1950s: Golden Age?

Don't panic, these questions are to be discussed through this forum. Perhaps you want to split the questions between you and then post the answers to them for each other to see. Once you have answered these questions, post comments to each other about whether or not you think the 1950s was truly the Golden Age. If you have any questions for me, post them and address them to me and I will answer them for you.

1) What were the causes of the great economic growth in the country from 1945 to 1960? What was the impact on the American standard of living?

2) Why did the West grow faster than the rest of the nation in the post-World War II era?

3) What was Keynesian economic theory? How did the developments of the 1950s and early 1960s seem to confirm the theory?

4) What was the post-war trend in economic consolidation?

5) What was the nature of the "post-war contract" that developed between big labor and big business? What were the "escalator clauses?"

6) How was the labor movement hampered by scandal, new government restrictions, and other factors?

7) Identify the key medical advances of the mid-20c. What were the social results of these discoveries?

8) What key developments in electronics in the 1950s and 1960s transformed consumer and industrial products and paved the way for the computer revolution?

9) How did Americans react to the Soviet Sputnik? What was the response of the US government?

10) What was the expanded role of advertising and consumer credit in the 1950s? Why can it be said that the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s was substantially consumer-driven?

11) What was the appeal of Levittown and similar suburban developments? How did typical suburbs transform family life and shape women's attitudes?

12) What was the impact of the automobile and the super highway on metropolitan development patterns, especially the traditional downtown?

13) What impact did the automobile culture have on railroads, energy consumption, air pollution, and retailing? How did the American experience compare with that of other developed nations at the time?