December 17, 2014

Television in the 1950s

The Consumer Society: The “good life” meant more leisure and income. Americans were confident the good life was permanent and they enjoyed flashy cars, televisions, and an openness about sex. Consumer values dominated the American dynamic economy and culture in the 1950s. But, in some ways, mass marketing and consumerism

strengthened a material conformity. Religion and gender roles conformity seemed to be the norm but under the thin layer of banality America was still made up of dissimilar people. While some celebrated conformity, others reveled in unconformity. In the prosperous 1950s there was less demand on government -- the president provided reassurance rather than bold action. Dwight D. Eisenhower dominated the decade – he was a moderate leader well suited to the times. The “Modern Republicans” appealed to a prosperous electorate but Eisenhower’s anticommunist foreign policy was not bland. Socially Americans were challenged by a rebellious youth culture, the alienated Beat movement, and a divisive civil rights struggle. What seemed so homogenous and prosperous and secure was in reality none of those things.