1950's Happy Days Essay

Words: 1138

Pages: 5

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Reed Mueller
p. 4a
5-1-12

The 1950’s (Happy Days)

The 1950’s were called the “Happy Days” for multiple reasons. We were finished with a huge war, and our economy was booming. Social, political and economic policies were popping up everywhere. Many things define why the 1950’s were the “Happy Days” in the U.S. Whether it was the end of the Korean War for the U.S. or the economic boom that helped define what we call the “American Dream” the 1950’s were great times for America. During the 1950’ many public and social booms happened. For instance the Baby Boom was huge in the 1950’s. In 1957 it was estimated that 1 baby was born every 7 seconds. (Silverman 1) Also suburban living was expanding and becoming very common. Starting in …show more content…
Apart from social highs in the 1950’s, many political highs arose throughout the 1950’s. Even though the Korean War started for the U.S. in 1950, it ended for us in all of but 3 years. And it didn’t put a huge toll on us either.(World 1-2) Also Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected as President of the United States in 1952, with future President Richard Nixon as his Vice President.(World 2) Joseph Stalin died on March 5th, 1953.(2) This was a big deal around the World because Stalin was one of the main Communist leaders. In 1956, Eisenhower was reelected for his second term as President of the United States.(World 3) In 1957, the Russians launched the “Sputnik I” into space.(Silverman 7) This led to the craze in aliens and science fiction. Throughout the 1950’s, the United States economy flourished with an “economic boom”. But what led to the United States having an economic boom? Well one of the main reasons was automation.(Silverman 3) Automation is the installment of machines to do the work for people. And even though it made American citizens lose jobs it also improved production speed and efficiency by a lot. But in the process it also created jobs. Even though people got replaced by machines they now

Time Out Of Joint Essay

Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick employs a “time out of joint” effect where the main character, Ragle, believes he is in the 1950’s when, in fact, the true setting in the novel is actually in the late 1980’s. Through this effect, Dick is highlighting Americans of the 1950’s to be the type to: imagine a faux reality when presented with an undesirable reality, value this faux reality for providing a life worth living, and display a decaying innocence of youth as knowledge increases. The entire novel…

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Popular Culture Essay

Culture During the 20th century the role of women began to transform, breaking away from their once traditional role of the housewife, which saw women as the caretakers and men as the source of income for the family. This all began to change in the 1950’s when men went to war, leaving women to take over jobs in order for business to continue and for families to still receive an income despite the absence of men. However, when men returned women wanted to continue working instead of become housewives…

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LOFT Essay

William Golding’s Lord of The Flies helps us understand the challenges we face over the world from the 1950’s all the way to today. This a novel about a group of boys who get stranded on an island, using charters and actions he relates to the challenges going on in the world. William Golding reflects on some of the issues going on in the 50’s, like WWII, and shows us that there are ways to deal with them and that they can be used today on our challenges. The themes golding uses to help us understand…

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The Influence Of Popular Culture On American Culture

20171930-1960’s Popular CulturePopular culture became a huge part of American life in the 1930s and continued to drastically change through the 1960's. Throughout the time period, Radio, movies, sports and music influenced America in great ways. The Great Depression, that started in 1929 and ended in1939, and World War 2 that started in 1939 and ended in 1945 affected American popular culture in several ways. In the 1950's the Cold War began and anti communism began rising in America. In The 60's, popular…

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Hair Styles In The 50's

Academy for Salon Professionals 50’s Hairstyles- Not a Thing of the Past We all know that fashion trends come and go, and that something that was once outdated can become the new hottest item in today’s fashion world. The saying goes, “If you wait long enough, it will eventually be back in fashion” is not only true for clothing, but for hair styles as well. In fact, vintage hairstyles are on the rise and more and more women are choosing to create vintage up dos for special occasions. They are…

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NASA Inventions

Earth will not be around forever and one day space technology advancement may allow for relocation of mankind. By allowing space exploration to continue, NASA will contribute and create many new inventions and advancement in technology that will change medical field and help save lives. One day it may save mankind from extinction if Earth were to come to an end by allowing us to relocate to a different planet. Since space exploration started in the 1950’s thanks to the…

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Essay about Children and Childhood

finds it easier to work with no shoes or even he is not allowed. Referring back to the original question of ‘what do they tell us about children’s experience of childhood and adult’s expectations for children’ this image does not show much of a happy and fulfilled childhood. Both children look like they have their own independence and are expected to act like adults, many of the children who would misbehave or do something wrong would be punished in some quite severe ways. In many cases the children…

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American Dream Essay

The American Dream, 1950’s to Now After WWII, America began going through major changes socially, politically and culturally. Since the Great Depression up to the end of WWII Americans were living very simply and without a lot of things we take for granted today. Once the war ended and the veterans came home American citizens were ready to live the good life. When the war ended many soldiers were ready to come home and start families, but this was an issue because no new houses had been built…

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Body Image Essay

Reflect Our Era? Everyone has their own idea of what is beautiful. However we are bombarded every day with images of what the ideal body should look like, from magazines, television, movies, billboards and ads, and models. How has body image changed over the years? Does body image change our culture or does culture change body image? We will look at the culture and body image of the 1950s and 1990s and see if we can answer these questions. The similarities of these eras are that even though…

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Summary: The Feminine Mystique

just be one exact problem it’s many problems that combine together. Since, women couldn't just describe only one. Since in 1950’s middle class was growing because, the population increased. All girls were required to get married right when they got out of high school. Many of the women that wanted change were from the middle class. No one spoke out about it because, in the 1950’s everyone was the same and also had the same thoughts about life.…

Words 1941 - Pages 8