NOTE-TAKING GUIDE: Of the People: A History of the United States CHAPTER 27 “The Consumer Society: 1945 – 1961”

COMMON THREADS
·  Did the character of the Cold War change from the 1940s to the 1950s?
·  Why did consumerism change the way Americans lived?
·  Why did diversity and individuality survive in the 1950s?
·  What was the impact of the Eisenhower administration on democracy?
·  How would the emerging discontents of the 1950s affect society and politics in the next decades?
OUTLINE
Living the Good Life
Economic Prosperity
The Suburban Dream
American Landscape: Levittown, New York
The Pursuit of Pleasure
A Homogeneous Society?
The Discovery of Conformity
The Decline of Class and Ethnicity
The Resurgence of Religion and Family
Maintaining Gender Roles
Persisting Racial Differences
The Survival of Diversity
The Eisenhower Era at Home and Abroad
“Ike” and 1950s America
Modern Republicanism
An Aggressive Cold War Strategy
Avoiding War with the Communist Powers
America and the World: Popular Music as a Cold War Weapon
Crises in the Third World
Challenges to the Consumer Society
Rebellious Youth
The Beat Movement
The Rebirth of Environmentalism
The Struggle for Civil Rights
An Uneasy Mood
Conclusion
WHO?
John Foster Dulles
Dwight Eisenhower
Martin Luther King Jr.
Alfred Kinsey
William J. Levitt
Richard Nixon
Rosa Parks / WHAT?
Domino theory
Dynamic obsolescence
Massive retaliation
Modern Republicanism
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1.  How did the consumer society of the 1950s differ from the modern culture of the 1920s?
2.  Compare and contrast Modern Republicanism with the New Era and other Republican domestic policy programs of the 1920s to 1940s. Was Modern Republicanism a break with the party’s past?
3.  Why did the civil rights movement make progress in the 1950s?
4.  What was Eisenhower and Dulles’s strategy for fighting the Cold War? Was it successful?
5.  Why did social class differences decrease after World War II? Did class still matter?
6.  On balance, did the domestic and international events of the 1950s leave Americans more or less well-off than before? Did the decade make American democracy stronger?
NOTES: TO FOLLOW UP / QUESTIONS TO ASK IN CLASS