Mary L. Dudziak and Glenn C. Altschuler both provide insight into the culture and society in the United States of America (USA) during the 1950’s. The nation “had been “living in an age of anxiety” since 1945,” (7) and this anxiety did not disappear as conflict emerged both from within the country and from the outside. Internationally, there was another war; the Cold War. It was a fight between communism and democracy, Soviets and Americans, oppression and freedom. This freedom that America boasted of was not experienced by many of its citizens. Adolescents felt restricted and racism seeped into every aspect of day-to-day life. America did its best to put on a good face for the rest of the world, and even as it was being broken down from all…show more content… An attempt to regulate the lyrics within Rock ‘n roll worked for a while and many “dirty” songs were cleaned up so that they were less offensive. The biggest part that the United States government played in this time period was in the matter of civil rights. This “blot on the nation” affected more than just the people who lived within the American borders. Due to the global involvement in the Cold War, anything that would tarnish the reputation of America could be devastatingly costly. America was promoting democracy as “[enabling] social change and [being] based on principles of justice and equality.” (16) This was difficult for other nations to accept since social change and equality were not evident with the very country which so vehemently promoted democracy. The Soviet Union lapped up all the stories that poured out of the United States. Anything and everything that could be used as anti-American propaganda were useful for them. The focus of the Cold War was between Communism and Democracy. The United States decided to capitalize on the publicity they were receiving and to portray a “more balanced perspective on the issue.” (48) America told its store around the globe and showed how far they had come concerning racial issues; from slavery to now! They would “put violent incidents […] ‘in context,’”…show more content… Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all had to deal with protests and violence within their own country while worrying about the effect that these actions had on foreign relations. Eisenhower “did not believe that ‘you can change the hearts of men with laws or decisions.’”(37) When the situation in Little Rock became too serious, Eisenhower had to relent and interfere with federal troops to ensure the safety of the nine black children attending that school. The chaos that America experienced between the malicious acts of the Ku Klux Klan as well as the controversy of desegregation monopolized the presidents’ political agenda. If they could solve this issue of racism, then their global reputation, as well as that of democracy, would be upheld and attractive.
Neither Cold War Civil Rights nor All Shook Up provide a complete picture of the conflicts which characterized the 50’s in America, but they work together to do so. It is quite clear that the USA was facing challenges both internally and externally. People feared more change, and even more scared of having a repeat of the holocaust. Nothing was as it was before the war, and they were now engaged in another war; one that was focused on the way their country was
