HA2 - 3/4 March

1950s: Dissenters and Other Americans

Bellwork
Prepare for your quiz.

1950s: The Dissenters

and Other Americans

Objecting to Conformity
Social critics: Americans were sacrificing their
individuality
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan
Wilson
Man and wife in run down house, 3 tvaddicted kids, a troubled marriage plagued by
an infidelity in Europe during the war
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan
Researches into the discontent among
housewives of the 1950s
Reveals that editorial decisions in womens
magazines and advertising were being made
by men

The Beats
Non-conformists, careless
dress, colorful jargon
Lament the loss of
individuality in a conformist
and materialistic society
Allen Ginsberg (poet) and
Jack Kerouac (novelist) were
leaders of the movement
Often met in coffee houses
Opened the door for the
1960s counterculture
movement

The Beats
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
Angel-headedhipstersburning for the ancient heavenly
connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up
smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats
floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz
- Allen Ginsberg, 1955, Howl
- Despite poverty, poor hipsters find freedom in their
imaginations, trying to connect to nature and music.

Poverty: Urban
25% of Americans were living in poverty
during the 1950s
African Americans in the cities
Rural whites, particularly in Appalachia
Hispanics on rural farms / in urban barrios
White flight from cities (to suburbs) cities
lost their tax base, and became run down
Urban Renewal projects = took out old
buildings, built affordable housing Projects,
built highways
Gave poor amenities like running water, but
also consolidated them, which led to the

Children playing in a Chicago slum in

the 1950s.

The Other America

Latinos
Braceros dealt with poor working conditions on
farms and were often cheated by their employers
Threatened with deportation if they tried to
complain to management
Puerto Ricans in the cities dealt with mass
discrimination and were clustered in slums
Native Americans
1953 Termination Policy sought to end tribal
government and relocate Native Americans in
the cities
Terminated federal responsibility for health and

The Happy Daze

Movie with questions