The Changing

World

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

World War II ended

• Ended with a “bang” – with the only

nuclear weapon used ever to conclude
the war against Japan at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
• Humans have shown new capabilities
never shown before.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Everything was booming
• The economy, growing from $200 billion to $500 billion between 1945
- 1960 (American economy).
• There was a Baby Boom. Male soldiers return from war, in 1946 a
record number of babies–3.4 million–were born in the United States.
About 4 million babies were born each year during the 1950s. This
level of reproduction didn’t ease until the mid-60s.
“America at this moment, stands at the
summit of the world.”
- Winston Churchill,1945.
Civil Rights Movement

• Many Americans began to recognize the

inequality and injustice felt by African-
Americans.
• This is helped by the “peace” following
war.
• Many soldiers returned from the war after
fighting side-by-side their black peers.
Returned home where they were forced to
be segregated.
Civil Rights
Movement
In 1954, saw the Brown v.
Board landmark case, 100 Southern congressmen signed
declared that “separate a “Southern Manifesto” which
educational facilities” for
black children were defended segregation.
“inherently unequal.” This
ruling was the first nail in Jim
Crow’s coffin.

1955
1956
1954

Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery after refusing to

give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. This
sparked a huge wave of non-violent protests by African-
Americans in the search for freedom.
The Cold War
• The tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, known as
the Cold War, was another defining element of the 1950s.
• After World War II, Western leaders began to worry that the USSR had
what one American diplomat called “expansive tendencies”; moreover,
they believed that the spread of communism anywhere threatened
democracy and capitalism everywhere. 
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Space
Soviets winning space
race

• USSR sent a satellite named

Sputnik to space in 1957.
• Later in 1957 they sent a dog.
• In 1961 the Soviets successfully
sent Yuri Gagarin into Space.
Technology was
advancing

• Factories had a high level of output from

the war, when it stopped, they began
making goods such as cars, TVs, fridges.
• Humans went to space; the world was
suddenly smaller and more advanced than
ever before.
Pop Culture
HUGE RISE OF THE TELEVISION –
FACTORIES NO LONGER MAKING
MILITARY RADIOS, BUT NOW
COMMON HOUSEHOLD
TECHNOLOGIES.
MARILYN MONROE, JOHN ELVIS MAKES A HUGE
WAYNE, ELIZABETH RISE IN “ROCK AND
TAYLOR AND DEAN ROLL”,
MARTIN ALL BECOME REVOLUTIONIZING
HOUSEHOLD NAMES. MUSIC.
Woman’s Rights
• Women worked in place of men during the war. Especially in factories
and other “tough” jobs.
• Women’s roles were beginning to change, from “stay at home mums” to
new progressive independent roles.
• There was a huge rise in pre-marital birth rates, with women becoming
much more liberal.
Sexual Revolution
• This ultimately led to the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
• During the 60s the pill was invented, giving women more sexual freedoms, also
helped by the sexualization of women in mass media (TV).
• Some historians place the reason of this due to the commonality of cars – giving
teens unsolicited freedom.
• This occurred despite 1950s nuclear family propaganda and the rise of ”the
suburbs”. Encouraging typical gender roles during the cold war.
Counterculture
challenged this
propaganda!
Hippy Culture / Peace
Movements
• People opposed the occupation of Korea in
the 50s.
• The people who just returned from WW2.
• Grew exponentially during the 60s when
Vietnam worsened for America. (This was
after Vatican II, but still shows the world
changing beyond religion).
Where does the church fit in to the rapidly
modernizing world?