How did cars and highways change communities?

1. How did cars and highways change communities? • How highways wrecked American cities • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odF4GSX1y3c

2. Family Dynamics Changing: Example • Babysitting Originated in the Suburbs – Part of the explanation for the youth of the term “babysitter” lies within the fact that babysitters were fairly uncommon before the mid-twentieth century. Babysitting became the main form of employment for teenage girls in the postwar surge of suburban living; before that time, most parents who were well-off enough to enjoy an evening on the town could afford to keep a live-in servant on the payroll. Parents without servants typically lived very close to extended family or even in the same household. As the American family structure changed and suburbia began to take hold, parents started to rely on the teenage daughters of their neighbors for occasional childcare.

3. Suburbia cont… “Nuclear Family” Two parents and (a handful) of children Kids rule Education Growth and transformation Spock & Dewey Child-centred education

4. Suburbia, continued • Vehicle pollution • Social, racial, and ethnic balkanization • Decline of public place • Housing Covenants • contractual agreements that prohibit the purchase, lease, or occupation of a piece of property by a particular group of people (attempt to keep white communities …white) • Gendered divisions • Consumerism

5. Consumerism • 1. Organized-efforts by individuals, groups, and governments to help protect consumers from policies and practices that infringe consumer rights to fair business practices.2. Doctrine that ever-increasing consumption of goods and services forms the basis of a sound economy.3. Continual expansion of one's wants and needs for goods and services. • Material goods and services expanding • Shift away from people-focussed communities to thing-focussed • Altering communities (continuing segregation, promoting consumption of things, increased marketing • Forbes poll:What is the legacy of the baby boomers? • Nearly half of all respondents said “consumerism and self-indulgence”

6. Vintage Advertisements • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=304RgAholZM

7. Little Boxes by Melvina Reynolds • Little boxes on the hillside,Little boxes made of ticky tacky,1Little boxes on the hillside,Little boxes all the same.There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one,And they're all made out of ticky tackyAnd they all look just the same. • And the people in the housesAll went to the university,Where they were put in boxesAnd they came out all the same,And there's doctors and lawyers,And business executives,And they're all made out of ticky tackyAnd they all look just the same. • And they all play on the golf courseAnd drink their martinis dry,And they all have pretty childrenAnd the children go to school,And the children go to summer campAnd then to the university,Where they are put in boxesAnd they come out all the same. • And the boys go into businessAnd marry and raise a familyIn boxes made of ticky tacky And they all look just the same.There's a green one and a pink oneAnd a blue one and a yellow one,And they're all made out of ticky tackyAnd they all look just the same.

8. Boom-Era Consumerism and Gender >Advertisements targeting women as home-makers >Made domestic work “easier” >Corporate brand loyalty >Easier to serve the husband

9. Where is Rosie the Riveter?

10. Gender Norms Prior to Cultural Revolution • McGraw-Hill on gender: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ADfS8WQmw • History.com on 1950s • http://www.history.com/topics/1950s/videos

11. Popular Culture: Television • “Pax Americana” • Happy Days and the Age of Prosperity • Calm Cold War fears • TV as new mass media • Divert attention, rise of individualist culture • Entertainment increase with wealth increase

12. TELEVISION: An American (and Canadian) Obsession Leave it to Beaver Mickey Mouse Club Advertised first and foremost as a middle-class status symbol – necessity Also as a vehicle for more community; more family time AND promoted as a great educational tool; allow for dissemination of information More educated and aware populace

13. Nostalgia: The Frontier and Western The Natives mostly invisible; West was won Earlier era romanticized Promoting idea of Westerners (esp. Americans) as free, adventurous heroes Bonanza Gunsmoke

14. Movies Golden Age of Hollywood Middle class entertainment

15. The Great Escape: Disneyland • California, 1955 • Make believe, constructed fantasy • De-politicized • Escapism and consumerism • Disneyland Studios, TV, Hollywood • White America, middle class tourism

16. Cold War Culture Aforementioned fear of nuclear war Propaganda again used to promote ideology (on both sides)

17. “Juvenile Delinquency” • Teen age delinquency • “person who neglects or fails to do what law or duty requires.” • Adolescence normalized • “Childhood” continues to grow • Mental Hygiene • Popularization of social science concepts • Sexual identity changing (albeit slowly) • Mobility & Freedom • Rock n Roll culture • Rise of pop stars possible by mass media • Non-traditional and anti-establishment • The Beat Generation

18. Remember the Key Questions • Explain how why and how suburbia grew during the baby boom era. • How was Western society altered – communally, economically, environmentally, etc. – by the proliferation of suburbia and all that came with it?

19. Bonus Slide… • If you stand naked on the front porch and the neighbours can’t see you … • It’s rural • If you stand naked on the front porch and the neighbours call the cops… • It’s suburban • If you stand naked on the front porch and the neighbours ignore you… • It’s urban