DIRECTIONS: - Compare United States society in the 1920’s and the 1950’s with respect to the following:
RESOURCES: YouTube Clips - The Century Americas Time - Happy Days
Historical Context: In the years following World War II an unprecedented prosperity nourished a robust sense of national self-confidence and fed a revolution of rising in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s had record numbers of babies, aspired to ever-higher standards of living, generously expanded the welfare state (especially for the elderly), widened opportunities for women, welcomed immigrants, and even found the will to grapple at long last with the nation’s grossest legacy of injustice, its treatment of African-Americans.
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1920s |
1950s |
| Transportation Innovations/Automobile Culture |
Henry ford revolutionized the manufacture of the automobile with his Model-T and their assembly line production style; which could begin to make the the automobile affordable for the average man. The train still domineers over cars as a way to transport cargo and people over long distances.
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With the ending of World War II, the industry that was created to make tanks, planes and weapons was now transforming to meet the demands of the average person. Especially in the field of automobiles. Since people did not spend much during the war, they amassed a large surplus of savings (In contrast to the 1920's, people were not paying for cars with credit). This allowed more and more people the opportunity to buy a new automobiles. With the development of highways cars were beginning to overtake the train in transportation of people. Also with the aid of highways new suburban jungles sprang out like those in Levittown, Long Island allowing people to creep out of the cities. |
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| The Communication Revolution |
The radio was coming into being, and people all over the nation demanded radios and payed with credit. Now everybody had a radio and it was the new technology of the day. Later came to fame in the Great Depression when Franklin Roosevelt used it to talk to the nation with his "Fireside Chats" |
Radio allowed a new way for people all over the nation to listen in on important figures lecture, but now with the invention of television one could now see the person talking. |
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| The Struggle for Equality |
The African American community was in the depths of the Harlem Renaissance were there culture helped fuel the Jazz Age.They also caused a great migration of African Americans from southern fields up to the northern revival. But sadly their old foe the Klu Klux Klan was coming back with vengeance with their new bandwagon of xenophobia and anti-communists (Red Scare). Many non-Klan members were also xenophobic because they believed that the new influx of immigrants would take their jobs away.
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White individuals became connoisseursof the Levittown suburbs, but it was considered a taboo for any colored individual to come in to the neighborhood. Aside from discrimination in habitat, the Supreme Court now overturned the ruling of "separate but equal" from the case of Plessy vs. Fergoson in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. This came to an almost violent interaction in Little Rock Arkansas when nine African American students had to be escorted by National Guard troops into a Little Rock High School. |
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| Role/Image of Women |
With the passing of the 19th Amendment and women having the ability to vote, they experienced a new freedom. The new generation, known as Flappers, wore shorter dresses, displayed parts of their body that were once censored, and becoming a powerful voice in politics.
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With their participation in the industry of World War II, women now experienced a new wave of independence in the work force. They now made up a quarter of the work force. But with the return of men from the battlefields of Word War II, women were now becoming re-segregated to their roles as "Republican Mothers", who were to take care of children and the house while the husband went to work. |
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Constitutional Issues -
The Red Scare |
With the Bolshivek Revolution in Russia, now many Americans feared the communist threat in their own nation. Key among those people were A. Mitchell Palmer who lead anti-communist mobs to exterminate the internal communist threat.
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Previously our ally during World War II, now the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. were at odds with one another due to grievances during the war and not keeping promises made during the Yalta Conference. Now the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are in the beginnings of a war, but neither side wants to start any conflict because of the mass of casualties that would result. Instead, now the two nations fight a war of words between their two ideologies, capitalism and communism. The U.S. makes the Central Intelligence Agency to monitor overseas activity and the Department of Defense lead by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to control the defense of the nation. The Committee on Un-American Affairs, chairmanned by Richard M. Nixon, internally watched the nation for communist intruders like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were tried and convected of espionage. |
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| Literary Developments |
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