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CHAPTER 28
America in the Fifties
This chapter covers Eisenhower’s rise to the presidency and his domestic and foreign policies, including
his response to the civil rights movement and developments in the cold war. It looks at the growth of the
postwar economy and the changing demographics that accompanied suburban migration, the GI Bill, and
developments in education. These and other factors discussed helped contribute to the conformity of the
1950s. This chapter provides a snapshot of life after the war: a period defined by a new consumerism and
unprecedented prosperity, as demonstrated by the rise of a car culture. Sections look at the mixed, often
critical reactions of social critics, artists, musicians, and writers such as the Beats to the conformity of the
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Moderate Republicanism
A. “Time for a Change”
II. A People of Plenty
A. Postwar Prosperity
B. The Consumer Culture
i. A Buying Spree
ii. The GI Bill of Rights
iii. Cooling the Suburban Frontier
iv. Suburban Culture
III. Cracks in the Picture Window
A. Poverty Amid Prosperity
B. Literature as Social Criticism
C. The Beats
D. Rock ‘N’ Roll
IV. The Civil Rights Movement
A. Eisenhower and Race
B. African-American Activism
C. The Brown Decision
V. Foreign Policy in the Fifties
A. Concluding an Armistice
B. Dulles and Massive Retaliation
C. The CIA’s Foreign Interventions
D. Indochina
E. Reelection and Foreign Crises
i. Repression in Hungary
ii. The Suez War
iii. Sputnik
iv. The Eisenhower Doctrine
LECTURE IDEAS
1. A fun and insightful way to illustrate both the role of women and the family and the rising influence of
television in the postwar years is to show an episode from one of the first and most enduring sitcoms,
2. An overview lecture on the American family in this era will help set up a discussion for the changes in
the family in coming chapters. See Stephanie Coontz’s The Way We Never Were (1992) and Elaine
Tyler May’s Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War (1988). To focus on one of America’s
most famous and interesting suburban communities, see Herbert J. Gans’s The Levittowners (1967)
3. For an interesting lecture on how the science-fiction movies of the 1950s reflected the conformity and
anticommunism of the decade, while also being inspired by the anti-Asian themes generated by World
4. Do a presentation on the Beats that analyzes their role as social critics of the 1950s and precursors of
the counterculture of the 1960s. See Dennis McNally’s Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat
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
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 combating
the Viet Minh and how that might have paralleled the subsequent American experience. Good sources
include:
7. A lecture on the legislation that impacted the early civil rights movement will give students a sense of
the gradual response and role of the federal government. Focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the
years in the following chapters). Additionally, see the following:
• Mary Dudziak’s Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (2000)
8. The Montgomery bus boycott was such a legendary and transformative event in the history of the civil
rights movement that it merits a presentation to itself. See Marshall Frady’s Martin Luther King, Jr.
(2002) and Douglas Brinkley’s Rosa Parks (2000) for two of the key participants. To fill in details,
9. 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 CIA overthrows of left-leaning governments in Iran
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. Divide the class into several groups and have each determine the causes for rapid economic growth
2. Assign groups in the class to research various aspects of American society in the 1950s. Topics should
(1983), George Lipsitz’s Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture (1990), and
David Halberstam’s The Fifties (1993).
3. Divide the class into groups and have them review and report on the presidency of Dwight D.
Eisenhower. The groups can look at his background, presidential campaigns, foreign policy, domestic
policy, and struggles within the Republican party over conservatism versus moderation. Ask students
4. Ask students to write a reflection on the experiences of African Americans in the 1950s, over half of
whom lived in poverty. Where did they live, and what did they see? What were some hopes, dreams,
5. In 1956, Adlai Stevenson called the Eisenhower administration’s foreign policy “bankrupt.” Was there
any basis for Stevenson’s charges, and if so, what? Have the class research some of the foreign policy
challenges that Eisenhower faced in the mid-1950s and consider the efficacy of the decisions he made.
What were Eisenhower’s successes in foreign policy? Challenges include Eisenhower’s response to the
6. To help students 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
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the conformist culture of the 1950s and include the perils of conformity as part of the
discussion.
3. Evaluate how Dwight D. Eisenhower dealt with the issue of race during his presidency.
4. Discuss the various foreign interventions pursued by the Eisenhower administration, including in
Iran and Guatemala, and describe the widening use of the CIA in those operations. What did the new
role for the CIA mean for American foreign policy?
5. How effective was the use of nonviolent civil disobedience in helping African Americans defy unjust
laws? In what ways did Martin Luther King Jr. and others also accept the need for confrontation and
defiance?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
Artists of the 1950s (and other periods) depend on the public for support and recognition. If you visit San
Francisco, 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
