Download or read book American Culture in the 1950s written by Martin Halliwell and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a stimulating account of the dominant cultural forms of 1950s America: fiction and poetry; theatre and performance; film and television; music and radio; and the visual arts. Through detailed commentary and focused case studies of influential texts and events - from Invisible Man to West Side Story, from Disneyland to the Seattle World's Fair, from Rear Window to The Americans - the book examines the way in which modernism and the cold war offer two frames of reference for understanding the trajectory of postwar culture. The two core aims of this volume are to chart the changing complexion of American culture in the years following World War II and to provide readers with a critical investigation of 'the 1950s'. The book provides an intellectual context for approaching 1950s American culture and considers the historical impact of the decade on recent social and cultural developments.
Download or read book Cold War Narratives written by Andrea Carosso and published by Peter Lang Pub Incorporated. This book was released on 2012 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: <I>Cold War Narratives reveals the power that representations, understood as both cultural production and public discourse, have held in shaping the imaginaries of early Cold War America. By engaging conflicting accounts of the 1950s as either affirmations of a prosperous and confident nation (in TV shows, popular sociology, and advertising) or as critiques of a society in the throes of fear, rebelliousness, and inequality (in film, literature, and media), this study sheds new light on the ambivalent imaginaries of the American 1950s.<BR> Pitting visions of the Red Scare and of nuclear proliferation against narratives of an upbeat nation, eager to suburbanize and to adopt the new ethics of televised consensus, <I>Cold War Narratives illustrates how America's leading metaphors of conformity shaped problematic gender roles, domesticity and consumption in the 1950s. It also exposes how dissenting voices to the Cold War consensus converged around the affirmation of specific identitarian discourses, especially highlighting the agency of youth and of the rising civil rights movement, and the way in which these two entered into unprecedented dialog through new discursive formations such as beat culture and rock 'n' roll.
Download or read book As Seen on TV written by Karal Ann Marling and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1996-03-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America in the 1950s: the world was not so much a stage as a setpiece for TV, the new national phenomenon. It was a time when how things looked--and how we looked--mattered, a decade of design that comes to vibrant life in As Seen on TV. From the painting-by-numbers fad to the public fascination with the First Lady's apparel to the television sensation of Elvis Presley to the sculptural refinement of the automobile, Marling explores what Americans saw and what they looked for with a gaze newly trained by TV. A study in style, in material culture, in art history at eye level, this book shows us as never before those artful everyday objects that stood for American life in the 1950s, as seen on TV.
Download or read book It Came From the 1950s written by Darryl Jones and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eclectic and insightful collection of essays predicated on the hypothesis that popular cultural documents provide unique insights into the concerns, anxieties and desires of their times. 1950s popular culture is analysed by leading scholars and critics such as Christopher Frayling, Mark Jancovich, Kim Newman and David J. Skal.
Download or read book The 1950s written by James S. Olson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume serves as an invaluable guide to key political, social, and cultural concepts of the 1950s. This volume covers the entire decade of the 1950s, from the uneasy peace following World War II to the beginnings of cultural discontent that would explode in the 1960s. It highlights key historical, social, and cultural elements of the period, including the Cold War and perceived communist threat; the birth of the middle class and establishment of consumer culture; the emergence of the civil rights movement; and the normalization of youth rebellion and rock and roll. An introduction presents the historical themes of the period, and an alphabetical encyclopedic entries relating to period-specific themes comprises the core reference material in the book. The book also contains a range of primary documents with introductions and a sample Documents Based Essay Question. Other features are a list of "Top Tips" for answering Documents Based Essay Questions, a thematically tagged chronology, and a list of specific learning objectives readers can use to gauge their working knowledge and understanding of the period.
Download or read book The Twilight of the American Enlightenment written by George Marsden and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular, liberal elites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course. Their failure lost them the faith of their constituents, paving the way for a Christian revival that offered America a firm new moral vision -- one rooted in the Protestant values of the founders. A groundbreaking reappraisal of the country's spiritual reawakening, The Twilight of the American Enlightenment shows how America found new purpose at the dawn of the Cold War.
Download or read book American Cinema of the 1950s written by Murray Pomerance and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1950s explores the impact of the cultural environment of this decade on film, and the impact of film on the American cultural milieu. Contributors examine the signature films of the decade, including From Here to Eternity, Sunset Blvd., Singin' in the Rain, Shane, Rear Window, and Rebel Without a Cause, as well as lesser-known but equally compelling films, such as Dial 1119, Mystery Street, Suddenly, Summer Stock, The Last Hunt, and many others.
Download or read book Lost Revolutions written by Pete Daniel and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the events and societal trends that created disturbance and conflict after World War II, discussing school integration, migration into the cities, the civil rights movement, and the breakdown of traditional values.
Download or read book Larger Than Life written by R. Barton Palmer and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Volume in the Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series, edited by Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance --Book Jacket.
Download or read book The Feminine Mystique written by Betty Friedan and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This novel was the major inspiration for the Women's Movement and continues to be a powerful and illuminating analysis of the position of women in Western society___
Download or read book Let s Rock written by Richard Aquila and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-28 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rock & roll was one of the most important cultural developments in post–World War II America, yet its origins are shrouded in myth and legend. Let’s Rock! reclaims the lost history of rock & roll. Based on years of research, as well as interviews with Bo Diddley, Pat Boone, and other rock & roll pioneers, the book offers new information and fresh perspectives about Elvis, the rise of rock & roll, and 1950s America. Rock & roll is intertwined with the rise of a post–World War II youth culture, the emergence of African Americans in society, the growth of consumer culture, technological change, the expansion of mass media, and the rise of a Cold War culture that endorsed traditional values to guard against communism. Richard Aquila’s book demonstrates that early rock & roll was not as rebellious as common wisdom has it. The new sound reflected the conservatism and conformity of the 1950s as much as it did the era’s conflict. Rock & roll supported centrist politics, traditional values, and mainstream attitudes toward race, gender, class, and ethnicity. The musical evidence proves that most teenagers of the 1950s were not that different from their parents and grandparents when it came to basic beliefs, interests, and pastimes. Young and old alike were preoccupied by the same concerns, tensions, and insecurities. Rock & roll continues to permeate the fabric of modern life, and understanding the music’s origins reminds us of the common history we all share. Music lovers who grew up during rock & roll’s early years as well as those who have come to it more recently will find Let’s Rock an exciting historical and musical adventure.
Download or read book Dictators Democracy and American Public Culture written by Benjamin Leontief Alpers and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on portrayals of Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and Stalin's Russia in U.S. films, magazine and newspaper articles, books, plays, speeches, and other texts, Benjamin Alpers traces changing American understandings of dictatorship from the la
Download or read book The Fifties written by Douglas T. Miller and published by VNR AG. This book was released on 1977 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the social, cultural, and political history of the United States during the decade of the 1950's.
Download or read book The American Middle Class written by Lawrence R Samuel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The middle class is often viewed as the heart of American society, the key to the country’s democracy and prosperity. Most Americans believe they belong to this group, and few politicians can hope to be elected without promising to serve the middle class. Yet today the American middle class is increasingly seen as under threat. In The American Middle Class: A Cultural History, Lawrence R. Samuel charts the rise and fall of this most definitive American population, from its triumphant emergence in the post-World War II years to the struggles of the present day. Between the 1920s and the 1950s, powerful economic, social, and political factors worked together in the U.S. to forge what many historians consider to be the first genuine mass middle class in history. But from the cultural convulsions of the 1960s, to the 'stagflation' of the 1970s, to Reaganomics in the 1980s, this segment of the population has been under severe stress. Drawing on a rich array of voices from the past half-century, The American Middle Class explores how the middle class, and ideas about it, have changed over time, including the distinct story of the black middle class. Placing the current crisis of the middle class in historical perspective, Samuel shows how the roots of middle-class troubles reach back to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. The American Middle Class takes a long look at how the middle class has been winnowed away and reveals how, even in the face of this erosion, the image of the enduring middle class remains the heart and soul of the United States.
Download or read book American Literature in Transition 1950 1960 written by Steven Belletto and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-28 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 explores the under-recognized complexity and variety of 1950s American literature by focalizing discussions through a series of keywords and formats that encourage readers to draw fresh connections among literary form and concepts, institutions, cultures, and social phenomena important to the decade. The first section draws attention to the relationship between literature and cultural phenomena that were new to the 1950s. The second section demonstrates the range of subject positions important in the 1950s, but still not visible in many accounts of the era. The third section explores key literary schools or movements associated with the decade, and explains how and why they developed at this particular cultural moment. The final section focuses on specific forms or genres that grew to special prominence during the 1950s. Taken together, the chapters in the four sections not only encourage us to rethink familiar texts and figures in new lights, but they also propose new archives for future study of the decade.
Download or read book The American Revolution written by Robert Marshall and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Revolution Have you struggled with finding good resources? This book contains 35 ready-made lessons for teachers to use in the classroom! This is the complete collection of Reading Through History's seven-part American Revolution series. It contains 35 readings centered around the years leading up to America's War for Independence and the events that took place during the conflict. Each one-page reading also has student activities to accompany the material. The lessons include guided reading activities, true and false questions, vocabulary activities, student response essay questions, and multiple choice reading comprehension questions for each lesson. There is also a section word builder to wrap up the activities and two ready-made tests. This workbook has the materials any teacher would need to thoroughly cover the events and figures of the American Revolution. There is enough material to get you through 5-6 weeks of the school year. Topics covered in the material include: Table of Contents: Unit 1: The French and Indian War Pg. 1 Proclamation of 1763 Pg. 5 The Albany Plan of Union and Committees of Correspondence Pg. 9 The Stamp Act Pg. 13 The Stamp Act Repealed Pg. 17 Unit 2: The Townshend Acts Pg. 22 The Boston Massacre Pg. 26 The Boston Tea Party Pg. 30 The Intolerable Acts Pg. 34 First Continental Congress Pg. 38 The Road to Revolution Post Assessment Pg. 43 Unit 3: Lexington and Concord Pg. 47 Patriots and Loyalists Pg. 51 Second Continental Congress Pg. 55 Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill Pg. 59 The Two Sides Pg. 63 Unit 4: Canada and New York Pg. 68 Common Sense Pg. 72 The Committee of Five Pg. 76 Declaring Independence Pg. 80 The Declaration of Independence Pg. 84 Unit 5: Women in the Revolutionary War Pg. 89 The Leadership of George Washington Pg. 93 The Crisis Pg. 97 Victories in New Jersey Pg. 101 Saratoga Pg. 105 Unit 6: Help from France Pg. 110 African Americans in the Revolution Pg. 114 A Widening War Pg. 118 Valley Forge Pg. 122 John Paul Jones Pg. 126 Unit 7: The War in the South Pg. 131 Guerrilla Warfare Pg. 135 Benedict Arnold Pg. 139 The Battle of Yorktown Pg. 143 Treaty of Paris Pg. 147 American Revolution Post Evaluation Pg. 152
Download or read book Something from the Oven written by Laura Shapiro and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-03-29 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author of the forthcoming What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (Summer 2017) In this captivating blend of culinary history and popular culture, the award-winning author of Perfection Salad shows us what happened when the food industry elbowed its way into the kitchen after World War II, brandishing canned hamburgers, frozen baked beans, and instant piecrusts. Big Business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious of the new foods—and the make-believe cooking they entailed. With sharp insight and good humor, Laura Shapiro shows how the ensuing battle helped shape the way we eat today, and how the clash in the kitchen reverberated elsewhere in the house as women struggled with marriage, work, and domesticity. This unconventional history overturns our notions about the ’50s and offers new thinking on some of its fascinating figures, including Poppy Cannon, Shirley Jackson, Julia Child, and Betty Friedan.
