Material Culture in the 1950s PDF

Preview

Summary

Metcalf's Lecture Notes...

Description

Material Culture in the 1950s

- Post-War Economic Expansion • GNP nearly doubles from 1945 to 1960 • perpetual growth was thought to be likely and depressions impossible - Reasons for Growth • American economy expanded to fill the vacuum created by war-devastated economies in

-

-

-

-

-

Europe and Asia military spending continued innovations from military spending continued pent-up consumer demands from wartime “baby boom” “Boomers” Appear • filed by 16 million returning G.I.s • Baby Boom generation is those born between 1945 and 1964 - 78 million Americans Generation X (1965-1977) is only 45 million • • large families —> social obligation Consumer Culture • economists knew that to fuel continued economic expansion, Americans had to be taught to spend more and expect more - advertising - planned obsolescence Home Ownership • home ownership and material possession became normative World of Suburbia • suburbs grew six times faster than urban centers in 1950s Distorted Image • bombs, Red Scare, Cold War, Sputnik, etc. • people were terrified The Lonely Crowd • book by David Riesman • documented a fundamental shift from earlier “inner-directed” Americans to “other-directed” • Americans no longer did things based on their own internal compass • new Americans take values by the way people are around them Neo-orthodoxy • increased church attendance and religious revival • religion no longer stressed salvation and sin • designed to sell love, joy, and happiness Culture of Materialism • increasing number of young people began to feel that something was wrong with society • vast majority, though, never questioned the underlying premises of the progressive ideal (“American Dream”)

• • • •...