The Fifties

The Fifties, based on the acclaimed best selling book by David Halberstam, is an in-depth examination of the decade of the 1950s. Blending interviews with archival footage, it creates a vivid portrait of an era that defined the image of the American way of life. Fraught with nostalgia and a yearning for a simpler time, memories of the 1950s evoke an idealistic, innocent image of a time before the turbulence of the 1960s. The Fifties looks beyond the image of the 1950s to the realities of the decade. In doing so, it reveals the 1950s as an era as turbulent as any other, one that portended the explosion of the 1960s. From hula-hoops to McCarthyism, split-level tract houses to atomic anxieties,The Fifties provides a comprehensive study of a fascinating era in American history.

This program would be useful for classes on American History, Women's History, The History of Science and Technology, Economics, and Cultural History. It is appropriate for middle school, high school and college.

The Fear and the Dream, Part 1

At the end of World War II, America stood on the verge of a new era in American history. Prosperity, world dominance, and a higher standard of living than ever before imagined beckoned. But the price of this wonder world was high. As the 1940s gave way to the 1950s, a new, more lethal, capacity to wage war dominated the era. The Cold War was in full swing, and anxieties over the spread of Communism and nuclear power dominated America. The Fear and the Dream examines the anxieties of post-war America. It includes the rise of McCarthyism, the Red Scare, the arms race and the Korean War. It also explores how American popular culture reflected America's concerns, with Cold War themes dominating movies, television, novels, and music of the era.

• arbitrary
• atoll
• blatant
• demagogue
• disciple
• elated
• elusive
• espionage
• gait
• genre
• gregarious
• imminent
• indoctrinated
• jargon
• paranoia
• pervasive
• preeminence
• saboteurs
• sinister
• subversive
• verbatim
• vigilance
• vortex
• wary

Discussion Questions

1. The decade of the 1950s has been called the decade that "remade America." What changes occurred in America during the decade? How was America "remade?"

2. Although the 1960s is the decade considered most turbulent in 20th century America, the unrest of the 1960s is rooted in the 1950s. How did the 1950s lay the foundation for the turbulence of the 1960s?

3. David Halberstam was a journalist during the 1960s. How did his experiences during that turbulent decade motivate him to write The Fifties?

4. How did the Cold War of the 1950s shape social attitudes during the decade?

5. How did nuclear and atomic power influence the 1950s? How might the 1950s have been different if there were no atomic or hydrogen bombs?

6. The suburb as we know it today was born in the 1950s, with the creation of William Levitt's Levittown. How did demographics and the baby boom contribute to the creation of the modern suburb?

7. William Levitt did for housing what Henry Ford did for automobile manufacturing. What did Levitt do? How did Levitt revolutionize the building industry as Ford had done four decades earlier for the automobile industry?

8. Levittown was for white families only. African Americans were not permitted to buy these houses and live in these new suburbs. How was this possible? Why did a new neighborhood refuse African Americans? What does this say about attitudes in the 1950s? How would instances such as this lead to the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s?

9. In 1949, the United States created the hydrogen bomb, a bomb much more powerful than the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. What were the moral dilemmas and questions raised about building the hydrogen bomb? Why did some of the scientists who worked on the original atomic bomb, most notably J.R. Oppenheimer, refuse to aid in the creation of the hydrogen bomb?

10. In the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the most feared men in America. How was man like McCarthy, whose wild accusations destroyed the lives of innocent people, able to exert such a powerful influence in America?

Extended Activities

1. Design an advertisement for William Levitt's Levittown. What would you emphasize about these new homes to make them attractive to young families?

2. Pretending that the year is 1949, divide the class into two sections and moderate a debate about the pros and cons of developing a hydrogen bomb.

3. Design a bomb shelter for you and your family to use during a nuclear attack during the 1950s.

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