History 1080. Growing Up in the Postwar
Years.
1. Thinking about the 1950s: myths and realities
A. The paradox: conformity, conservatism & civil rights
B. “Traditional” 1950s = historical aberration:
- rising birth rate, lower age of marriage & fewer divorces = temporary reverse of
long-term trends
2. Questions
A. Is ‘generation’ a useful category of analysis?
- Is the
baby boom generation unique? (Doug Owram, Born at the Right Time)
B. Continuity and change in the 1950s: what’s old? What’s new?
C. Diversity, anxiety and the Leave it to Beaver ideal
D. Causes of the baby boom: what’s the ‘motor of history’?
- Demographics; economics; technology; culture; politics
E. Social control & the history of childhood:
- were baby boomers’ lives shaped mainly from above (by business, experts,
media) or from below?
3. Suburban lifestyle and the baby boom
A.
B. Racial, class and religious homogeneity
(despite US & Canadian Supreme Court rulings against religious and racially
restrictive covenants in 1948 & 1951)
C.
- gender roles and peer
society
4. Psychology, individualism and family stress
A. Attachment theory & the concept of maternal deprivation (John Bowlby)
B. ‘Momism’: Overprotective mothers → homosexuals & communists
- Edward Strecker & others
C. Family = centered on affection, not economics →
non-authoritarian family structure & ‘gentle’ discipline
5. Youth culture and Mass Media: continuity or change; youth power or exploitation?
A. Mass culture, youth market
- Television (Mickey Mouse Club, 1955)
- Comic books (Frederic Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent (1953)
- Rock ‘n
Roll (Dick Clark & American Bandstand)
6. Growing Up Absurd (Paul Goodman, 1960)