2. Agenda
Objectives
Warm-up: Poverty in Silicon Valley
The 1950’s economy
“The Other America”
Cold War culture and critics
What is the relationship between affluence and poverty?
How did some Americans criticize 1950’s society?

3. US Unemployment Rate
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics

4. Awareness of poverty in an age of affluence
“There is a familiar America. It is celebrated in speeches and advertised on television and in the magazines. It has the highest mass standard of living the world has ever known. there existed another America. In it dwelt somewhere between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 citizens of this land. They were poor. They still are. The millions who are poor in the United States tend to become increasingly invisible. Here is a great mass of people, yet it takes an effort of the intellect and will even to see them. Poverty is off the beaten track.”
-The Other America by Michael Harrington, 1962
Influence and LBJ’s Great Society

6. East Palo Alto, poverty rate in 2014= 18.4%
Pruitt-Igoe demolition, 1970s, poverty rate in 2014= 27.4%
Poverty rate in Mountain view= 8.1%

7. Cold War Anxiety
“In less than 6 years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, "When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within." . . .
I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.”
-Senator Joe McCarthy, 1950
Catcher in the Rye, 1951

8. Cold War Culture
Analyze the video:
This song was written in What does this say about how some people viewed the lifestyle of the 1950s-1960s
What is conformity? How is conformity perceived as positive and how can it be perceived as negative?

9. 1951 Advertisement in the Grandview Heights High School Yearbook

10. 1950’s culture: critics Document 1: Rock n Roll

11. Blackboard Jungle