Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate

Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate

Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate

It didn't start airing until 1974, but the television show Happy Days portrayed the carefree '50s through the antics of characters named Potsie, Chachi, and Fonzie (above).

Gonna cruise her round the town,
Show everybody what I've found
Rock-'n'-roll with all my friends
Hopin' the music never ends.
These happy days are yours and mine.
-Happy Days, theme song

In American memory, the postwar 1950s have acquired an idyllic luster. Reruns of 1950s TV shows such as Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best leave today's viewers with an impression of unadulterated family bliss. The baby boomers look back nostalgically to these years that marked their early childhood experiences.

Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate

The actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy tarnished the relaxed attitude of the 1950s. His hunt for communists working in the U.S. showcased the paranoia and fear that gripped America.

The president for many of these years was war hero Dwight Eisenhower. Ike, as he was nicknamed, walked a middle road between the two major parties. This strategy, called Modern Republicanism, simultaneously restrained Democrats from expanding the New Deal while stopping conservative Republicans from reversing popular programs such as Social Security. As a result, no major reform initiatives emerged from a decade many would describe as politically dead. Perhaps freedom from controversy was the prize most American voters were seeking after World War II and the Korean War.

Living in a Material World

Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate

Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower's campaign slogan "I Like Ike" epitomized the swell spirit that defined American culture in the 1950s.

A booming economy helped shape the blissful retrospective view of the 1950s. A rebuilding Europe was hungry for American goods, fueling the consumer-oriented sector of the American economy. Conveniences that had been toys for the upper classes such as fancy refrigerators, range-top ovens, convertible automobiles, and televisions became middle-class staples.

The pent-up demand for consumer goods unleashed after the Great Depression and World War II sustained itself through the 1950s. Homes became affordable to many apartment dwellers for the first time. Consequently, the population of the suburbs exploded. The huge youth market had a music all of its own called rock and roll, complete with parent-detested icons such as Elvis Presley.

Happy Days — But Not for All

Of course, not everything was as rosy as it seemed. Beneath the pristine exterior, a small group of critics and nonconformists pointed out the flaws in a suburbia they believed had no soul, a government they believed was growing dangerously powerful, and a lifestyle they believed was fundamentally repressed. And much of America was still segregated.

Nevertheless, the notion of the 1950s as happy days lived on. Perhaps when measured against the Great Depression of the 1930s, the world war of the 1940s, the strife of the 1960s, and the malaise of the 1970s, the 1950s were indeed fabulous.

Abstract

If the 1950s are remembered for conformity, the 1960s for rebellious individualism, and the 1970s for narcissistic individualism, images of the 1980s contain an ambiguous mixture of individualism and conformity, with similarities to the 1950s. But if the 1980s resemble the 1950s in some respects, are portraits of individualism and conformity in the later decade nevertheless different from their earlier incarnations? A comparative analysis of best-selling self-help books in the 1950s and the 1980s reveals the following changes: from "maturity" as a desirable end to an ever-changing self; from determinism about the self to antideterminism and constructionism; from institutional constraints and joys to interpersonal ones. These changes reflect the incorporation of ideas from the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and may also stem from perceptions of a simultaneous increase in structural determinism and individual empowerment.

Journal Information

Sociological Forum, the official journal of the Eastern Sociological Society, is a peer-review journal that emphasizes innovative articles developing topics or areas in new ways or directions. While supporting the central interests of sociology in social organization and change, the journal also publishes integrative articles that link subfields of sociology or relate sociological research to other disciplines, thus providing a larger focus on complex issues. Building on the strength of specialization while stressing intellectual convergences, this publication offers special opportunities for using the techniques and concepts of one discipline to create new frontiers on others.

Publisher Information

Springer is one of the leading international scientific publishing companies, publishing over 1,200 journals and more than 3,000 new books annually, covering a wide range of subjects including biomedicine and the life sciences, clinical medicine, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, and economics.

Rights & Usage

This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions
Sociological Forum
Request Permissions

What was essential to the growth of suburbs quizlet?

A growth in affordable automobiles and highways contributed to the growth of suburbs by allowing wealthier white families to still keep their jobs in the inner city, but not have to live there. They could now live in nicer, safer areas outside of the city and commute to work.

How did major cities change in the 1950s?

In the 1950s, as new suburbs prospered and spread across postwar America, cities suffered. Rising car and truck ownership made it easier for businesses and middle- and working-class white residents to flee to the suburbs, leaving behind growing poor and minority populations and fiscal crises.

What was essential to the growth of suburbs?

The growth of suburbs resulted from several historical forces, including the social legacy of the Depression, mass demobilization after the War (and the consequent “baby boom”), greater government involvement in housing and development, the mass marketing of the automobile, and a dramatic change in demographics.

What challenges did American democracy face during the 1950s and 1960s?

What challenges did American democracy face during the 1950s and 1960s? How did Americans respond to these challenges? African Americans, women, and other minorities were denied equal rights in education, housing, employment, and other areas. Economic opportunities were limited.