HIST 101-04, Introduction to Historical Investigation: Postwar America 1945-1963, Spring 2001

Abstract

How accurate are these views of the 1950s? We can test these assumptions by exploring the mood of post-World War II America through its political life, gender relations, race relations, literature, music, and film. Through each of these lenses we will investigate the period from 1945 to 1963, keeping in mind the following questions: What did it mean to be “American”? If there were challenges to the status quo, what forms did they take, and why? How did race and gender shape the way individuals understood their relationship to the larger society? How did Americans reconcile their needs for individualism and community? Finally, within the larger context of twentieth-century American history, what elements of change and continuity are present in Fifties culture?