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Was 1950s America a period of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment ...or...anxiety, alienation, social unrest and inequality?

Provide evidence and specific examples to support your claims.

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1950s America was a period of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment along with anxiety, alienation, social unrest, and inequality. First of all, many Americans were trying to preserve a family ran by the father because they felt that this was necessary as was depicted in TV shows. For example, Father Knows Best and I Love Lucy demonstrated ideas such as the nuclear family, historical gender roles, and middle-class domesticity. On top of that, many whites fought to keep the power that they possessed before WWII which is seem a lot in the Jim Crow South. Although the whites were content with their standing in society, African Americans were not. Two landmark decisions were made during this time: Brown v. Board of Education and Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. Brown v. Board of Education was used to overturn the precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson that schools could be "separate but equal." Keys also expanded African American's rights because it provided them with equality when it came to where they sat on the busses. African Americans were moving forward one step at a time, and this social unrest would be furthered by people like Rosa Parks with the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Martin Luther King Jr. with the Montgomery Improvement Association. Overall, white American men tended to be content with their standing in society; however, African Americans, women, and other groups wanted to be able to improve their standing and move towards equality.

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I believe that you would receive different answers about whether the 1950s were a time of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment depending on who you asked. The white middle class was flourishing in suburbs as America was out of WWII and beginning to become more industrialized. As Elijah said television shows were popular depicting the middle class white family and it made it seem as this kind of family was the perfect family. For whites this decade was certainly a time of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment. On the other hand if you were to ask African Americans what kind of time the 1950s were they would probably say the decade was full of anxiety, alienation, social unrest, and inequality. Although slavery had ended quite some time ago, segregation was still a large part of America stemming from the Jim Crow laws. This segregation that had originated in the South had spread to the North up until the point of the Brown vs. Board of Education trial. This trial ended segregation in schools and in turn led to the end of segregation in general. While the nation mostly flourished at this time, there was certainly a different perception of the 1950s depending on who you asked.

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The view in the 1950s will change depends on the person you ask. For a white person their was contentment as neighbors grew and a sense of unity came around them. White males suffered from different anxieties such as feeling the pressure of being the breadwinner while females felt they needed to maintain the image of having the "perfect" family. These struggles didn't compare to the inequality that was occurring to other ethnic groups. The two videos we watched reveal the two sides of the 1950s and who benefited versus who suffered. The video, “1950s Small Town,” introduction shows everyone has their place to make the community run and work. The narrator says how the people rely on each other to do their part. The video acts as if the community runs so simple and organized. “1950s Small Town” is controlled and displays almost perfection. The video doesn’t reveal the chaos or crime within the community. It was lacks to show any African Americans or the completely different life they lived. The Emmett Till video reveals the cruelty of the 1950s. It reveals the discrimination that occurred against African Americans. Although life was calm for white folks, not everyone can say the same. If the 1950s was fully the "Golden Age" then the Civil Rights Movement would not need to happen. Events in the 1950s, like what happened to Emmett Till, lead to the Civil Rights Movement.

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It is easy to say that the 1950's is a mix of these ideas depending on the people living within the time period. It was an interesting time for conformity and conservatism since the ideal lifestyle for families was a more traditional aspect. Where a family could be provided for by one sole provider, the man, and the household duties by the woman. This idea was influenced by the development of TV and the narrative of TV homes. This introduces the idea of conformity where in the 50's you start seeing the 'golden' type of household and many families took after. How easily they conformed to this lifestyle and how badly this lifestyle was needed in the time period. This also corresponds to conservatism because the rise of Christianity beliefs and the steps it takes to get to the point of marriage were important and must be followed. These ideas and attitude about lives at home are not normally seen today. Mostly because of the reality that it is not possible for families to live off of one income and the values of how marriage and homes work differentiate between people in today's age. To gear towards the reality that the 1950's was a time of anxiety, alienation, and inequality, we need to realize that segregation, racism, and a war was all happening during this time period. After the war and moving into the 1950's, segregation and racism were still active parts of society and it led to many deaths for black Americans, such as Emmett Till. It also led to segregated cites and public environments that still implementation that racially motivated ideals of the time period. These divisions in the 1950's show the reality of the 'golden' age of America and how not everyone had the lives of those living in the film, 1950's Small Town. That the lives for minorities were dealt different cards than the average white American family. An important key to the other side of the 1950's, departing from the 'golden' mindset and booming economy is the fact that the Cold War was on the minds of many Americans. Anxiety and fear being an underlying stress for many with the thoughts of nuclear war and atomic bonds. All factors of these ideas are crucial when thinking about how Americans lived in the 1950's and what exactly formed the 50's. What were on people's minds and what had influenced the lives of people living in this time period.

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The 1950s in America was a mixture of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and anxiety, alienation, social unrest, and inequality. This decade prompted the rise of the suburbs, which were spread around America. This helped create the image of a "perfect" family. A husband, a wife, a son, and a daughter. The man of the household would be the provider for the family, and the woman would take care of household duties. Americans easily conformed to this lifestyle. For white Americans, the 1950s were a time of conformity, conservatism, and complacency. Although, for African Americans, the 1950s were full of anxiety, alienation, social unrest, and inequality. Racism was still a factor in America. Segregation was also a huge part of society. Whites and blacks were divided in every aspect of life. This shows that while white families were pictured to have the perfect lives, African Americans did not. For example, the video, "1950s Small Town" shows a flourishing community, where everything seems perfect. Although, the video does not show any African Americans or any of the bad parts of the community. It only shows how white Americans lived during this time. The other video we watched about Emmett Till shows the real events of the 1950s. African Americans were treated with cruelty. So while one part of the 1950s seems perfect, it was not perfect for everyone.

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The 1950s was a period of both anxiety and comfort. There was high expectations for the people and their families, along with challenging standards to meet. The "ideal family" was a 4 person (mom, dad, son, daughter) who followed special rules and a schedule. The father was the sole provider for the family, while the mother was expected to stay home and tend to the household problems. I think that it was silently expected that you fit the "mold" at the time. What i mean by "silently expected" is that no one clearly came out and said that you had to be, look like, or follow the ideal life, but it was the norm of the time period. Almost like it was uncommon to see a person or family that didn't follow the social standard. Being in a family that fit the poster print of the ideal family would make you feel comforted and content with your life. On the opposing side, not fitting the perfect family mold would make you feel social unrest and probably alienated. Along with the fitting into the mold, those who didn't were segregated and alienated. The 50s was also a time of racial protests and it was the start of a period where the African American communities made great strides. The brutal and unjust death of an African American child inspired others to stand up against the segregation, in his memory.

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The 1950s could fit under all of those categories, depending on who you ask. There are a lot of different perspectives for the 1950s. To me I think that the 50s were filled with inequality and anxiety. My reason being that there was a lot of inequality issues is based on the videos for this weeks history lab, and also prior knowledge about the 1950's. When I think of the 1950s i think of the "colored only" bathroom signs, or the "whites only" water fountain sign. The 1950s were portrayed as the perfect life. The "perfect" time period. The way that women were portrayed at this time is not completely accurate. I think America had faced so much backlash that they needed to make it seem like it wasn't so terrible after all. The "perfect" family stereotype really started in the 50s. It was the father who was to work and provide for the family, the mother stayed home and did house work and watched the children. This was the social standard then. To summarize the videos I would say that they basically were about how the government send the jazz group wherever there were issues that needed to be fixed. That the government no longer wanted America to be potrayed as "racist" so therefore they sent mostly African-American jazz group in representation for America from my understanding.

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1950s America was a period of both conformity and anxiety, for different groups of people. The 1950s was a time of cookie cutter people, living cookie cutter lives. Men went to work, women cooked and cleaned, children went to school, and life was good. But this was only the case for wealthy white men and women. Poor whites, people of color, and other minorities didn't have the luxury of perfect lives, instead they struggled, only were allowed to have lesser houses and were in the lesser parts of town, in the red lines. While every one was worried about the cold war and anxious about the possibility of getting attacked, it became normal for them and they mostly went on with their lives with the knowledge of how to act if it happened.

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The 1950 was a time that was a story of conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment on the outside. This side of the 1950 was what was portrayed in commercials, movies, and overall outward appearance. This, however, was not the case for many Americans in the 1950s. Whether or not you were considered a "foreigner" someone who wasn't white, or you were white, the story of the 1950s could have been a story of anxiety, alienation, social unrest and inequality. For many people of color, the time was full of discrimination and it was a big start for the push for equality, considering the start of the civil rights movement in 1954. They were treated unfairly and like they didn't belong or were below. This was not true, and MLK and Rosa Parks, as well as many others stood against this and fought for more equality. This was extremely beneficial after a while, but at least at the beginning, like all big changes, there was huge push back. On top of this, Red Lines became a thing, where the less wealthy and people of color were unable to live in better neighborhoods because they didn't necessarily get the same treatments or loans. Also, even not looking at it directly like that, even people who did get more treatment and were portrayed as cookie cutter and perfect American Dream, had the pressure to keep up those appearances, leading to more stress.

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It seems that how people see the 1950s really just depends on who you are asking about it. It seems however that the 1950s is a big mixture between conformity, conservatism, complacency, contentment and anxiety, alienation, social unrest as well as inequality. While in many of the families in the 1950s white males would always be suffering from anxiety and stress because they would be the ones in the family that would make all of the money to support their wife and kids. On the other hand with the females it looked as if they were trying their absolute best to have the "perfect" family. Americans all easily lived with this sort of lifestyle. The families all looked as if it was a traditional aspect and it was supposed to be a certain way for each family. However, these ideas as well as attitudes are not seen today in families. For the African Americans in the 1950s they were full of anxiety, social unrest, and inequality. Part of it being because of racism. Whites and blacks were divided showing that African Americans did not have a good life while whites did such as schooling for kids and living. In the video we had watched in class this week "1950s Small Town" everyone is working and it makes it seem that the community is perfect and nothing is wrong. The video however just did not show any of the bad parts or did not even show any African Americans at all. Maybe the 1950s did seem perfect by how some people you ask may talk about it but it was not perfect because even videos did not reflect on what was bad about the 1950s.

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The 1950s is viewed as a period of conformity as well as the rest of the other ideas that included anxiety, conservatism, and inequality. This decade consisted of both observed strict gender roles in which complicated society's expectations. This was also known that men were those who worked labor work and woman were only allowed to stay home and do house work while men were the ones who provided for their family. This was different for those who weren't wealthy though because those who didn't have what these people had, had it harder and had to work for it. These people struggled while those who were wealthy had luxury houses and were able to pay the bills, and expenses.

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The 1950's was definetly a time of all those topics depending on exactly what group of people we are focusing in on. There were certain expectations for familes and individuals to meet, some being social standards. This created anxiety and social unrest.Women were often overlooked and seen still as the caretaker of the family never the provider. There were still plenty of Racial issues along with protests because of segregation. The "American dream," or a false sense of what Americans were suppose to look and act like caused lots of people stress and pressure from the outside world and themselves. The many videos we have watched never shows a happy black family we just see white people all the time, so hollywood would never show all parts.

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The 1950s were a mix of all of the above, but more specifically everything was based in inequality and divide to some extent. Starting off, the baby boom post war lead to a lot of young mother's taking care of children while their husbands worked, which set in place the housewife stereotype. Because of consumerism being at large and television gaining more popularity, the TV shows only added to this stereotype. The spread of suburbs installed this stereotype even more. This setback post war, along with tv shows helped to birth the image of the "American Dream" or the white, cookie cutter, and picture perfect family that lived in a suburb with the wife being the homemaker and the husband being the bread winner. The patriarchy was truly at at an all time high, with women being set back. This decade was also the start to the civil rights era, even though it mainly gained it's popularity and reached its peak in the 60s. Racist hate crimes were still happening with no justice served, segregation and Jim crow laws were still persisting and there began to be small acts of fighting back from the black community. Dr. King started to gain more popularity after the famous Rosa Parks bus boycott situation, which was all in this decade. "Red Lining" and welfare programs kept poor people but specifically black people in a certain spot in society and didn't leave much room for progress. You can still see the effects of this today in quite literally any larger city. Mixed in with that conservatism and usually racist ideology there was also some rebellion and positive individualism. Anti war/fascism ideas began to blossom. Elvis tested the limits with his "provocative" dancing, which only encouraged others in the following years. LGBT people were making support groups and having pride. During this time the US government started to be more divisive especially in the election between Eisenhower and Taft, leading to not only divide between republicans and democrats but also republicans with each other. Also because of consumerism being so high in this decade, which lead to an increase of automobiles and a huge need for oil, I'd imagine this is when Americas historical greed for oil began and when the climate started to take a blow from it all. Not to mention within all of these things I listed that were occurring in this decade, the cold war was still ongoing and so there was even more fear and divide mixed in with that. Ultimately this decade could be defined as a step backwards for America because of the amount of selfishness, divide, and inequality within nearly every aspect of society and culture, with only a small portion of that being positive.

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I think that this can only be answered based off of who you're asking in this situation. However I think that the 1950's was a period of anxiety, alienation, and social unrest and inequality. I think that at the time Men would feel the most anxiety. I could be wrong but at the time the men had to provide for their family, and i think that this would make them have anxiety knowing that their family is relying on them to be able to pay the bills, and keep their family on their feet. I think that African Americans suffered more stress though too. African americans would have a hard time finding jobs, because of their race. i think that race had a huge part in inquality, and alienation. I think that white people thought of african americans as aliens, and not like them. In the videos we watched the black community was treated like trash and talked down on. The videos would sometimes make it seem like African Americans were being cared about, but if you look deeper into it they really weren't. I think that MLK's death goes with social unrest. Once MLK died all hell broke loose, and America started taking a toll because of it. The world had gone crazy it seemed. It just showed how important MLK was to people white and black.

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The 1950 was a time of change, for several groups of people. It was a mix between conformity, conservatism, complacency, anxiety, and inequality. Men and women, different colored races all had it different. Families would have to live up to expectations, and standards. Men had to provide for their families. Working, and bringing in the money for the families. Women would have a standard of basically being a "perfect wife." I also think it is important to think about the African Americans at the time and what they went through. I would say African Americans had a lot of stress during this time. It was hard to get a good job, and fitting in with society because of their race. The film that was shown to us did give a good example of what was happening at the time. Different race and gender had a lot to do with what your life would look like.

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The 1950’s were full of various different emotions and ideas that spread across the general public, in some areas you had comfort and prosperity and in others you had fear and anxiety. There is no one way street for a specific time period as not everyone gained or lost. We had an increase of economy, culture, and ideas but at the same time certain peoples were being pushed to take from the bottom of the barrel. On the outside, depending on how you look at it, there was only prosperity. White towns and factories seemed to grow and provide for the communities, however when it came to people of color and different cultures there was suffering and prejudice. If you weren’t a white Christian you can kiss an easy going life goodbye as it was unlikely you would be hired by a business.

While you had the increase of the economy moving up and skyrocketing along with housing in suburban areas, the movement of culture seemed to slow to a steady halt as people began to not accept the difference. Black communities, which did not always hold people of color as they also contained people of certain religions and backgrounds, were constantly under prejudice that only seemed to be encouraged.

This point of time was a lovely experience for some but for others it was horrible and unfair.

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My answer, like many others, is similar, it depends. I think that like the clips in class and seeing just old T.V., the stereotypical family would definitely be described as conformity, conservatism, complacency, and contentment and set a standard for families to live up to during the time. I would say even some middle/upper class families could be described by these words too. But anxiety, alienation, social unrest and inequality applied to two major groups, African Americans/minorities and woman to an extent. Blacks still had to deal with segregation, inequality, alienation, and all by their fellow man. Blacks and woman both had to deal with unequal pay(Blacks-By 1950, the wage gap fell to 0.90. It then rose slightly in the 1950s to about 1.00. Woman- in 1957 for year-round, full time workers over the age of 14 was $4713 for men and $3008 for women)  and being inferior to the white man by the eyes of white society. These are just some of the injustices that took place during the time.