Superman, The Lone Ranger. Additionally, disagreements and rebellions. Kellogg, however, gradually overcame the resistance of its workers and whittled away at the short shifts until the last of them were abolished in 1985. The historian Benjamin Hunnicutt, who examined the mainstream press of the 1920s, along with the publications of corporations, business organisations, and government inquiries, found extensive evidence that such fears were widespread in business circles during the 1920s. People, of course, have always consumed the necessities of life food, shelter, clothing and have always had to work to get them or have others work for them, but there was little economic motive for increased consumption among the mass of people before the 20th century. People would be encouraged to give up thrift and husbandry, to value goods over free time. In the 1950s, the relatively new technology of television began to compete with motion pictures as a major form of popular entertainment. Driven by a thriving postwar economy, designers utilized bold styling to transform everyday objects into visually expressive items, and manufacturers unleashed an array of products to keep pace with demand. Also Political battles centred around communism and capitalism dominated the decade. Harlem Renaissance Dbq 928 Words | 4 Pages During this Era there were more and more automobile companies popping up all around the United States. There were three major manufactures that still hear about and still have. If you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. By the mid-1950s, the average length of car ownership had dropped from five years in 1934 down to just two. Franchises were also a good deal for parent companies, shifting much of the risk to proprietors while requiring them to adhere to certain standards for branding and service. Television is the first audiovisual device that changed the way people see entertainment. In economics, industrial production levels led to an increase of goods and services. While some of the youth became politically active, others escaped into the counterculture disbanding their faith in government and the ideals, In her essay, What We Really Miss About the 1950s, Stephany Coontz talks about the myth of the 1950s. It would not do if people were content because they felt they had enough. This decade became a major influential time that brought many cultural and societal changes. Unlike most dolls at the time, Barbie was a grown-upa teenage fashion model who could date, drive, and wear fabulous clothes. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. She acknowledges that this fallacy is not insane. . A handpicked selection of stories fromBBC Future,Culture,Worklife, andTravel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Consumerism refers to the field of studying, regulating, or interacting with the marketplace. The labor struggles of the 19th century had, without jeopardizing the burgeoning productivity, gradually eroded the seven-day week of 14- and 16-hour days that was worked at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England. Industry insiders, journalists, and the public criticized the crass and manipulative aspects of advertising. For example, some people consider the 1950s and 1960s as the 'golden age of consumerism'. Although the shorter workweek appealed to Kelloggs workers, the company, after reverting to longer hours during World War II, was reluctant to renew the six-hour shift in 1945. In the case of the Great Depression of the 1930s, a war economy followed, so it was almost 20 years before mass consumption resumed any role in economic life or in the way the economy was conceived. ", Galbraith quotes the Presidents Materials Policy Commission setting out its premise that economic growth is sacrosanct. During the 1950s, a sense of uniformity pervaded American society. The 1920s and the 1950s were times of substantial growth and economic prosperity. Yet in the literature of the resource problem this is the forbidden question.. The great corporation which is in danger of having its profits taxed away or its sales fall off or its freedom impeded by legislative action must have recourse to the public to combat successfully these menaces.. Consumerism: The theory that a country that consumes goods and services in large quantities will be better off economically. In the text book it talks about the specific effects the Great Depression had on all types of people. Families had 30% more spending power in 1959 compared to 1950 figures. throwaway. Americans purchased homes, cars (sometimes two), television sets, new home furnishings, modern refrigerators, clothes for work and their new found leisure time, barbeque grills, lawn mowersthe list is endless. First we share the belief of the American people in the principle of Growth, the report maintains, specifically endorsing ever more luxurious standards of consumption. To Galbraith, who had just published The Affluent Society, the wastefulness he observed seemed foolhardy, but he was pessimistic about curtailment; he identified the beginnings of a massive conservative reaction to the idea of enlarged social guidance and control of economic activity, a backlash against the state taking responsibility for social direction. There are two simple reasons why. In 1960, more than 70 percent of families still looked much like the family of the 1950s, with a man who brought in the family 's sole income, children and a stay-at-home wife and mother. This first wave of consumerism was short-lived. After WWI, America became one of the worlds most formidable superpowers. The non-settler European colonies were not regarded as viable venues for these new markets, since centuries of exploitation and impoverishment meant that few people there were able to pay. Instead, it features many happy human faces and all their wonderful stuff! Want creation advertising is a 10 billion dollar industry. Bernays saw himself as a propaganda specialist, a public relations counsel, and PR as a more sophisticated craft than advertising as such; it was directed at hidden desires and subconscious urges of which its targets would be unaware. From 'Make do and Mend' to 'Your Country Needs You to Spend': Constructing the Consumer in Late-Modernity Alison Hulme 3. Yet in the literature of the resource problem this is the forbidden question. In his classic 1928 book "Propaganda," Edward Bernays, one of the pioneers of the public relations industry, put it this way: "Mass production is profitable only if its rhythm can be maintained." Consumer needs were constantly changing due to wars, shifts in the economy, advancements in technology and various other factors. As Daily Life in 1950s America puts it, "along with rising incomes, easy credit, and fear of being left behind with outmoded products, aggressive marketing in the form of slick advertising campaigns fed the culture of consumerism." While some items found in the average home are still the standard to this day, other fads were just plain bizarre . The 1950s was characterized as a prosperous and conformist for several reasons. With many new additions, advertising was able to exponentially grow and did so through the use of the newspaper and television (technological . The introduction of time payment arrangements facilitated the extension of such buying further and further down the economic ladder. The creation of the automobile was extremely beneficial for midwestern farmers, middle-class urban residents, and factory workers. At first, consumer goods were more likely to supply basic needs rather than luxury items (Credit: Getty Images). Fifties Fashions, the peak of the Baby Boomer Years where following the end of the great depression and then World War II people wanted to live a normal life raising a family, teens found rock and roll music and Elvis, parents found more consumer choice and jobs were abundant. In these circumstances, there was a social choice to be made. Car companies catered to young buyers' tastes as well as their fantasies. It is a question of change, change all the time and it is always going to be that way because the world only goes along one road, the road of progress.". Shop Lululemon We Made Too Much For Up to 50% Off. co-living,coliving,society,what is coliving,co-living spaces,co-living rental,consumer society in the 1950s,how coliving industry is reshaping the new normal. Consumerism is the concept depicting the belief that happiness and well-being depends to a significant degree of personal consumption. The fifties were the decade of reform to the better led by president Eisenhower. After working in a Spanish-language newspaper, he founded a radio station, which became the voice of the Spanish-speaking community in San Antonio. In this paradigm, people are encouraged to board an escalator of desires (a stairway to heaven, perhaps) and progressively ascend to what were once the luxuries of the affluent. 898 Words 4 Pages Decent Essays Read More Similarities And Differences Between The 1950s And Present-Day The first one was the mid to late 50s when rock 'n' roll was first sort of invented. Facts about the American Consumerism 1920s for kids. The rise to power prompted the 1920s to become a decade of evolution for womens rights, African Americans rights, and consumerism. During that decade, the U.S. economy grew by 37%. Vance Packard echoes both Bernays and the consumption economists of the 1920s in his description of the role of the advertising men of the 1950s: They want to put some sizzle into their messages by stirring up our status consciousness. Many of the products they are trying to sell have, in the past, been confined to a quality market. The products have been the luxuries of the upper classes. As World War II came to an end, the United States entered the 50s. "First we share the belief of the American people in the principle of Growth," the report maintains, specifically endorsing "ever more luxurious standards of consumption". "America at this moment," said the former British Prime. Although inflation has shown signs of peaking . Beat movement, also called Beat Generation, American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco's North Beach, Los Angeles' Venice West, and New York City's Greenwich Village. Men were back home and ready to work and women were back to doing their womanly duties again (cooking and cleaning) this reflected the social position of the women following the war. "They want to put some sizzle into their messages by stirring up our status consciousness," he wrote. Kyrk argued for ever-increasing aspirations: a high standard of living must be dynamic, a progressive standard, where envy of those just above oneself in the social order incited consumption and fueled economic growth. At the same time he was well aware of the role of advertising. Tesla recalls 'Full Self-Driving' to fix flaws in behavior . The twentieth century was a period of struggle in which the socialist countries, largely influenced by the former USSR, provided stiff competition to the united states, but Nevertheless, America has not been immune to pitfalls and struggle during its journey of success and it is by the dint of hard work, keen foresight and sharp business acumen Although the period after World War II is often identified as the beginning of the immense eruption of consumption across the industrialized world, the historian William Leach locates its roots in the United States around the turn of the century. United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) The annual inflation rate in the US slowed only slightly to 6.4% in January of 2023 from 6.5% in December, less than market forecasts of 6.2%. ", Or, as retail analyst Victor Lebow remarked in 1955: "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.". Coontz describes that when one takes a closer look at the 1950s they will realize that comparing it to the 1990s or the 21st century is absurd. 1950s American culture was characterized by a boom in consumerism, which bolstered the economy and left cultural impacts as well. People, of course, have always "consumed" the necessities of life food, shelter, clothing and have always had to work to get them or have others work for them, but there was little economic motive for increased consumption among the mass of people before the 20th Century. Cars were. However, by the, Automobiles allowed for travelling and the transporting of goods to be easily accomplished. . The game is to make them the necessities of all classes By striving to buy the product say, wall-to-wall carpeting on instalment the consumer is made to feel he is upgrading himself socially.". In his second major critique of the culture of consumption, "The Waste Makers", Packard identified both functional obsolescence, in which the product wears out quickly and psychological obsolescence, in which products are "designed to become obsolete in the mind of the consumer, even sooner than the components used to make them will fail". It became based on the idea of single-family ownership of a home filled with convenience items like. Consumerism is defined as "the buying and using of goods and services; the belief that it is good for a society or an individual person to buy and use a large quantity of goods and services" (Oxford Dictionary, 2022), with American . . The traditional objective of making products for their self-evident usefulness was displaced by the goal of profit and the need for a machinery of enticement. Bernays and his PR colleagues believed ordinary people to be incapable of logical thought, let alone mastery of abstruse economic, political and ethical data., The commodification of reality and the manufacture of demand have had serious implications for the construction of human beings in the late 20th century, where, to quote philosopher Herbert Marcuse, people recognize themselves in their commodities. Marcuses critique of needs, made more than 50 years ago, was not directed at the issues of scarce resources or ecological waste, although he was aware even at that time that Marx was insufficiently critical of the continuum of progress and that there needed to be a restoration of nature after the horrors of capitalist industrialisation have been done away with., Marcuse directed his critique at the way people, in the act of satisfying our aspirations, reproduce dependence on the very exploitive apparatus that perpetuates our servitude. Scrappy upstarts challenged established networks, innovated programming, and catered to under-served audiences. If it continues its geometric course, will it not one day have to be restrained? The main thing Americans miss about the those days is the stability. Key events across the decade and the world include the beginning of the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the first ever Organ Transplant and the introduction of Coloured TV. With increasing variety in clothes, food and household items, shopping became an important cultural activity in the 18th century. examples of traditional American TV. Unless [the consumer] could be persuaded to buy and buy lavishly, the whole stream of six-cylinder cars, super heterodynes, cigarettes, rouge compacts and electric ice boxes would be dammed up at its outlets.. I Love Lucy, The Donna Reed Show, The Kramdens, The Honeymooners. American Consumerism 1920s Fact 1: During WW1 (1914 - 1918) manufacturing, production and efficiency had increased through necessity in order to meet the demands of the war effort. By the mid 1960s, some of American youth took a turn in a far out direction. The two decades led to historical breakthroughs as well as setbacks; they are imperative to the history of the United States. "Many of the products they are trying to sell have, in the past, been confined to a 'quality market'. planned obsolescence. Birds of a Feather Shop Together: Conspicuous Consumption and the Imaging of the 1980's Essex Girl Rachel Rye 4. Franchising increased after 1950 and offered Americans the opportunity to own a small business. In late 19th-Century Britain a variety of foods became accessible to the average person, who would previously have lived on bread and potatoes consumption beyond mere subsistence. In a little-known 1958 essay reflecting on the conservation implications of the conspicuously wasteful US consumer binge after WWII, John Kenneth Galbraith pointed to the possibility that this "gargantuan and growing appetite" might need to be curtailed. Madison Avenue was $12.3m, in 1950, $40.8m, and in 1951, $128m. Conformity was common, as young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. A thing may be desired, not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself because it is a symbol of social position, an evidence of his success. People would be encouraged to give up thrift and husbandry, to value goods over free time. The 1950s was an important year for fashion and for African Americans. These products included washing machines, dishwashers, frozen foods, television, microwave ovens, lawn mowers and automobiles. The commodification of reality and the manufacture of demand have had serious implications for the construction of human beings in the present day, where, to quote philosopher Herbert Marcuse, "people recognise themselves in their commodities". Post World War I, the era marked the beginning of modern times with new and worthy developments. At the start of the decade, there were about 3 million TV owners; by the end of it, there were 55 million, watching shows from 530 stations. During the 1950's and 1960's standards of living were boosted by full employment and a sustained rise in money wages. Some memorable TV spots during this time period were for Alka-Seltzer, Ajax, and Frosted Flakes. In 1955, he opened KCOR-TV, expanding his broadcasting business and community-centered media vision to television. Consumer prices increased by 0.9% in February following a 0.4% rise in January. The television was one of the most popular home appliances in the 1950s. America was at peace once the conflict in Korea (1950-53) ended. Its a study of a love affair as much as anything else. Release from the perils of famine and premature starvation was in place for most people in the industrialized world soon after the Great War ended. Nationwide, manufacturers efforts to expand consumption coincided civil rights activists goal to desegregate business. In both eras, borrowed money bought unprecedented quantities of material goods on time payment and (these days) credit cards. Additionally, women changed their views on their place and role in the family. Key Points. In the 1950's, they were usually office jobs. While the society got rid of their miseries; sciences, arts, and businesses renewed themselves by evolving. Television sets mirrored popular furniture styles. Jobs were secure and came with great benefits. *This is an edited version of an article thatoriginally appearedinThe MIT Press Reader, and is republished with permission. Television and radio super-charged advertising, directly into people's homes (Credit: Getty Images). However, automobiles like the Chevrolet, the Rambler and the Hudson Hornet were huge successes when it came to consumerism in the economy. By 1951, regular TV programming reached the West Coast, establishing national coverage. The prospect of ever-extendable consumer desire, characterised as "progress", promised a new way forward for modern manufacture, a means to perpetuate economic growth. The bizarre bias that affects how you shop, Healthy eating: The mind games of supermarkets. In the same vein, during the Q&A after a talk given by the Australian economist Clive Hamilton at the 2006 Byron Bay Writers Festival, one woman spoke up about her partners priorities: Rather than entertain questions about any impact his possessions might be having on the environment, she said, he was determined to go down with his gadgets., The capitalist system, dependent on a logic of never-ending growth from its earliest inception, confronted the plenty it created in its home states, especially the United States, as a threat to its very existence. It was an idea also put forward by the new "consumption economists" such as Hazel Kyrk and Theresa McMahon, and eagerly embraced by many business leaders. While the consumption of goods can drive economic growth, overconsumption can also have devastating effects on the environment, the financial situations and mental health of the general public. After the tumult of the 1930s and 1940swith their sustained economic depression (1929-41) and world war (1939-45)the 1950s did seem quiet. Over the course of the 20th century, capitalism preserved its momentum by molding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for more stuff. The prospect of ever-extendable consumer desire, characterized as progress, promised a new way forward for modern manufacture, a means to perpetuate economic growth. With the introduction of credit cards in the 1950s . We publish thought-provoking excerpts, interviews, and original essays written for a general reader but backed by academic rigor. Men were back home and ready to work and women were back to doing their womanly duties again (cooking and cleaning) this reflected the social position of the women following the war. Between 12th and 14th Streets For instance, the Australian comedian Wendy Harmer in her ABC TV series called "Stuff" expressed irritation at suggestions that consumption is simply generated out of greed or lack of awareness: "I am very proud to have made a documentary about consumption that does not contain the usual footage of factory smokestacks, landfill tips and bulging supermarket trolleys. The years of the 1950s and 60s was a time where many hardships occurred as global tension was high and as a result many wars occurred as well as movements. She bases her information on facts and historical evidence. In fact, the American consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen in the 1950s, contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life. As television grew, Americans worried about its effect on children. As the economic engine slowed in the 1970s, productivity waned, wages flattened, and Americans faced an energy crisis that reshaped consumer expectations. President Herbert Hoovers 1929 Committee on Recent Economic Changes welcomed the demonstration on a grand scale [of] the expansibility of human wants and desires, hailed an almost insatiable appetite for goods and services, and envisaged a boundless field before us new wants that make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they are satisfied. In this paradigm, people are encouraged to board an escalator of desires (a stairway to heaven, perhaps) and progressively ascend to what were once the luxuries of the affluent. This weathervane used the iconic image of Colonel Sanders as the companys unifying brand. The economy was booming. Vance Packard echoes both Bernays and the consumption economists of the 1920s in his description of the role of the advertising men of the 1950s. It replaced the radio as a family's primary source of entertainment and information. Free shipping for many products! Consumerism increased after World War II, when the nation stopped prioritizing the military needs, consumer goods became popular as Americans established lives. Galbraith quotes the Presidents Materials Policy Commission setting out its premise that economic growth is sacrosanct. On the other hand, issues arose during that time as well, such as the fear of communism. Consumer Culture In the 1950s consumption became the reigning value and essential to individual's identity and status and satisfaction was achieved through the purchase and use of new products. But by 1959, they had lost control to networks, which sold advertising time in segments, creating a multi-sponsor format. Consumerism for example, is an industrial society that is advanced, a . It was seen as the calm before the storm of social chaos that swept over the country in the more contentious 1960s. It was indeed a time we perceive as innocent, wholesome, and peaceful. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world. Mexican workers were being booted out of their low laboring jobs because whites needed the money more than them, in result over half a million, In this time it was known as the Gilded Age of American Autos. Though it is status that is being sold, it is endless material objects that are being consumed. In the US, existing shops were rapidly extended through the 1890s, mail-order shopping surged, and the new century saw massive multi-storey department stores covering millions of acres of selling space. This era marked a high point of American productivity and a high standard of living. Retailing was already passing decisively from small shopkeepers to corporate giants who had access to investment bankers and drew on assembly-line production of commodities, powered by fossil fuels; the traditional objective of making products for their self-evident usefulness was displaced by the goal of profit and the need for a machinery of enticement. Consumerism became a way of framing the economy and day-to-day life in the 20th century. Surface Studio vs iMac - Which Should You Pick? 50,000,000. number of tv sets by 1960. There, especially in the US, consumption continued to expand through the 1920s, though truncated by the Great Depression of 1929. Children were precious assets and the center of the family. Discrimination was widespread. It was an idea also put forward by the new consumption economists such as Hazel Kyrk and Theresa McMahon, and eagerly embraced by many business leaders. During the 50s, there was a deeply ingrained social stigma against divorce, and the divorce rate dropped. If profit and growth were lagging, the system needed new impetus. The 1950s were sometimes referred to as "the advertiser's dream decade." This was particularly true of women. Its a study of a love affair as much as anything else.". Though it has become fashionable in recent decades to brand scholars and academics as elites who pour scorn on ordinary people, Bernays and the sociologist Gustave Le Bon were long ago arguing, on behalf of business and political elites, respectively, that the mass of people are incapable of thought. But business did not support such a trajectory, and it was not until the Great Depression that hours were reduced, in response to overwhelming levels of unemployment. he asks. Since WWII caused the economy to grow rapidly, things started to change within American society. After cars became more popular as people saw them. [6] The consumer movement is the social movement which refers to all actions and all entities within the marketplace which give consideration to the consumer. The cardinal features of this culture were acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness; the cult of the new; the democratization of desire; and money value as the predominant measure of all value in society, Leach writes in his 1993 book Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. Significantly, it was individual desire that was democratized, rather than wealth or political and economic power. Kellogg, however, gradually overcame the resistance of its workers and whittled away at the short shifts until the last of them were abolished in 1985. What of the appetite itself?, he asks. Edward Cowdrick, an economist who advised corporations on their management and industrial relations policies, called it the new economic gospel of consumption, in which workers (people for whom durable possessions had rarely been a possibility) could be educated in the new skills of consumption.. The rise of consumer debt, interrupted in 1929, also resumed. In Australia, the 1939 debt of AU$39 million doubled in the first two years after the war and, by 1960, had grown by a factor of 25, to more than AU$1 billion dollars. Due to high levels of industrial outs, wages were also increased. Manufacturers in the automobile industry, would make small changes to every years model. The advent of television greatly magnified the potential impact of advertisers messages, exploiting image and symbol far more adeptly than print and radio had been able to do. Consumption is now frequently seen as our principal role in the world. . In the 1950s, the greater geographic diversity in designers meant more styles from which to choose. 3. Stuart Ewen, in his history of the public relations industry, saw the birth of commercial radio in 1921 as a vital tool in the great wave of debt-financed consumption in the 1920s a privately owned utility, pumping information and entertainment into peoples homes.. By 1950s, the aftermath of World War II had faded away. How Lebanons brutal civil war aborted a grand vision of social reform and the expansion of mental health care. This research paper briefly gives examples from advances in technology, transportation, and entertainment while discussing their benefits to the United States. Days ) Credit cards, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called the Essential List mowers! For Alka-Seltzer, Ajax, and consumerism to value goods over free.. Grand vision of social chaos that swept over the country in the World and for African Americans rights African... Press Reader, and consumerism outs, wages were also increased of living of industrial outs, were... Wages were also increased while discussing their benefits to the United States and growth were lagging, the Donna Show! To every years model and left cultural impacts as well newspaper, asks! Interacting with the marketplace Barbie was a deeply ingrained social stigma against divorce, and peaceful of. To fix flaws in behavior substantial growth and economic prosperity the creation of automobile! As their fantasies as much as anything else. `` Getty Images ) quot ; said former. 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And left cultural impacts as well, such as the companys unifying brand to compete with pictures! Television ( technological $ 128m was individual desire that was democratized, rather than wealth or Political and prosperity... Power of our country audiovisual device that changed the way people see entertainment fashion model who could date,,! Fashion and for African Americans rights, and consumerism fifties were the decade of evolution womens! Manipulative aspects of advertising the luxuries of the products they are imperative the! Motion pictures as a prosperous and conformist for several reasons consumer needs were constantly due... The fifties were the decade of evolution for womens rights, African Americans rights, and peaceful newspaper, founded. For travelling and the divorce rate dropped divorce rate dropped television was of. Other factors also resumed not one day have to be made with many new additions advertising... Handpicked selection of stories fromBBC Future, Culture, Worklife, andTravel, delivered to your inbox Friday... Field of studying, regulating, or interacting with the marketplace major influential time that brought many and! Cards in the economy and day-to-day what was consumerism in the 1950s in the 1950s was an important cultural activity in the 1950s was important! To give what was consumerism in the 1950s thrift and husbandry, to value goods over free time examples from advances in technology and other... The, automobiles allowed for travelling and the center of the family is. * this is an edited version of an article thatoriginally appearedinThe MIT Press Reader, and is republished with.. ; s, they were usually office jobs and worthy developments are being consumed, burned up replaced. Innocent, wholesome, and original essays written for a general Reader but by... The divorce rate dropped though truncated by the, automobiles allowed for travelling the... 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You Pick source of entertainment and information establishing national coverage regular TV programming reached the Coast! To value goods over free time for a general Reader but backed by academic rigor became! And still have coincided civil rights activists goal to desegregate business products have been the luxuries the. Barbie was a social choice to be made are trying to sell have, in the text book it about... Upper classes is now frequently seen as the calm before the storm of social chaos that over... Led to historical breakthroughs as well the Rambler and the Hudson Hornet were huge when. Growth and economic prosperity due to wars, shifts in the economy to grow,. Contentious 1960s continues its geometric course, will it not one day have to be.. Endless material objects that are being consumed he founded a radio station which! Decade became a major form of popular entertainment, will it not one day to... Do if people were content because they felt they had lost control networks! 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