Oh, the 1950s. The good ole days of Family Values...

[Pacifist Patriot]

Nice double standard on the part of the right wing (but then that would be true to their nature, wouldn't it?).

I love the fact the Cleavers, the Reeds, the Nelsons, et. al. are being held up as the "traditional" family. Nostalgia run amok. There was very little traditional about the nuclear family prior to and during WWII.

And what enabled this "traditional" nuclear family experiment?

Well among other things....

* government job programs and family subsidies
* limits on corporate relocation, financial wheeling-dealing and a much higher share of taxes paid by corporations
* the availability of union jobs for people who didn't get a college education
* subsidies for higher education (GI Bill, National Defense Education Act....)
* the minimum wage began in 1950. In 1968 it accounted for 118% of the poverty figure for a family of three. By 1995 it was 72% of the poverty level.
* public works projects comprised nearly 20 percent of government spending at all levels in 1950 compared to less than 7 percent in 1984.

Corporations paid 23 percent of federal income tax in the 1950s as compared to 9.2 percent in 1991. I'm going to make a wild stab at this one and just guess that percentage has dropped even lower in the last 15 years.

So a brief comment to the family values crowd. PUT UP OR SHUT UP! Those families you've placed on a pedastal probably did not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. And the ones on television? Fiction! It's the way people wanted to be, not necessarily how they were.

Note: Stats are from The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families by Stephanie Coontz.

[htuttle]

1. Oh, the good old days...

...when women and coloreds knew their place.

"Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again...."

:sarcasm:

[jrandom421]

24. A quote I remember

"There are some old-fashioned, traditional, American family values that I just as soon not see return"
Colin Powell, 12 June 1996

[unpossibles]

2. the 50's rocked

if you were white, male, and not a communist....

[Cleita]

4. Eh, I was just going to say.

It was the era of the coat hanger abortion too.

[unpossibles]

14. good point

but we won't discuss things like that. or gay people. or hate crimes. or violence.

they just didn't happen back then.

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. The whole concept of the "good ole days" always makes my...

blood run cold whichever era is being romanticized. It's nothing but a glossy way of agreeing to rewrite history and ignore any lessons learned.

[zanne]

34. It was also the age of unreported rape and domestic abuse....

In the 50's, divorce was rare because of religious and societal pressure. There were alot of abused women and children without even a voice. If a rape was even reported, many times the girl or woman was not taken seriously. You can keep the 50's in your memories while I try to wipe it out of mine.

[raccoon]

37. Heck, the phrase "date rape" didn't even EXIST until the 1970's.

Much less the concept.

The idea that "nice" boys/men committed rapes didn't occur to people.

People thought of rapists as being of another race/ethnicity. Or a shaggy-haired maniac.

[raccoon]

26. Not to mention millions of couples who "had to" get married,

young girls/women who disappeared for some months "to visit an aunt" in another city, and babies who were raised as their biological mother's little brother/sister (Ted Bundy was one.).

[Cleita]

32. Yes, in my graduating class of 49, eight had to get married

right after graduation and had "premature" babies six months later. The sister of one of my friends, who was only fifteen, got sent to one of those homes for unwed mothers where they are coerced to give the baby up for adoption. It was very traumatic for the young girl.

[MountainLaurel]

42. And pregnant girls and women

Shipped off to girls' homes once they started to show and then stripped of their newborns, if they weren't told the babies had died, that is.

[catzies]

52. ...and Christian...and hetero...and... (n/t)

[Cleita]

3. Growing up as a teenager in the fifties,

there was also plentiful affordable housing. Even the janitor and the milkman's family could afford a modest home of thier own. Most of these homes were purchased under GI benefits which allowed WWII and Korea war vets to buy a home with a low down payment and affordable financing.

Also, we were in the middle of the cold war then so all our military bases were operating at full throttle, which provided good jobs with benefits to college and non-college graduates alike. Many small cities had the nearby military base as their primary employer. I know because I lived in one of those places.

However, I can promise you that the mothers and families I knew were a far cry from the fake TV families. For instance the Andersons in "Life With Father" lived in a home that would have most likely been owned by the local doctor. Since dad was an insurance salesman, their home and car would have been much more modest.

Families were much larger then, four to six kids, so most of the kids wore hand me downs, something you never caught the Anderson children wearing.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. You Are 100% Correct

My dad was a milkman. Not the door to door type, mind you, but he delivered the milk to 7 supermarkets in the south suburbs of Chicago. And we had a nice enough house, as long as i can remember.
The Professor

[Cleita]

22. My best friend in high school had seven brothers and sisters.

Her father was a door to door milkman (hence my reference). They lived in a modest three bedroom house with one bath, a bit crowded, yes, but yet a home that they owned. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom (no wonder), but they didn't go hungry and my friend's family even managed to squeak out piano lessons for her because she showed a talent for it.

[raccoon]

27. Agree with what you said. Another thing, houses were generally

a lot smaller then. Most people I knew had 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.

Most kids I knew didn't have a room all to themselves; they shared with siblings.

As you say, a lot of kids wore hand-me-downs. My mother made a lot of clothes for me and my siblings.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

31. My grandma sewed my dresses

and made some from feed sack material. Back then, you could get flour in bags that were cotton prints. It was called "feed sack" cloth, and wore well.

[tdiscuss]

5. There's no such thing as corporate taxes

All taxes paid by corporations are paid by individuals: consumers in the form of higher prices, employees in the form of lower wages (or fewer jobs) or shareholders in the form of lower dividends (or no dividends) and corporate value. "Shareholders" usually do not include the fat-cats at the top, who hold different preferred classes of stock, but the average person who has a mutual fund or 401k plan at work.

[htuttle]

9. Oh, live in the real world for a moment, would ya?

Sure, that's how it's all supposed to work on paper. Just how they teach it in economics class.

But in the real world, at a real corporation, all the money goes upward. CEO pay ratios have exploded from less than 100 times the lowest paid worker, to several hundred times the lowest paid worker -- with CEOs most often receiving bonuses after a major layoff.

If there is ANY money left over, the executives take it. "Shareholders?" Give me a break. Mutual fund shareholders have no say in what happens to their money. If they did, they wouldn't let CEOs steal all of their dividends.

Do you REALLY think that corporations pass on tax savings to their customers or employees? When has THAT ever happened?

Put down the Econ textbook and get real for a minute.

[zanne]

35. htuttle; does your username come from M*A*S*H?

I love the "Tuttle" episode.

[htuttle]

39. Brazil

But brave Captain Tuttle (may he rest in peace) will always be revered in OUR household. :)

[Cleita]

10. So according to you they shouldn't pay anything for the

privilege of doing business?

Good wages and taxes do not increase the price of your goods with the exception of sales tax. Competition in the market sets the price of your good regardless of salaries and other factors. If you can't make a profit after the cost of your goods and doing business are factored in at the market rate, then you need to go back to the drawing board or go out of business. Supply and demand determine the price of goods, nothing else.

Corporations who make a profit or net income from doing business need to pay taxes on that net income. If I had my way they would pay a percentage of their gross income, to go into health and education because businesses and corporations are the entities who benefit from a healthy and educated work force. They should be made to pay the lion's share of the cost of this through taxes.

The taxes would be taken from the money that would ordinarily be given to the shareholder. They shareholder would get less, that's the only entity that would see less income.

[treestar]

53. Why is it a "privilege?"

Everyone has a right to make a living and no one would have a job if no one had the "privilege."

[Cleita]

58. We all have the privilege of living here in this country. If

we don't pay our dues (taxes) and obey the law, we end up in jail with no privileges. Corporations especially have a privilege, not a right, to do business in our country. However, the GOP has turned the tables and you can see what a mess we are in. I'm all for going back to the tax structure, restrictions and regulations of the fifties and sixties. Back then a customer got the service and goods that they paid for and a worker had some rights to decent working condidtions and pay.

[treestar]

71. But it's a free country, so it's not a "privilege" granted by others

to make a living. I think the OP is overconcentrated on the big corporations. Still, whoever they employ, it is just an extension of the capitalists' right to make a living. But the workers have that right, too.

[Cleita]

76. I don't think so. Ask any undocumented immigrant how free

he feels to earn a living here. He doesn't because he doesn't have the right permit or privilege of working here even though he may work illegally.

Your permit or privilege is your birth certificate if you were born here. If you were born in a foreign country even if your parents are American, you have to jump through a few legal hoops to gain that status. So we all have a privilege not a right to live and work here in America.

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. LOL! You're funny.

Thanks for the chuckle. It's been a dreary morning.

Welcome to DU!

[ProfessorGAC]

18. The World Does Not Operate In Two Dimensions

You, apparently do.
The Professor

[Cleita]

20. LOL!

Thanks! I'll have to remember that.

[ItNerd4life]

47. Only partially true

Taxes do impact the prices of goods, in a competitive market. The cost of goods impacts the selling price. The lower the cost (i.e. taxes, electricity, material, labor) etc. the lower the cost of goods and the lower the product can be sold for. Thus, people who do buy the product are paying the taxes.

But, that's only in a competitive market. Many markets aren't competitive. Type 1) Market where there isn't a way to do competitive shopping. Type 2) The cost of goods is irrelevant to the price.

Type 1) Oil, lawyers, and doctors fall into this category. They have control of the marketplace, supply and demand aren't much of a factor. The prices don't fluctuate much between competing companies. When you visit your doctor most people don't check the price.

Type 2) Name brands are a good example of this. Consider buying a shirt, you could pay $30 at 1 store, or $50 at another store. Why, because of the stores name, not the cost of the goods.

Just my thoughts and understanding of our 'free enterprise' system. :)

[Ron Green]

6. The Nigras knew their place back then.

It was so much easier to get good help.

[Cleita]

12. Hey, it still is, but today they are known as illegal immigrants. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Oh, the '50s were so wonderful

a women who was divorced was considered a pirriah. She was paid less than a man for the same work ("You women only work so you can buy hats-a man has to support his family"), had difficulty getting credit, etc, etc. Blacks were regularly not only discriminated against in employment and housing, but they were often ridiculed on stage, radio, and TV (Amos and Andy were originally black face comedians). Heaven help you if you were Jewish or Catholic-many families wouldn't have anything to do with you if you were, and spread the "information" that the former were grasping misers and the latter idol worshippers.

I was born in 1951, but I was glad when they were over....

[Cleita]

15. Yeah, I was one of those Catholics the rest of the kids in my

class wouldn't have anything to do with, except for the one Jewish girl. We became best friends.

[raccoon]

29. And if a woman was married to a man who beat her, she was

just SOL. Unless she had a very supportive family.

[BrotherBuzz]

8. The good ole days sure had great drinking fountains

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. You mean those aren't values to which you'd like to return?

Massive, massive sarcasm!!!!

Sadly, a freeper-type I know who constantly rambles on about "family values" would indeed lump segregation into that category and consider it a positive value. *shudder*

[unpossibles]

19. well, sadly they feel that big government

has no place in telling them who they can hate....

[Sadie5]

21. Idiots or liars-don't know which word fits them better

Families who had a single parent suffered in the 50s. The children often were not allowed to play with the other two parent family kids. Hand me downs were the rule as the supply of cheap Chinese junk from Wally's world was unavailable yet. Not many folks had flashy new cars like the Nelsons drove, nor could they afford them. Most grew their own food because winters could be rough otherwise. In most schools the flag was saluted and a bible verse was read before classes started. Born in '45' and growing up in this era I can assure you that anyone who lived through it does not want a repeat performance.

[BrotherBuzz]

25. And Saint Ronnie....

validated those Family Values.

Oh, I'm still working on that sarcasm smilie thingy. ;)

[ProfessorGAC]

23. I Wonder What Color The Water Was?

The sign says colored water. What? Food coloring or something?
The Professor

[Pacifist Patriot]

40. Reminds me of a story my dad told me about when he was a kid.

Worst beating he got in his life (from his dad) was when he drank out of the colored water fountain. He was a little kid and was just curious what colored water would taste like.

[ProfessorGAC]

41. I Always Figured. . .

. . .that kids from the north would have that curiosity if they traveled down south back in the day. I know i would have, although the first time i was down there with my parents, i would have been pretty young, so they would have sheltered me from some of that ugliness.
The Professor

[Touchdown]

28. How did they have kids with separate beds?

...Oh' yeah, there's more than one way to conceive a child...

[Cleita]

33. In real life they didn't. Mom and dad slept in one bed and

shockingly, we kids knew that. Also, some kids had to share a hand me down double bed with two other siblings.

[Ian David]

30. Santorum says the 1950s and 1960s were more nurturing to families

Santorum says the 1950s and 1960s were more nurturing to families (Dial-up warning)
IanDB1
Tue Jul-26-05 11:25 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=175&topic_id=6508

[Cleita]

36. In a sense he's right.

After WWII, the country went out of it's way to help the young vets to adapt to life after war. The country passed laws that helped the young families, like getting a college education with the GI bill, affordable housing for vets and many other little programs that put a young, growing family on it's feet. The problem is it left non-vets and single mothers on their own, which created a two-tiered society.

Of course the attitude towards women as the cause of all problems, or what I call the Eve or Helen of Troy syndrome, didn't help. As they said, unwed mothers, divorcees and unmarried women were all pushed to society's fringes as silent pariah among all those young families of married couples with children and grandchildren. These attitudes are still around today.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

38. A weak economy, new tax breaks, and aggressive tax sheltering

THE DECLINE OF CORPORATE INCOME TAX REVENUES: A weak economy, new tax breaks, and aggressive tax sheltering have pushed corporate income tax receipts down to historically low levels, both relative to the size of the economy and as a share of total federal revenues. Corporate income tax revenues have declined not only in terms of the share of federal taxes that they comprise, but also when they are measured as a share of the economy (see Figure 2). Corporate revenues averaged nearly 5 percent of GDP in the 1950s and 4 percent in the 1960s, but then fell sharply to nearly 1 percent of GDP in 1983, reflecting the combination of tax cuts and economic conditions. After rising slightly above 2 percent of GDP during part of the 1990s, corporate receipts fell again after 2000, when the economy slowed. In 2003, actual corporate revenues dropped to 1.2 percent of GDP, the lowest level since 1937:blush: except for 1983. http://www.cbpp.org/10-16-03tax.htm :eyes:

[LynzM]

43. A quick book recommendation:

The Way We Never Were, dealing with nostalgia for a social structure that never truly existed the way it's been portrayed.

[Bandit]

44. Income tax on the very wealthy was over 90%

The economy was in overdrive which kind of puts the LIE to Tax Cut Republicans now...

[Cleita]

49. There was a 90% tax rate on the books, but no one unless they

were stupid paid it because there were many more tax loopholes and credits back then. Although I think that 90% is extreme, it shouldn't be more than a maximum of 30% without deductions and credits IMHO.

[cap]

45. housewives were zonked out on valium

real fine family value... no one has discussed drug addiction by housewives in the 1950's and what it was like to live with an addict in those times

[Cleita]

50. I don't think valium was invented back then. I think there was

Lithium or something like that, but my personal observation of my friend's mothers was that the drugs of choice were booze and cigarettes. There wasn't any fear of getting caught because wifey was expected to have the cocktails ready when hubby came home before dinner. That way he couldn't tell she had been drinking much earlier in the day until she really overdid it. Most didn't. They were able to function while keeping the buzz going.

[Pacifist Patriot]

64. Valium 1961

because of the 50s? ;)

[blues90]

46. The 50's I remember well

It was not the best of times no doubt . TV tried to glorify everything , TV made the wild west and guns seem popular , every show there was had a toy gun to match . The young women like my sisters had to grand option of barbie dolls and toy cooking wear , WOW how exciting .

But the reality was much different . There was a hope and real chance no matter what field of work you were in you could buy a house and car and you could have a real sense of pride in what you did . The working world was much better off . People depended on other people much more in a real sense . Schools were determined to educate and teachers felt they had a purpose and classrooms were reasonable in size .

As a child you could go just about anywhere even at night and not fear being raped or shot .

The environment was not destroyed and people had respect for their surroundings .

It was far from perfect however the majority of the population could think for themselves and knew the political issues and voted .

We have somehow gone back before the 50's , women have been pulled into worse conditions , they worked back then and still don't get the same wage as a man . We have not moved forward , we have had and lost most everything .

I could easily go back to the 50's compared to where we are now , easily . Many may not agree but people were real people back then . We did have our problems but for the most part you were not ignored or threatened or did you feel useless with no future in sight . If you applied the effort you could advance , now if one goes to college they can't even find a job . Skill means little , who you know or who you can rip off and lie to make the money .

People also did not waste things , as someone else here stated , there were clothes handed down and products lasted for many years , you got shoes repaired and worked 40 hour weeks and on sunday most everything was closed . If recall 7-11 stores came along and ruined that , they had to be one of the first .

You can have the millenium , what a truely horrible time this is , horrible time . All the electronic devices don't ease the horror . people mean nothing and the internet , well anyone can be anyone they want to be , no one has to submit proof of a thing .

[Cleita]

48. I'll disagree with you about the environment. The only

reason a lot of it was left alone is because no one had gotten around to developing it yet. No one I knew thought much about what was being destroyed in the name of progress. The fifties brought us freeways, which I believe was the biggest mistake ever made. It jumped started all the pollution and urban sprawl we have today. Also, if you drove down a Hwy like Route 66 back then it was strewn with litter and ugly billboards. Nobody picked it up. If it didn't biodegrade it stayed there forever with new litter piled on top of it. You couldn't even enjoy the scenery because of the trash and billboards.

[blues90]

57. that's true

I know there was a total disreguard for polluting and there was some trash on route 66 I saw this . The freeways did allow this to progress and this was my main point about the environment during the 50's , back then people did not have the access to every corner of the country so they could destroy it as they now do . It is possible if the public were aware of the future danger they may have thought to stop it , the maybe is because they did enjoy their new industrial finds like their huge cars . They did however fix most things that broke rather than toss it out hoping it will bio-degrade . We still have stuff that will be around for a good long time it's really only the packaging which is alot of garbage , that is said to bio-degrade . I have'nt seen this happen so far , I have plastic bags that are still in tact that are pretty old now and have seen some sun , they are hanging in there pretty good . If it's a ten year time clock that is still one hell of alot of trash in transition .

[niccolos_smile]

51. Nothing wrong with the extended family...

I don't why the nuclear family is held in such high regard, because the extended family is a preferable model, imho. The amount of help an extended family provides to new parents, a single mother or father, etc. is beneficial.

[treestar]

54. I also think that the high divorce rate is a result of too much

emphasis on the nuclear family. Too much pressure on the marriage and too many demands on it to provide happiness to the individuals.

[niccolos_smile]

55. I completely agree...

I believe that extended family helps to alleviate some of those burdens and stresses, because you have some one to help you.

And an extended family does not necessarily need to be blood relations, imho; friends and neighbors who practically become your family can fall under this category of extended family as well.

I remember calling people uncle and aunt, even though they had no blood relation to me.

[raccoon]

69. I agree with what you said about too much pressure on the marriage.

But I believe the high divorce rate is because people don't put up with as much crap as they used to, there isn't the social stigma about it that there once was, and most important, more women are working now so they are less likely to stay in an unhappy marriage.

[Pacifist Patriot]

59. I couldn't survive without my extended family.

I thank heavens my sister lives in the same neighborhood.

[B Calm]

56. What has the GOP ever done for the working class?

CLINT C. GOLD
10/24/1999
Tulsa World


Not too long ago, my wife and I attended a TV football
party in south Tulsa. With a lopsided score, the
conversation turned to a livelier subject -- politics. The
crowd was, of course, top-heavy with Republicans. With each
point expressed their faces became more flushed, eyes
bulging a little more and veins popping in their foreheads
as they railed against the liberal programs.

Finally a lone, liberal voice asked: "Will you people
name me one bill your party ever passed to help the working
man of this country?" The question created much din and
clamor, and someone sputtered, "Well, what have the
Democrats done?"

The liberal responded with a few programs and was
interrupted by howling and disdain. He noted that he had
not promised they would like the programs and he asked to
complete his statement -- a difficult task to ask of
Republicans.

He spoke of Social Security; Medicare-Medicaid; Peace
Corps; unemployment insurance; welfare (for the poor and
corporate); civil rights; student grant and loan programs;
safety laws (OSHA); environmental laws; prevailing wage
laws; right to collective bargaining (which brought about
paid medical insurance, paid vacations, pensions, etc.);
workers' compensation; Marshall Plan; flood-disaster
insurance; School Lunch Program; women's rights.

He spoke of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which
established a minimum wage, instituted child labor laws,
and set up time-and-a-half pay for over a 40-hour week.

He mentioned FHA-HUD with its public housing, urban
renewal and 44 million residential homes (before WWII
almost 70 percent of our nation were renters; by the 1970s
this had been reversed). And farm-conservation
subsidies -- USDA programs, Farmers Home Administration (the
bankers didn't want to make rural loans), small
flood-control lakes (more than 3,000 in Oklahoma alone),
rural water districts, rural electricity (REA).

The GI Bill was passed, which the Republicans at the
time bitterly opposed. They were salivating over millions
of returning veterans to hire as cheap labor. More than 8 million have used college benefits, creating millions of
entrepreneurs; most of us had never dreamed of college. For
the unemployed GI, there was $20 a week for 52 weeks to
help get started (a lot of money in those days). The
Veterans Administration provided more than 2 million home
loans.

For the bankers at the football party, it was pointed
out that the liberals saved their industry with the
creation of FDIC and FSLIC, insuring their deposits, and
saved Wall Street with the establishment of the Securities
Exchange Commission.

The oil men came on bended knees to FDR at a time when
East Texas oil was 4 cents a barrel and begged him to save
their industry. He did; prorationing overturned the rule of
capture and the days of flush production were over.
Prorating has served this great industry (and nation)
well.


And the list went on and on, but of course this group
didn't let him get halfway through. He noted they were
weary, inattentive, so again he challenged them to offer up
any Republican legislation examples.

"I'm sure your party has authored one or two comparable
bills from time to time, but I can't think of any, and
apparently you can't either. What it boils down to is this:
the liberals dragged you into the 20th century scratching
and screaming with your heels in the mud, fighting anything
that's progressive, everything that's made this country
great. You Republicans have never understood that the
spending power of blue-collar workers, obtained through
Democrats and unions, is what really made this country
great. You really believe "The Good Life" was obtained from
your own endeavors. You cloak your greed in religion and
patriotism, railing against any form of tax, never
comprehending that these programs have benefitted all of us
and our country."

Well, I almost didn't make it out of the house. My wife
and I didn't even get to see the end of the football game.

If Reps. Steve Largent or J.C. Watts had been there,
perhaps politics would never have come up, only the game
plan ... pity.

Clint C. Gold is former mayor of Moore and a retired
savings and loan executive.

[bobbieinok]

73. one of the all time great letters.....could it be permanently posted on DU

[McCamy Taylor]

60. The Motion Picture Code is responsible for "The Good Old Days"

It only exists on celluloid, and only exists there because the Catholic Church had a lot of clout. Family violence, alcohol abuse, gambling addiction, incest--these things all existed in the 1950s same as now.

[Pacifist Patriot]

63. Not quite the same....

not many places to turn for help back then.

[bluestateguy]

61. Unions were also strong in the 50's

Conservatives like to forget about that part too.

[Jara sang]

62. The idea of the 1950s "American Dream" was a propaganda tactic.

Read Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad by Kenneth Osgood.

When President Dwight Eisenhower spoke of waging “total cold war,” he was proposing nothing less than a global, all-embracing battle for hearts and minds. His wide-ranging propaganda campaign challenged world communism at every turn and left a lasting mark on the American psyche.

Kenneth Osgood now chronicles the secret psychological warfare programs America developed at the height of the Cold War. These programs—which were often indistinguishable from CIA covert operations—went well beyond campaigns to foment unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The effort was global: U.S. propaganda campaigns targeted virtually every country in the free world.

Total Cold War also shows that Eisenhower waged his propaganda war not just abroad, but also at home. U.S. psychological warfare programs blurred the lines between foreign and domestic propaganda with campaigns that both targeted the American people and enlisted them as active participants in global contest for public opinion.

Osgood focuses on major campaigns such as Atoms for Peace, People-to-People, and cultural exchange programs. Drawing on recently declassified documents that record U.S. psychological operations in some three dozen countries, he tells how U.S. propaganda agencies presented everyday life in America to the world: its citizens living full, happy lives in a classless society where economic bounty was shared by all.Osgood further investigates the ways in which superpower disarmament negotiations were used as propaganda maneuvers in the battle for international public opinion. He also reexamines the early years of the space race, focusing especially on the challenge to American propagandists posed by the Soviet launch of Sputnik.

Perhaps most telling, Osgood takes a new look at President Eisenhower’s leader-ship. Believing that psychological warfare was a potent weapon in America’s arsenal, Ike appears in these pages not as a disinterested figurehead, as he’s often been portrayed, but as an activist president who left a profound mark on national security affairs.

Osgood’s distinctive interpretation places Cold War propaganda campaigns in the context of an international arena drastically changed by the communications revolution and the age of mass politics and total war. It provides a new perspective on the conduct of public diplomacy, even as Americans today continue to grapple with the challenges of winning other hearts and minds in another global struggle.



http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/osgtot.html

[Barad Simith]

65. WOW!

What a unique (to me, at least) perspective.

k&r

[Jade Fox]

66. Don't forget the outrageously good post WWII economy....

the best this country has ever seen. Cheap housing going up everywhere, jobs paying enough to support a family on one income, gas for around $.15/gal, consumer goods of all kinds available on credit for little down and low interest payments, new public schools being built to educate the baby boom......

The late historian Christopher Lasche pointed out that what's really stressing out the Traditional Family is none of the popular scapegoats: it's Capitalism in decline.

[readmoreoften]

67. Being gay was great in the 1950s.

In NY, as in many places, was illegal to wear the clothes of the opposite sex. A woman had to wear three articles of feminine clothing at all times or be subject to jail time. (A way to put all the Rosie-the-Riveters back in their places.)

It was much better to be queer in the 20s, 30s, and 40s than in the 50s in many ways. (Although there was a resurgence of anti-gay attitudes for a while in the 30s.)

[kittenpants]

74. "Far From Heaven" is a good film about that (and other things) n/t

[GeorgeGist]

68. Ahh, the Golden Age of Hypocrisy...

greased by the wheels of willful ignorance and deception. In hindsight I sometimes feel guilty that I enjoyed my childhood in the 50s; not really knowing or understanding what was going on behind the scene.

[Pacifist Patriot]

70. As your signature picture indicates, the "American Dream"

has long been built on the foundation of racism....sexism, xenophobia, homophobia...you name it. Is it any wonder the poster boys for the Family Values crowd are middle-aged white men?

[bobbieinok]

72. ever note that Cleavers and Nelsons only had sons?? (the 'great' 50s)

1950s were great for white males with some $$; for the rest, forget it.

I thought I had it made growing up in th 40s and 50s. I began to realize blacks were in a bad position in the mid-50s: the school desegregation case, the murder/lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, etc.

It was only in the mid 60s in grad school that I really realized how limited by discrimination I was as a woman. Altho I did realize that blacks and women were not part of 'we the people' in the preamble to the constitution. And my best friend in high school who was a whiz at math could not apply for any of the math scholarships available to high scorers in the Merit Scholar program because she was female.

It also really freaked me out in the 60s to learn that Rousseau, that great educator, thought females should only be educated to please men. Unlike males, who should each be individually educated in a way that would take advantage of his skills.

And as a 'good christian' I was really upset to learn that many of the early church fathers had serious doubts that women even have souls!!!!

Yeah, the 50s were great. :sarcasm:

[Raine]

75. While the RW gets all warm and fuzzy over the 50's

they need to understand that it was that 'perfect' period that brought about the 60's generation (the period they hate the most). I wonder why that happened since the 50's was so great. :sarcasm: