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CHAPTER 26
Affluence and Anxiety in the Atomic
Age
1950–1959
This chapter discusses the growth of the postwar economy, suburban migration, and other factors that
led to the so-called corporate life, or conformity, of the 1950s. Various reactions to the corporate life by
social critics, artists, and writers are also covered. Additionally, the chapter addresses Eisenhower’s rise
to the presidency and his domestic and foreign policies, including developments in civil rights and the
cold war.
CORE OBJECTIVES
1. Explain President Eisenhower’s political philosophy and priorities.
2. Identify the factors that contributed to postwar prosperity, and analyze to what extent all Americans
benefited from it.
3. Examine the criticism of postwar American society and culture, and describe the various forms of
dissent and anxiety.
4. Evaluate the goals, strategies, and impact of the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1950s.
5. Assess President Eisenhower’s priorities in conducting the nation’s foreign policy and his influence on
global affairs.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1. Moderate Republicanism—The Eisenhower Years
A. “Time for a Change”
B. The Election of 1952
C. A “Middle Way” Presidency
D. “Dynamic Conservatism” at Home
E. The End of McCarthyism
2. A People of Plenty
A. Postwar Prosperity
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B. The Consumer Culture
i. A Buying Spree
ii. The GI Bill of Rights
iii. The Suburban Frontier
iv. Minorities on the Move
v. Shifting Women’s Roles
vi. The Child-Centered Fifties
C. A Religious Nation
3. Cracks in the Picture Window
A. Poverty amid Prosperity
i. Literature
ii. The Beats
iii. Rock ‘n’ Roll
4. The Early Years of the Civil Rights Movement
i. Eisenhower and Race
ii. African American Activism
iii. The Brown Decision
iv. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
v. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960
vi. Desegregation in Little Rock
vii. Southern Christian Leadership Conference
5. Foreign Policy in the 1950s
A. Concluding an Armistice
B. Dulles and Massive Retaliation
C. The CIA and Foreign Interventions
D. Indochina: Background to America’s Longest War
E. Reelection and Foreign Crises
i. Repression in Hungary
ii. The Suez War
iii. Reactions to Sputnik
iv. The Eisenhower Doctrine
v. Crisis in Berlin
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vi. The U-2 Summit
vii. Castro’s Cuba
F. Assessing the Eisenhower Presidency
LECTURE IDEAS
1. A fun and insightful way to illustrate both the role of women and the rising influence of television in
the postwar years is to show an episode from one of the first and most enduring sitcoms, I Love Lucy.
The episode “Job Switching” (originally aired September 15, 1952) is an all-time classic, showing
2. For a lecture on one of America’s most famous and interesting suburban communities, see Herbert J.
Gans’s The Levittowners (1967) or, much briefer, Alexander O. Boulton’s “The Buy of the Century”
(American Heritage, July/August 1993). For information on suburbs in general, see the following:
3. The 1950s represented a period of conformity in American society. Those who dared challenge tradi-
tional values or social norms of the decade risked the threat of being labeled a communist and ru-
ined—both socially and financially. A lecture on how conformity in America influenced working–
4. In the 1950s, the Republican party began to move in new political directions. The changes to the party
attracted new voters, including those in the southern states who felt the Democratic party had become
too liberal in its views. A lecture on the evolution of the Republican party will help students under-
stand the changing nature of the political landscape in the 1950s and the initial realignments of the
electoral map, especially in presidential elections. For more on the transformation of the Republican
party, see the following:
5. Illustrate the social history of the 1950s with a lecture on one of the most vital figures in American
popular culture, Elvis Presley, the once and forever king of rock ’n’ roll. A superb beginning source is
Bobbie Ann Mason’s Elvis Presley: A Life (2002) from the Penguin Lives series. From that founda-
tion, fill in the details with Peter Guralnick’s magnificent two-volume biography, Last Train to Mem-
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6. Give a lecture on the origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam by focusing on the period from World
War II through the Eisenhower years. Concentrate especially on the experience of the French in com-
bating the Viet Minh and how that might have paralleled the subsequent American experience. Good
sources include:
7. Harvard Sitkoff’s The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954–1992 (1993) would be a good source for a
lecture on the early years of the modern civil rights movement (and for later years in the following
chapters). Additional resources include:
8. The Montgomery bus boycott was such a legendary and transformative event in the history of the civil
rights movement that it merits its own lecture. See Marshall Frady’s Martin Luther King, Jr. (2002)
and Douglas Brinkley’s Rosa Parks (2000) for important information on two of the key participants.
To fill in details, also consult Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–
9. A lecture on the legislation that affected the early civil rights movement will give students a sense of
how the federal government reacted to the call for civil rights. Focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1957
10. A great way to illustrate the cold war imperatives of American foreign policy in the Eisenhower and
Dulles years is to give a lecture on the successful Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrows of
left-leaning governments in Iran and Guatemala in 1953 and 1954, respectively. Both of these epi-
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES / FLIPPED CLASSROOM SUGGESTIONS
1. Divide the class into several groups and have each group determine the causes for rapid economic
growth after World War II. Additionally, have each group present its findings to see if any common
trends can be found.
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2. Divide the class into groups and have them research the various aspects of American society in the
1950s. Topics should include the consumer culture, race relations, and various cultural themes. Refer
to the following titles:
3. Ask students to identify the main characteristics of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “dynamic conservatism.”
4. To help students to better understand the Beats as social critics of the 1950s and precursors of the
counterculture of the 1960s, have them write and perform Beat poetry. See Dennis McNally’s Desolate
Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America (2003) and Ann Charters’s The Portable Beat
Reader (2003). Examples of good poems to use include:
5. Ask students to watch David Halberstam’s two-part documentary on the Fifties called The Fear and
the Dream (1997) outside of class. Then have them discuss the issues and events that they believe are
most significant to understanding the 1950s, touching on the meaning behind the documentary’s title.
6. Divide the class into two groups and have them review and report on the presidency of Dwight D. Ei-
senhower. The groups can look at the campaigns, his background, how he handled his foreign policy,
his relationship to the New Deal, and the struggles he had within the Republican party over conserva-
tism versus moderation. Useful resources include:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the conformist culture of the 1950s, and include the perils of conformity as part of the discus-
sion.
2. Compare and contrast the issues of alienation and liberation during the 1950s.
3. Compare and contrast the presidencies of Truman and Eisenhower. Who would you judge to be the
4. Evaluate how Dwight D. Eisenhower dealt with issues of racial discrimination during his presidency.
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5. Discuss the various foreign interventions pursued by the Eisenhower administration, and describe the
widening use of the CIA in those operations. Were these warranted? Can you draw comparisons to to-
day?
6. Assess the effectiveness of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. What were the highlights and short-
falls of his policies?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
Artists of the 1950s and other periods need the public for support and recognition. If you visit San Fran-
cisco, go to City Lights Books (open since 1953), where so many Beat performances took place, and soak
in the atmosphere. Support the arts in your local community by attending an event where the artists are
present. This might be a poetry slam in a local coffee shop, or you might organize such an event on your