BLOG MARCH 27

Friday March 27
-Eisenhower on the domestic front
-endorsed some expensive new programs for the US
-got congress to get Federal highways act 1956- taxed gasoline to build national system of linked access expressways, was a huge boost to the trucking indusrty
-Labor-Capital Conflicts
-1950's saw a cooling off of the labor union-capital conflicts of the 30's and 40's
-AFL and CIO merged in 1955
-workers made real gains- pay raises really rose, workplace is safer, employers (who still wanted to keep workers for their entirl career) offered paid vacations, health insurance, and pension plans
-Congress Emphasized Religious Values
-added phrase "under God" to pladge of allegience and made motto "in God we trust"
-intense religious commitments no longer divided people
-religious leaders became national celebrities: Norman Vincent Pearle- wrote "power of positive thinking", Bishop Sheen- TV "life is worth living", Billy Grahm- popular TV evangalist
-Criticism of Conformity, Youth, Mass Culture
-books criticized conformity
-large corporation's values at the expense of worker's individuality
-argued that advertising created conformity
-Betty Friedan found similar comformity patterns in women
-(we listened to a pretty funny song called "little boxes" about the creepiness of suburbia in places like Levittown)
-Concerns About Young People
-criminologists- comic books linked to juvenille delinquency
-Elvis Presley's sensuality outraged critics
-parents found that rock n roll was more frightening to them then comoc books as it crossed ethnic and cultural barriers
-"blackboard jungle"- movie- kids are dangerous delinquents
-rock music, movies, merged into mass consumption of 50's as merchants discovered: teens can buy things for themselves!
-Critics of Mass Market
-"bad" art pushing out "good" art
-TV became a target
-NBC, CBS, ABC dominated tv
-shows like "Father Knows Best" featured middle class, consumption oriented suburban families
-TV being called "boob tube"
-Mass Culture and Economic System
-mass culture was closely linked to the economic system generating affluence
-critics had no real solutions to the things that bothered them
-cures relying on government actions clashed with commitment to an open pluralistic society
-1950's Civil Rights Movement, Eisenhower's reaction
-unlike Truman, Eisenhower showed little interest in civil rights
-1954 Brown vs. Board of education - legally enforced that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, overturned "seperate but equal" Plessey vs. Furguson" (unanimous decision)
-Oliver Hill- VA attorney, worked with Thurgood Marshall on Brown vs Board
-1954 southern "massive resistance" to Brown vs. Board saw VA among others, closing public schools rather then desegregate
-1955 supreme court ruled desegregation should proceed "with all deliberate speed"

have a good weekend and RELAX!