50's+Happy+Days



That's a great question, don't you think? We will answer it in class on Thursday in a (hopefully) fun activity, but to prepare, we should do a little background reading and watching. R**ead "The Fifties" in __Creating America__ (28-3, pp. 800-803), read over the ABC-CLIO links posted below, and w****atch the videos below.** 
 * FOR HOMEWORK, CREATE A LIST (IN YOUR ONLINE NOTEBOOK) OF POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES CONCERNING LIFE IN THE FIFTIES FOR CLASS ON THURSDAY. WE WILL USE IT TO WRITE SOME DIALOGUE ...**

[|The Cold War at Home] / [|The Economy Booms] / [|The Sky is the Limit] / [|Boom-Time for Babies and Houses]  Good: Big Economy Booms after world war 2. The Housing Industry also boomed after the war. Huge Population Boom after the war. Huge Baby Boom. Rise of suburbs - safe place to raise children. Shopping centers, movie theaters, restaurants moved to the suburbs. Car sales exploded as people needed transportation when they moved to suburbs. Women praised as "Homemakers" Industry was booming making goods for people to buy: washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and televisions.

Bad: Not a lot of room in the cities. People began to move out of the cities to the suburbs. African Americans and Mexicans lived in cities because they couldn't afford to live in suburbs. There was plenty of work but no where to put the workers. There was a widespread of Hysteria about communism in the United States. Racism and segregation was around in the 50's Mexicans came over the border to work as Braceros - when the work ended many stayed illegally. Televisions caused movie audiences to drop