Study Guide for Gillon, The American Paradox, Chapter 4

• Economic boom
• Reasons for the baby boom
• Mass consumer culture and advertising, and changes in values/attitudes
• Levittown(s)
• Suburbs’ contribution to consumer society and the “American Dream”
• Exclusion from suburbs
• Corporate consolidation (big business)
• White collar jobs, service jobs in the burgeoning consumer economy
• What happened to class consciousness and union activism in the 1950s? The 1950 contract between General Motors and the UAW.
• Common themes in television programs
• The strategies of television advertisers
• Religion in the 1950s. How did Billy Graham’s style and religious teachings reflect the 1950s? How religious were Americans in the 50s?
• The social meaning of the automobile in the 1950s. What did Americans want from their cars? How did the car impact the American economy and culture?
• The Interstate Highway Act 1956
• Population shift to the Sunbelt (South and West)
• The cultural significance of Disneyland (past & future)
• Why did a distinctive teenage culture develop in the postwar years?
• Describe this youth culture (and ask yourself, what did it mean in terms of 1950s consensus society? Was it part of the consensus or was it resistance?)
• Describe the racial and sexual dynamics of the early rock and roll stars
• What were some of the critiques of “mass culture” – of consumer-driven, suburban postwar America? What’s wrong with suburbia? What’s wrong with TV?
• How does Gillon defend mass culture from these critiques?
• What does Gillon see as the “impact of the consumer culture on the American paradox”?
• [What’s the connection between the 1950s and the 1960s?]