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I don't think History will agree with you on that. The US is still fighting racism and misogyny, just like in the 1950s. We aren't fighting communism, which has mostly fallen on the waste heap of history.
I think no matter what side of the culture war you are on, it's dangerously close to being the end of this country from within. If you are a conservative, the problem is the decline of the church as the center of American social and family life and the breakdown in the social conformity that prevailed in the 1950s, with the acceptance of homosexuality being the worst thing. If you are a liberal, the problem is the rise of the religious right and the fact that it's becoming more militant, threatening to destroy our institutions if it comes to that, to restore traditional social order. The culture war has the potential to destroy America for good within the next few years.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
A cousin of my father was married to a man who worked at a gas station. He raised his family, and his wife was a SAHM. Try doing that today.
If you live in a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house, have one car, mom cooks virtually all the meals and watches the money carefully, and the kids wear hand-me-down clothes and vacation is a trip to Grandma's, it would be much easier to do. They don't change out the rugs and cabinets and countertops and bathroom flooring every 5 years or so to keep up with fashion rather than worn out fixtures.
It was generally unsaid in the 1950s. No real need to say it if you were white and middle class. Blacks, of course, wanted the same thing but were prevented by various means to do it.
Times have changed. Now one has to wonder who would announce that they are looking to buy a house in an unsafe neighborhood and bad schools. Everyone values the same thing -- safety and good schools -- regardless of social status or any other label. In most instances now it boils down to location, preference, and affordability.
It went past the fifties. The Green Book, btw, listing where blacks could stay covered as many northern as southern states. Secondly, in the late 70s, my hometown, Milford, Ct was exposed by the then Bridgeport Post newspaper of engaging in red lining. They sent a black couple and white couple, same income, same levels of education, to buy a home of the same value. The white couple was treated beautifully by the realtor, the black couple told none available. All 4 were reporters.
In the 70s, Boston reacted to bussing with racism, as did Joe Biden fighting it as a Senator. He referred to keeping his kid away from the wrong elements.
Boston also revered in that era the white Red Sox OF Fred Lynn, but never gave the far better Black OF Jim Rice his due.
Unions, mid 20th century, were largely a means to keep blacks leaving the South from competing with northern whites.
And look at the racism Jackie Robinson faced, in a league with just one team south of teh Mason Dixon line, in 1947.
This topic is complex; there is good and bad to be found in the mid 20th century.
..there is good and bad to be found in the mid 20th century.
Fifties were well before my time, so I can't speak to the subjective nature of the original poster's question.. how was the decade perceived by those living it..
But I'll mention an objective reality; the wide economic prosperity of the 5os.
Incomes grew at nearly equal pace for all economic groups, so there were economic good times for most, now just a resentful situation of the rich getting richer.. in the early 5os, Americans were making 2-3 times the hourly wage of the mid '30s, unemployment was relatively low. Manufacturing wages rose significantly, and gross national product almost doubled between the start & end of the decade (from $285 to $500 billion).
I figure this broad economic prosperity must explain part of the optimism of, and nostalgia for, the 1950s.
It blows my mind that the 1950s are closer to the 1890s than they are to today, hell 1880 was 70 years prior to 1950 which is 73 years prior to 2023. I wonder if anyone in the 50s, especially older people, referred to the 1880s and 1890s as specifically that or as simply as the 80s and 90s like we do with the 1980s and 1990s. But yeah it is interesting that the 50s for so long have been seen as this idyllic perfect era when it wasn't actually like that at all.
if 'we' doesn't also include you ... then move to russia. I got this message privately. I must have missed something .... when did Congress declare war on Russia?
Much of the nostalgia is perhaps due to those thinking it was such a good time were children then and were isolated from their parent's concerns.
We were all, parents included, ignorant of the dangers of pesticides. In some towns, they had "mosquito trucks." These trucks would drive in neighborhoods and leave a fog of pesticides. We had mosquito planes which would fog their area; we would not go inside. And what was so great about the fog of smoke from burning leaves that descended on neighborhoods in the fall? Even with the windows closed, it would penetrate.
If you live in a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house, have one car, mom cooks virtually all the meals and watches the money carefully, and the kids wear hand-me-down clothes and vacation is a trip to Grandma's, it would be much easier to do. They don't change out the rugs and cabinets and countertops and bathroom flooring every 5 years or so to keep up with fashion rather than worn out fixtures.
Etc.
My friend's daughter lives like that, she's happy but her mother is not. It's not mom's life, the daughter doesn't want to be a big consumer and has a different idea of what is important. With the way real estate is now many people can't afford a house at all, the daughter and her family are doing fine. Mom feels like a failure because she sees her child as not doing better than she did, but living the "deprived" life she did growing up in the 50s and 60s. It's all consumer brainwashing. We all have to be careful of this, I think that generation (boomer, gen-x) bought into this quite a bit.
Much of the nostalgia is perhaps due to those thinking it was such a good time were children then and were isolated from their parent's concerns.
We were all, parents included, ignorant of the dangers of pesticides. In some towns, they had "mosquito trucks." These trucks would drive in neighborhoods and leave a fog of pesticides. We had mosquito planes which would fog their area; we would not go inside. And what was so great about the fog of smoke from burning leaves that descended on neighborhoods in the fall? Even with the windows closed, it would penetrate.
People were definitely getting poisoned back then, a lot of that extended into the seventies or even later. Most survived it though. We have our own modern poisons to worry about now. How about China putting lead back into toys. What's old is new again.
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