Chapter in Perspective

Historians often remark on the similarities between the 1950s and the 1920s. Both were prosperous decades, both had economies led by the automobile and construction industries, both featured a new mass communication medium, both had pro-business administrations in Washington, and both seemed marked by a retreat from social reform. The differences are perhaps more informative. By the 1950s the nation was rapidly becoming more suburban than rural or urban. Years of depression and then war had made government, industry, and bureaucratic organizations bigger and more impersonal. The United States had become an activist member of the world community. In the 1950s prosperity at home became a way to fight the Cold War. The twin commitments to use prosperity to achieve social peace at home while containing communism abroad led directly to the upheavals of the 1960s.