groundwork for the social and political turbulence of the 1960s.

3. Baby Boom
1957: 1 baby born every 7 seconds

4. Suburban Living “Cookie Cutter” houses.
Levittown, L.I.: “The American Dream”

5. Consumer Culture
McDonald’s, Disneyland, Credit Cards

6. Desegregation Martin Luther King: nonviolent protests (sit-ins)
Bus Boycott – MLK, Rosa Parks
1954: Brown v. Board of Education
Eisenhower sends troops to escort “Little Rock 9” to school

7. Progress Through Science
Atomic Anxieties: duck-and-cover generation
1957: Russians launch Sputnik I
Increase in U.S. science and education spending.

8. 1961 – Eisenhower Leaves
Farewell speech: warns against the “military industrial complex.”
Growing size and cost of the military.
Did we listen to Ike?

9. The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic growth and rising social contentment and conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing affluence and comfortable domesticity, social critics expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture in the 1950s.
Assess the validity of the above statement and explain how the decade of the 1950s laid the groundwork for the social and political turbulence of the 1960s.