American society in the 1950s

二战结束后，美国经历了一段时间的重新调整和恢复，这有助于使美国之后成为经济和军事的强国。 20世纪50年代期间，美国的经济繁荣，是世界上最富裕的国家了。人们把它称为黄金时代。在这篇文章中，我将从几个角度说明20世纪50年代美国社会的变化。

After the World War II, America has gone through a period of readjustment and recovery which helped to make America become the economic and military power later. During 1950s, the economy of the United States boomed and reached the most prosperous country in the world. People called it the Golden Age. In this essay, I’s going to illustrate how America society looked like in the 1950s from several perspectives.

Business in the United States expanded rapidly during the 1950s and great changes took place which greatly influenced people’s daily lives. Instead of blue-collar jobs , more and more people chose white-collar positions where they gained more but less workload. Besides, corporations and companies developed in ways of conglomerates and franchise. Thus creating some industry giants like International Telephone and Telegraph, McDonald and so on. They had created huge social values and prospered the whole nation’s economy. People’s living quality greatly improved and they were affordable to the good things in life. To some extent, Americans lifestyles were standardized by those huge corporations and companies.

This period was also a time of baby boom. Due to economic prosperity, advances in medicine and childcare, reunion of husbands and wives after the war and some other reasons, the largest generation in America’s history appeared in 1957 with a total number of 4,308,000 babies born. At the same time, women began to reacquaint their roles in families. Some of them tried to work outside and to be more individual. 

One of the biggest changes in the 1950s was the automobile culture. Because of the fast developed economy, people could easily afford cars and gas fees. Suburban living also made it necessary to have cars. In order to allow so many cars going through the country, local and state governments started to construct roads under the Interstate Highways Act signed by President Eisenhower in 1956. A nationwide highway network which is about 41,000 miles of expressways prevailed all over the United States. Thanks to the new roads, people’s lives became more and more convenient in the suburbs and in turn promoted the development of new suburbs. Almost every large cities was surrounded by suburbs where a large amount of people dwell in by early 1960s. The phenomenon of working in cities but living in suburbs became very common. 

American people’s life quality greatly improved benefiting from the development of the society. With much more time for leisure, ways of entertainment blossomed during this period. Magazines and books got unprecedented sales growth. Sport activities like fishing, hunting, boating and golf got the welcome of millions of people. What ’s more, the Federal Communications Commission, the government agency regulated and licensed television, telephone, telegraph, radio, and so on thus ushered in the “golden age of television and radio”. And even in 1953, 20th Century Fox introduced a new technology which made a wide-angle image on a broad screen come true and grasped many audience. Fast scientific and technology progress enriched people’s leisure time to a great extent. 

With abundant material wealth and recreational activities, popular culture in the United States flourished at the same time. A kind of subculture emerged performed as the beat movement. Those poets’ and writers’ work often depicted the essence of this area, for example, Allen Ginsberg’s long, free verse poem, Howl, published in 1956, and Jack Kerouac’s novel of the movement, On the Road, published in 1957. In addition to literature, music also changed a lot. A typical music style called rock ‘n’ roll emerged and mostly inspired by African-Americans. In the beginning, many people were against it for they worried about leading teenage delinquency and immorality even banned some concerts. Thanks to television and radio’s spread, more and more people accepted it. You may see teenagers singing at any time. The variety style of music like rhythm, blues and jazz caught different races of audiences and enriched their lives. 

Despite the golden age of America in the 1950s, economic boom,the high level of life quality, the flourishing literature and so on made the United States a great power in the world. However, I still find some other aspects of America. 

According the statistics, there were about 40 million people didn’t benefit from the economic boom and lived in poverty. Because of counter-urbanization, rich people took resources and fortunes with them to the suburb areas while poor people entered into the inner cities. Its seemed strange that those who lived in the cities were dirty and poor. It directly leaded to the National Housing Act of 1949 for constructing low-income housing for the poor. It was called urban renewal but brought little effect. 

During this period, people’s awareness of seeking equality and rights began awakening. African Americans participated activities to fight against racial segregation and discrimination. The famous Montgomery Bus Boycott happened just in 1955. After years of struggle and fight, they finally gained more and more respect and equal treatment. 

Mexican-American especially veterans and Native Americans also inspired by movements of African Americans. They also took measures to seek rights for themselves. In 1948, Mexican-American veterans organized the G.I. Forum and at the same time collected voters and candidates who would represent their interests. Also, Native Americans fought for their rights and identity. In 1953, the federal government initiated a new approach known as the termination policy. It proved to be a failure later, however, and the government abandoned it in 1963. The society in fact was not stable as imagined since all kinds of activities and boycotts. 

In conclusion, despite of problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality and racial discrimination, the overall development of America in 1950s was a period of extreme prosperity. Owing the the fast development of all round, America has become super power in the world.    

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