1. Topic: Evaluating 1950s America
Do Now:
“1950s America was a time of conformity and domestic tranquility. The ideal of a small suburban family with a swimming pool and all the other luxuries made America the most stable nation in the world. Even in the political sphere, there was a sense of unity”.
Defend or Refute This Statement

2. The Eisenhower Presidency
1952 Election
Dwight Eisenhower and Nixon (VP)
Vs. Adlai Stevenson (D)
“I like Ike”
“Checkers Speech”
“Dynamic Conservatism”
Political Moderation
Cut some New Deal programs
Interstate Highway System
Social Security expansion

3. Ike’s Foreign Policy Settling the Korea War (1953)
38th Parallel
“New Look” Foreign Policy
John Foster Dulles – Policy of Boldness
SAC and bombers
MAD and NUT
1950s Thaw
Sputnik I (1957)
U2 Spy plane incident (1960)
Eisenhower Doctrine
Aid to Middle East
CIA and Iran

4. 1950s Social Concerns McCarthyism Conformity vs. “Rebellion”
Where did he come from?
The Hollywood Ten
1954 Military hearings
Conformity vs. “Rebellion”
Fears of Nuclear War, “Reds”
Power of television
Elvis Presley & Playboy
The Beats
Arthur Miller, Gore Vidal
Salinger
Betty Friedan

5. Origins of the Civil Rights Movement
1950s African Americans
An American Dilemma
1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King and SCLC (1957)
Brown v. Board of Ed (1957)
Justice Earl Warren
Desegregation / Integration
“All deliberate speed”
Little Rock Arkansas (1957)
Could Eisenhower have done more?

6. Conclusion
Review your response to the Do Now… what would you add to your original answer? Take away from it?