The 1950s witnessed unprecedented prosperity in the U.S., as well as major transformations of American society related to the Cold War, suburbanization, the baby boom, the flowering of forms of popular culture, the spread of mass culture, and the demise of high modernist culture. This course will explore the many-sided manifestations of culture and changes of American society associated with the decade of "the fifties."
Readings include:
Main text: David Halberstam, The Fifties
Selections from: --
-- Richard L. Miller. Under the Cloud: the Decades of Nuclear Testing
--James J. Flink: "The Insolent Chariots," from The Automobile Age
--Russell Jacoby, from The Last Intellectuals
--Ned Polsky, "Greenwich Village, Summer 1960," from Hustlers, Beats and Others
--Mike Wallace: Mickey Mouse History
--Curtis F. Brown. Star-Spangled Kitsch
--David Riesman. The Lonely Crowd
--William H. Whyte. The Organization Man
--Lewis Mumford, "The Highway and the City;" and "The Case Against Modern Architecture"
--Paul Boyer "The Reassuring Message of Civil Defense," in: By the Bomb's Early Light
--plus others
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--and we'll probably want to visit Professor Al Filreis's fabulous fifties website: Professor Al Filreis's Fifties Website
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Films include: Atomic Cafe, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Walter Cronkite documentary, Twentieth Century Fox documentary
Some of the themes covered:
Requirements: This course will run as a workshop seminar. This means that there will have to be active participation by students. "Workshop seminar" also implies an exploratory approach, and it is hoped that the class will be able to take advantage of events on campus related to course themes and that students will develop their own research themes. Students are expected to complete the readings before class and to participate actively in class discussions. For most classes, there will be one student assigned to lead discussion of the materials. Grades will be based primarily on one exam and two papers (roughly 90%) , the papers to be approximately 5-7 full pages in length, normal format, and original to this course. The remainder of the grade to be determined by class discussion and possible 1-2 brief pass-fail papers.
Relevant Links
The Bureau of Atomic Tourism: http://www.oz.net/~chrisp/atomic.html