In contrast to the decades preceding and following it, the 1950s are often remembered as an orderly era marked by prosperity for middle-class families, with wholesome music and TV shows. However, significant events in those years were precursors to dramatic changes in society and politics that would come later. Such events include the Korean War, CIA coups in Iran and Guatemala, US involvement in Indochina, McCarthy hearings, Rosenberg trials, Brown v. Board of Education, as well as the arrest of Rosa Parks and desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, the seeds of second-wave feminism, birth of rock and roll, and growth of television as a popular medium.
The seminar will explore these and other topics in light of what led to these events, the cultural mood that influenced them, and how they were catalysts for what happened in the 1960s.
Moderators highly recommend: Halberstam, David, The Fifties, Villard Books, 1993. Other resources are: Super, John C. and Rasmussen, R. Kent, (eds.),The Fifties in America, Salem Press, 2005; Derks, Scott, This Is Who We Were: In the 1950s, Grey House, 2013; Dunbar, Andrew J., America in the Fifties, Syracuse University Press, 2006; and Miller, Douglas T. and Nowak, Marion, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were, Doubleday, 1977. The moderators can recommend other resources for specific topics.
Start date: September 23
Afternoon seminars meet from 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm.
