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Society in Flux
Introduction
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Facilitated by government policies and advances in transportation, technology, and communication, America's growing population moved in the postwar era from North and East to South and West, from cities to suburbs. Perhaps the most significant development in communications was the growth of television; by the mid-1950s it had already become a near-indispensable advertising, entertainment, information, and political medium. American prosperity and the growth of the middle class, along with the world-shrinking effects of television and the automobile, helped to make America a more homogeneous society. To a certain extent this was reflected in religion, as churches in the 1950s tended to become more secular and tolerant in their outlooks, but at the same time it is important to remember the pivotal role churches played in the civil-rights movement and in the rise of fundamentalism and conservatism in the 1970s and 1980s. The concerns of the postwar era, and critiques of its conformity, can be found in the literature of the period as well in the visual arts in the works of the New York school, the abstract expressionists, and the op (for optical) and pop (for popular) artists, the latter of whom often satirized modern consumer culture. While incredibly materially prosperous in these years, American culture was not without its discontents. Americans faced two dilemmas: progress was often self-defeating, and modern society, in placing a premium on cooperation, undermined the individual’s sense of importance. Meanwhile, many groups agitated for their rights in society. Frustrated by the slowness of integration, some blacks turned to separatism and confrontation in their fight for civil rights. Others, ranging from Hispanics, Native Americans, and other ethnic groups to women and sexual minorities, were inspired by the black struggle to assert their own rights. The era, particularly the 1960s, also saw widespread student unrest over the war in Vietnam, university policies, and governmental failures in civil rights and the economy. Some young people turned their backs on conventional culture and formed a counterculture. Many Americans also questioned traditional sexual mores, leading to a sexual revolution. At the same time, driven by a perceived Soviet superiority in technology, American schools underwent yet another reform in which progressive theories were replaced with an emphasis on traditional subjects. Thanks to the baby boom and the GI Bill, enrollments in American junior colleges, colleges, and universities expanded.
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