37 questions

Due Monday, March 31.

1. Name four specific general trends that reflected how the workplace and labor changed during the 1950s. Make sure you include women.
2. What is mass media, and how did its development in the 50s impact religion and culture in general? What criticisms were leveled at the culture by people like Riesman and Whyte?
3. Who were the Republican nominees for president and vice president in 1952? What controversies were attached to these candidates, and what was their platform? How did television impact politics?
4. Describe the strange career of Senator Joseph McCarthy in detail. How did he impact American culture and politics? How did Eisenhower feel about him, and what actions did Eisenhower take in response to McCarthy?
5. What was the specific impetus for African American agitation for their rights? What happened to early proponents such as Paul Robeson when they criticized Jim Crow laws?
6. What legal arguments were made regarding segregation up to the 1950s? What sociological arguments were made regarding the treatment of blacks in America?
7. What was the reasoning behind ending legal segregation in 1954? How was the NAACP involved? What is SNCC, and what tactics did they use?
8. How and why did protests break out in Montgomery, Alabama, at approximately the same time? How was the NAACP involved?
9. How did President Eisenhower initially respond to desegregation, and why? What eventually made him change his mind to intervene, and why?
10. What, specifically, was “dynamic conservatism?”
11. What social spending and public works programs did he promote, and why? What New Deal type programs did he criticize, and why?
12. How did Eisenhower try to impact military spending? Describe his specific program and explain how it would work?
13. How, when, and why did the US get involved in Vietnam? Explain the main characters’ roles.
14. What happened at Geneva in 1955?
15.Why DIDN’T the US get involved in the Hungarian Revolution, and what happened due to this inaction?
16. Contrast the US response in Vietnam with the response in Hungary. What role did John Foster Dulles play in both of these crises?
17. What escalated tension in the Middle East between the US and USSR, especially in Iran and Egypt? What role did the CIA play?
18. What was the formal doctrine developed for US containment policy in this region—name it and describe its main features.
19. What technological crisis developed in October, 1957? How did this end up impacting educational policy in the US? What government agencies were developed after this crisis?
20. Why, specifically, did relations with Latin America degenerate? List all the reasons.
21. How did aerial espionage efforts embarrass the US in 1960?
22. What factors contributed to the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960?
23. In what ways was post-World War II literature in the 1950s comparable to the post World War I literature? Name the main writers and their main works.
24. How did post-war affluence impact art and literature, especially music? How was sexual expression a vital part of music and advertisement (Elvis and Marilyn in particular)?
25. What were the main beliefs of the new “cult of domesticity?” How did Betty Friedan and other women fell about these beliefs?
26. Were the 1950s truly a time of “conformity?” Explain.