AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/8/8-5)
Unit 8 · Topic 8.5
8.5 Culture after 1945
In the 1950s television, suburban family life, religion and consumer goods spread a shared mass culture, and the decade is often remembered for conformity. But critics, Beat writers, rock and roll musicians and many women and young people pushed against that image, setting the stage for the upheavals of the 1960s.
Key terms
- mass culture
- conformity
- television
- Beat Generation
- rock and roll
Mass culture and television
Television spread faster than any earlier technology. In 1950 fewer than one in ten households had a TV; by 1960 almost nine in ten did. Families watched the same national networks (NBC, CBS and ABC), and shows like I Love Lucy and Leave It to Beaver presented an idealized white, middle-class suburban family. TV also brought advertising into the home and changed politics; the 1960 Kennedy–Nixon debates were televised.
Consumer culture boomed. Families bought cars, washing machines, frozen foods and TV dinners. Credit cards and shopping malls spread. In the 1959 'Kitchen Debate' in Moscow, Vice President Nixon pointed to a model American kitchen as proof of capitalism's superiority.
Family, gender and religion
The 1950s ideal held that men should be breadwinners and women homemakers. Popular culture, advice books like Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care (1946), and early marriage and the baby boom reinforced that ideal. Yet the share of married women working outside the home actually rose during the decade, often in part-time and clerical jobs. In 1963 Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique described the frustration many suburban women felt (8.11).
Religious membership and attendance rose. Evangelist Billy Graham drew huge crowds. Religion also became part of Cold War identity, contrasting the U.S. with 'godless communism': Congress added 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and made 'In God We Trust' the national motto in 1956.
Critics and rebels
- Social critics: sociologist David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd (1950) and William H. Whyte's The Organization Man (1956) argued that Americans were becoming conformists who took cues from others. Sloan Wilson's novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) showed the emptiness of corporate life.
- The Beat Generation: writers like Jack Kerouac (On the Road, 1957) and Allen Ginsberg (Howl, 1956) rejected materialism and conformity, celebrating spontaneity, travel, jazz and spiritual searching.
- Rock and roll: drawing heavily on Black rhythm and blues, performers like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley thrilled teenagers and alarmed many parents, who linked the music to rebellion and racial mixing.
- Youth culture: teenagers with money to spend became their own market, and films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) explored teenage alienation.
Beneath the surface
The image of 1950s consensus left many out. Most TV families were white, and Black and Latino Americans were largely invisible on screen. The civil rights movement was gathering strength in the same years (8.6). The tensions between ideal and reality help explain why the 1960s brought such strong challenges to mainstream culture (8.12).
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Analyzing a source's point of view
A 1956 magazine advertisement shows a smiling housewife in a spotless suburban kitchen beside a new refrigerator, with the caption 'Everything a modern family needs.' Explain one historical development that this source reflects.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Identify what the source shows: consumer goods, suburban life and a homemaker ideal.
- Step 2: Connect it to a specific historical development with evidence.
- Step 3: Avoid simply describing the picture; explain the context behind it.
Answer: Model answer: The advertisement reflects the postwar consumer boom and the growth of suburbs. After World War II, rising wages, the GI Bill and FHA loans let millions of families buy suburban homes and fill them with new appliances, and advertisers promoted these goods as signs of a good life. The image of the housewife also reflects the 1950s ideal that married women belonged at home, an ideal that critics like Betty Friedan later challenged.
Common mistakes
- Taking 1950s TV families as an accurate picture of American life. They were idealized and mostly white and middle class.
- Saying women left the workforce in the 1950s. The ideal stressed homemaking, but married women's employment actually grew.
- Mixing up the Beats (1950s writers) with the 1960s counterculture. The Beats influenced the later movement but came first.
On the exam
- Compare 1950s mass culture with the 1920s (7.7): both had new media, consumerism and anxieties about youth.
- Questions often ask how critics challenged conformity. Name a specific writer or musician and explain their critique.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 8.5 Culture after 1945. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Writers of the Beat Generation in the 1950s are best known for
Congress added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and made "In God We Trust" the national motto in 1956. These actions most directly reflected
By 1960 most American homes had a television set. In the 1950s, television most directly
| Year | Share of homes lived in by their owners | Births in the U.S. |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | 43.6% | 2.6 million |
| 1950 | 55.0% | 3.6 million |
| 1960 | 61.9% | 4.3 million |
| 1970 | 62.9% | 3.7 million |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Housing; National Center for Health Statistics. Birth figures rounded.
The trend in births from 1940 to 1960 helps explain the 1950s cultural emphasis on
0 of 4 answered