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The 1950’s: An Era of Fear

The 1950’s: An Era of Fear. The Cold War. A state of political tension and military rivalry between nations Hot war = soldiers guns and battles Cold War = embargos, spies, no diplomacy, lots of threats Stops short of full-scale war

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The 1950’s: An Era of Fear

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  1. The 1950’s:An Era of Fear

  2. The Cold War • A state of political tension and military rivalry between nations • Hot war = soldiers guns and battles • Cold War = embargos, spies, no diplomacy, lots of threats • Stops short of full-scale war • Example: Tension between the United States and Soviet Union following World War II.

  3. United States History • 2nd Red Scare • 1947-1957 • Increased fear of spying by Communists (think: an-american ideals) • Heightened Soviet Oppression and international tension • Fears spurred aggressive action in US: • Red-baiting, blacklisting, jailing and deportation of people suspected of following Communist or other left-wing ideology

  4. Joseph McCarthy/McCarthy era • Joseph Raymond McCarthy • Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. • Beginning in 1950, the most visible face of extreme anti-communist suspicion. • Claimed that large numbers of Communists, Soviets spies and sympathizers hid inside the federal government and elsewhere. • Caused lots of people to be unjustly fired, their reputations and lives ruined by others’ fear

  5. McCarthy Cont’d • McCarthy's tactics and inability to substantiate claims led to being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. • America upset that he made them look ugly and afraid of their own shadow for no good reason • The term "McCarthyism," coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. • Applied to people who try to scare others for their own benefit

  6. Hollywood Blacklisting/Blackballing • Hollywood blacklist: • mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or associations, real or suspected. • People fired and lives ruined. • Affected arts and education for several years

  7. Hollywood Blacklisting/Blackballing • Artists barred from work on the basis of: • Alleged membership in or sympathy toward the American Communist Party, • Involvement in liberal or simply humanitarian political causes associated with communism • Refusal to assist federal investigations into Communist Party activities • Their names came up at the wrong place and time. • Sound familiar?

  8. T.V. • In the 1950's, television became the dominant mass media  • In the early fifties, young people watched TV more hours than they went to school, • A trend which has not changed greatly! • Television images  accepted as “true”   • Ideal family, ideal schools and neighborhoods, the world, were all which had only partial basis in reality.  • People began to accept what was heard and seen on television because they were "eye witnesses" to events as never before (live TV) . 

  9. Dystopia • Utopia: A perfect world always getting better • Dystopia: an imperfect world in the process of becoming worse. • Dystopian society: a state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, dictatorship, anarchy, violence, disease, and/or pollution.

  10. Dystopian Novels • Books that highlight the problems of society in order to provoke social change • Fahrenheit 451 highlights: • Over-reliance on technology • Shrinking attention spans • Lack of concern for others • May or may not pretend to be “good” • Starts of with “good intentions” but a fatal flaw or destroys or twists attempts at making things better

  11. Ray Douglas Bradbury and F451 • Ray Douglas Bradbury • born August 22, 1920 • American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer • Considered to be one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century. • Still alive today!

  12. Ray Douglas Bradbury and F451 • Fahrenheit 451 (p. 1953) • Setting • Sometime in 21st Century • Unspecified U.S. city • Point of View • 3rd Person, limited omniscient • Narrator • Guy Montag (protagonist)

  13. Works Cited • http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html#tv • http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/13216/a_womans_role_in_the_1950s.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki • http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html

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