History
192
Fall 2007
Instructor: Michael Gordon
Office: Holton Hall 346
Phone: 229-4314
e-mail: mgordon@uwm.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesdays,
1:00-3:00 and by appointment
NOTE: If you have a disability,
please
let me know early in the semester if I can help to accommodate your
needs.
Scope of The Course
What does it mean to create an authentic
life?
For centuries, people have struggled to
make lives for themselves that reflect their
values. What problems do people
encounter in these efforts? How do
people
adjust their own values, desires, and needs to the
requirements and demands of
others?
Why do some people conform to dominant ideas and
values while others do not?
In this course, we will explore these and
related
questions by focusing on sources of
conformity and conflict during the 1950's
from a variety of perspectives–history, film, fiction,
essay, music. This was an interesting
decade in which many of your grandparents
were settling into comfortable lives and
having
children (your parents). These were times that
were shaped by fears about nuclear war and
the spread of communism, and by political and social
conformity. Yet in those same years
many younger and older Americans were raising important
questions about conventional values, their
jobs, and inequality. It was a time of conformity
and conflict–perhaps
much like the early 2000's. The many images of the 1950's that we
commonly associate
with the fifties also convey their complexity: Ike, Elvis, McCarthyism,
Korea, the Cold War, the Montgomery bus
boycott,
the Beat Generation, the H-bomb,
“I Love Lucy,” PresidentTruman’s firing of
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the confrontation
at Little Rock’s Central High School,
Dizzy Gillespie, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,”
James Baldwin, “Rebel Without a Cause,”
Marilyn Monroe, Playboy magazine, “The Wild One,”
the Rosenbergs.
How can we make sense of all of the events
that are associated with these images? What
themes seem to characterize the fifties?
What were the concerns of ordinary Americans
in those years?
How pervasive was the climate of fear and suspicion? How did different
kinds of people try to create their
lives.
What–and whose–values seemed important to them?
What can we learn from the 1950's that sheds
light on our own times and our own efforts to create authentic lives
for
ourselves?
The films and readings for this course will
open new doors to the past in general, and help
you to better understand the world of your
parents and grandparents. It also will suggest new
ways of thinking about the past–and the
present. To help you to think more systematically
about some
aspects
of the 1950's, you will write several papers and also keep a journal
in which you summarize
class discussions and readings.
Purposes of The Course
The first
purpose of the course is to
provide
insights into an important period of American
history that helped to shape your life and
the lives of your parents and grandparents.
Our second purpose
in focusing on the 1950's is to help you develop critical skills
that
will
help to ease your transition into college,
and help you participate more fully in your own
education.
The third
purpose is to help you to
participate
more fully in your own education. Your teachers
cannot give you “a college education.”
They can introduce you to new ideas, ways of thinking,
and an array of subjects, and they can help
you learn how to communicate more effectively in
writing and orally. By so doing, they
can help you to achieve what many people consider as the
equivalent of a college education.
But only you can internalize the meaning of what you learn
and become a truly enlightened and “educated”
person. To be sure, all education should be
collaborative. This course especially
will be. We will work with each other to develop your
abilities to read, think, discuss, and write
critically about a variety of sources. We especially will
work hard to improve your ability to
communicate
effectively. The writing assignments and your
participation in class discussions will help
us attain these goals.
Required Readings
The following booksare available for
purcahse
in the University Bookstore, and through
various on-line Web sources. They and
other readings assignments are also on
regular or electronic reserve in the reserve reading room in the Golda
Meir
Library.
These are core
readings that everybody will
do. I encourage you not to be content with things
I
assign to read. Find books and essays
written by people in the fifties,
or about the fifties,
and bring them to class and talk about them.
Required Books
1. David Halberstam, The Fifties
(New
York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993). A
readable, popular account that will serve as the “textbook” for the
course.
2. John Updike, Rabbit, Run
(New York: Ballantine Books, [1960] 1988). White
male discontent in the 1950s–run rampant. Here is Harry
Angstrom,
former high
school star basketball player, seeking to recapture his glory days in
his
mid-20-s,
with a boring job and a dead marriage. He runs into an affair,
and
away from his
marriage, his life, and even himself, in a search for identity.
Does
he find it? See
for yourself. Published in 1960, Rabbit, Run was the first of
Updike’s
four
“Rabbit” books, which finally ended with Harry Angstrom’s death in Rabbit
at
Rest (1990).
3. Jack Kerouac, On the Road (New
York: Penguin Books, [1957] 1976). The novel
that
helped to define “the Beat generation” and to shape American
prose. On
the Road
memorialized Kerouac’s fabled travels across America with Neal Cassady,
and explores
the alienation of other postwar young Americans.
4. Anne Moody, Coming
of Age in Mississippi (New
Yrork: Dell Laurel Books, 1968). A "classic
autobiography
of growing up poor and black in the rural South.” Covers
childhood, high school,
college
and the Civil Rights Movement. This book helps us focus on the
experiences of people
who were
overlooked by Hollywood and the mass media in the 1950's.
5. Glenn C. Altschuler, All Shook Up: How
Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America (New York: Oxford University
Press,
2003). Did Rock ‘N’ Roll change America, or did
it reflect important social and cultural
changes
already under way? In this challenging and readable book,
Altschuler argues that the new rock music
of the
1950s in fact did lead to sweeping changes in families, sexuality, and
race.
6. Robert Frakes, Writing for College
History: A Short Handbook (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
This is an excellent
guide to writing the in-class essay, the five-page paper, and the
longer research paper.
This book
is not on reserve.
Other
Required Readings: These are NOT available for purchase
1. Collection of readings on electronic reserve in
the library for September 20, October 9, 11, and 25.
These readings may be accessed and printed from
your home
computer and from any computer on campus.
Here’s
how to find
these readings on-line
A. Go to the UWM
library’s
main web site.
B. On the left side of the site, click on “Reserve
and Electronic
reserve”. This will take you to the “Course
Reserve” page.
C. Under “Instructor”, find “Gordon,
Michael”.
D. Under “Department” find “HIST:
History”.
E. Under “Course” find “HIST192: The
1950's: Fear, Sex and
Discontent”
F. Click on “Search”.
G. Find the reading you are looking for and click on the
title.
2. Readings
available through links in the Web version of the syllabus.
Strongly
Recommended by Not Required:
Kate L. Turabian, Student’s
Guide
for Writing College Papers, third
edition.
Chicago: University of Chicago
Press,
1976. Indispensable book that you will use
throughout college.
William Strunk, Jr., The
Elements of Style. New York:
Bartleby.
Com, 1999. First published in 1918,
this classic is now availabe on line. It's as useful as it was the day
it first appeared.
HELPFUL ON-LINE AIDS
Merrian-Webster
OnLine Dictionary.
Dictionaries
and Encyclopedias available on-line through UWM
**IMPORTANT:
A Note on Using Novels in a History Course
Novels
are fiction. We read them in this history course to provide an
author’s perspective on life in 1950's America. Fiction
writers often comment on contemporary life in their books and
short stories. Some writers believe it’s part of their
responsibility to do so in order to raise questions about our values
and behavior, and about society itself. So these two novels (Rabbit, Run,
and On The
Road) , and
a brief selection from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and
James Baldwin's Notes of A Native Son that
we’ll read for October 25, provide a window into the worlds of
some Americans and their struggles of the 1950s--as seen by fiction
writers. What are these struggles about? From what we know
from other sources, does it appear that many Americans actually were
involved in similar struggles? What kinds of people likely shared the
values and concerns of characters like Harry Angstrom in Rabbit, Run,
and Holden Caufield in The
Catcher in the Rye?
Requirements and
Responsibilities
I am a firm believer in participatory
education.
Education involves active--not passive--
engagement with course content. You
will learn little if you come to class expecting me to tell
you what you should know and think about
America
in the 1950s. My job is to help shape course content,
and to challenge you to think about it. You must keep up with
reading
assignments, submit papers on time, and
attend
class and participate in discussion regularly. You will learn
much
more in this course, and be better prepared for other courses, if
you participate here.
Sources of Help
Take advantage of every opportunity to
learn
about resources at UWM, and especially about
where you can get help. Here are a few
things you can do.
1. Get to know the
library.
It may seem large and forbidding, but it is packed with wonderful
resources
and people who want to help you
find what you need. We
will take a tour of the
library early in the semester. For information about hours,
workshops, tours, and
much more
check out the Gold Meir
Library web site. You can even take a virtual
tour of the library online.
2. Explore the many
opportunities
for help through UWM
Student Resources
including
the many student support services, the Tutoring and
Academic resource Center,
and Student Academic Services.
3. The
First Year Center of the College of Letters and Science offers
opportunities for students to help other students, academically
and
socially.
See a description of the Center's
mission and services at this site.
Office Hour Visit
So that I can get to know you better and
discuss
your progress in class, you must schedule an
appointment for a fifteen-minute office visit
during the last two weeks of September. If it is not
convenient for you to meet during my scheduled
office hours (Tuesdays 1:30-3:00),
we will arrange another time.
Writing Assignments
The purpose of these assignments is to help
you develop your ability to communicate
effectively in writing. You will have
the opportunity to revise some of the papers in
light of my suggestions and comments.
Your grade on the revised paper will replace the original
grade. All assignments must conform
to the conventions set forth in Turabian's Student's
Guide for Writing
College Papers.
1.
An essay (3 pages maximum) in which you support or
refute the argument that “The Purpose of Education is A Job."
Follow guidelines for writing short
writing assignments in chapter 1 of Frakes, Writing for College
History.
Due: September
6.
2.
As essay (3 pages maximum), in which you anaylze the connection between
the chapter in Rollo May's book, Man's Search for
Himself, called "The
Lonliness and Anxiety of Modern Man" (1953) and the article from Good Housekeeping called
"A Frightening Message for a Thanksgiving Issue" (1958). These
are assigned for September 25, and are on electronic reserve.
3.
A paper on “A Young Man’s Struggle for Identity in the
1950s,” based on Updike’s Rabbit, Run
and on other course
material about men. Focus on three issues:
A. How did Updike suggest that men
were pressured to conform in the 1950s?
B. How did Harry try to create a
meaningful life for himself?
C. Was Harry successful? Why or
why not?
Length: 3-5 pages
Due: October 25.
4.
A paper on “A Young Woman’s Struggle for Identity in the 1950's,” based
on Moody’s Coming
of Age in Mississippi. Focus on three issues:
A. How did
Moody suggest that black women were pressured to conform in the 1950s?
B. What values
did Moody reject and embrace in her life?
C. Was Anne
Moody successful in creating an authentic life for herself? Why
or why not?
Length: 3-5 pages
Due: November 8.
5.
A research paper on a topic selected about the 1950's from a list
distributed on September 13.
Length: 7-10 pages.
Dueadlines:
October 4: one
paragraph statement in which you define your topic.
November 20:
rough draft of paper.
December 11:
final paper due.
6. In-class essay on On The Road
(November 20).
7. In-class essay on All Shook Up (December 4).
Fifties
Web Sites
There are well over 200 web sites on the
1950's!
Here are just a few that may interest you.
Most have links to many other sites.
Please let me know if you find other useful web sites
that I can add to this list.
Dave
and Donna’s Fifties Memorabilia Links Page has about 100 links to
sites
on fifties music,
legends, cars, and more.
You’ll find about 150 links to sites on the
1950's in this Web
Resources Site. Links include
literary and artistic sites; music; movies,
tv, and radio; science and technology, and consumer culture.
Encarta’s
Concise History of the 1950's has features on sports, arts, people,
lifestyles,
and science and technology.
For a taste of the insipid lyrics to Popular
Fifties Music, see this great site. You can actually
hear some of the great fifties rock ‘n’ roll
music on Lucille’sRockin’
Radio .
James Dean fans will love James
Dean Online. And the Official
James Dean Web Site is even better.
For soul music, see the Classical
Soul Music of the 1950's .
The great 1959
Cadillac Coupe de Ville has its own great site too. Check it out.
Ford lovers will love this Fabulous
Fifties Fords site.
At the Arthur
Miller’s The Crucible site, you’ll find information about this
great
play,
and excerpts from the film version.
The Crucible ostensibly concerns the Salem
witch trials,
but it was inspired by McCarthy’s witch hunts.
Is cigarette smoking sexy, smart, and
chic?
Two dozen cigarette ads from the fifties
in
this
Truth
in Advertising
site might lead you to think so.
Here’s a great course syllabus with many
readings
from the fifties, prepared by Professor
Al Filreis, for his course at the University
of Pennsylvania on
The
Literature and Culture of the American1950's.
Interested in the Cold War? See links
to over 50 Cold
War Hot Links . More Cold
War
information at this wonderful site with many
pertinent documents online, at the
Nuclear
History at the National Security Archives site.
See video clips of Senator Joseph McCarthy
at this Senator
Joe McCarthyMultimediaCelebration.
See TV commercials for all presidential
campaigns, at The Living Room
Candidate.
An introduction to the Beats is on the Hotel
Boheme . A more complete guide to net sources
is on this wonderful
The
Beat Generation: Neat Sources on the Internet site. And an
even
better site, with many documents and links,
is The Beat
GenerationArchives
.
Yet another
great site, with much history on the Beats,
is Literary
Kicks.
for material on Allen Ginsberg,
see Allen
Ginsberg: Shadow Changes intoBone. The
Official
Jack Kerouac Web Site contains
wonderful material on Kerouac’s life
and times. More on Kerouac is at Route
66. Another
fun Kerouac site is Sounds
of Jack Kerouac reading (and Singing) HisProse.
Lovers of jazz will also love this
fantastic
Jazz
Links site, with over 200 links, many
off them
dealing with the fifties. There’s a
good site on Billie Holiday at the Unofficial
Billie Holiday Site,
with pictures,
biography, and songs. The
famous
Miles
Davis Playboy Interview is also
available online.
There’s a helpful guide to sources at the
University
of California at Berkeley on
Movies
and Television in the 1950's .
On Marilyn Monroe, see the Official
Marilyn Monroe Web Site.
One of the great movie makers of the 1950's
was Alfred Hitchcock. For a biography,
filmography,
and more, see The
Hitchcock Page.
Hear and see excerpts from some of the Great
TV in the ‘50's shows.
A good detailed list of fifties films, year
by year, is Greatest
Films
of the 1950s.
Grading: 
Class Participation: 30
percent
Writing Assignments:
Paper on
"The Future is Now" and "Atoimic
Cafe": 5 percent
Paper on "A Young Man's Struggle for
Identity": 15
percent
Paper on "A Young Woman's Struggle for
Identity": 15 percent
In-class essay on On
The Road:
5 percent
In-Class essay on All
Shook Up:
5 percent
Reeearch paper on the
1950s:
20 percent
Final
examination: 5 percent
70 percent
Do Not Plagiarize!
I apologize for bringing up this unpleasant
subject, but it may serve as a useful reminder that
it is dishonest
to represent somebody else’s work as your own. There are serious
penalties for
doing so.
The UWM Student Handbook states that “UWM expects each student to be
honest
in academic performance. Failure to do so
may result in discipline under rules published by the
Board of Regents (UWS 14). The most common
forms of academic dishonesty are cheating and
plagiarism.” Please remember that
“Plagiarism
includes: (A) Directly quoting the words of others
without using quotation marks or indented
format to identify them; or, (B) Using sources of information
(published or unpublished) without identifying
them; or, (C) Paraphrasing materials or ideas
of others without identifying the sources.”
Classroom Etiquette 
Please help prevent classroom
distractions. Do not use laptop
computers or cell phones in class.
Important Note:
Unless otherwise noted, assigned readings should be completed on
the date they are listed below.
PART I:
INTRODUCTION
9/4
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Assignment
1.
Begin reading Rabbit, Run,
for discussion on October 16 and 18.
2. An essay (3 pages maximum) in which you support or
refute the argument that “The Purpose of Education is a Job."
Due: September 6.
9/6
GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE LIBRARY: A TOUR
Meet
in the lobby of the main entrance to the library (west wing) at 9:30
sharp. We’ll then move
to room E159, for a tour led
by Mr. Ahmed Kraima, a reference librarian. Attendance is
required.
DUE: Essay on the purpose of education.
PART II:
FEAR AND CONFORMITY IN THE 1950S
9/11
BEGINNINGS OF THE COLD WAR
Assignment
Read for today:
1. Halberstam,
The
Fifties, pp. 3-48.
2. Gary Donaldson, “The New
World Order and the Origin of the Cold War,” which is chapter 2
in Abundance and
Anxiety: America, 1945-1960 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997).
This reading is on electronic reserve.
Questions
to Consider for Class
Discussion
1. What was the Cold War?
2. How and why did the Cold War
Begin?
3. How did the Cold War affect
politics in the United States?
4. How did suspicions about
communist influence in the United States affect the growth of a Cold
War mentality in America?
5. How and when did the Cold War
end?
6. Are there any modern day
counterparts to the Cold War?
DUE: Library questionnaire.
9/13
WRITING
FOR COLLEGE HISTORY CLASSES
Assignment
Frakes, Writing
for College History, Introduction, and chapters 3 and 4.
In
class, we will review this book, and I will explain the writing
assignments for this course.
9/18
NUCLEAR FEAR, NUCLEAR MADNESS
Assignment
1. Rollo May, "The
Loneliness and Anxiety of Modern Man," in Man's Search for
Himself (New
York:
Dell Books [1953] 1973). On
electronic reserve.
2. Editors of Good
Housekeeping, "A
Frightening Message for a Thanksgiving Issue," (1958).
reprinted in
William H. Chafee, Harvard
Sitkoff, and Beth Bailey, eds., A History of Our Time: Readins on Postwar
America
(New York: Oxford University Press,
2008), 37-40. On electronic reserve.
3.
William
Faulkner, "Noble Prize Acceptance Speech" (1958).
Film: “Atomic
Café” (excerpt)
Writing
Assignment
As essay (3 pages maximum), in which you analyze the
connection between the chapter from Rolly May's book and
the article from Good Housiekeeping.
Due: September
25.
9/20
McCARTHYISM
Assignment
Ellen Schrecker, The Age of
McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents,
2nd ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s [1994]
2002): Read the following chapters,
which
are available on-line
“The
Growth of the Anti-Communist Network”
“Communism and National Security: The Menace Emerges”
“The
State Steps In: Setting the Anti-Communist Agenda”
“Congressional Committees and Unfriendly Witnesses”
“Blacklists and Other Economic Sanctions”
“The Legacy of
McCarthyism”
Questions to Consider for Class
Discussion
1. What was “McCarthyism”?
2. How did Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy become a
prominent champion of anticommunism?
3. What was the “anti-Communist network”?
4. How and why did the government become concerned
about possible communist influence in America?
5. What were some effects of McCarthyism?
6. What caused McCarthy’s downfall?
7. What meaning does the anticommunist crusade and
McCarthyism of the 1950s have for us today?
9/25
McCARTHYISM: AN AMERICAN ENIGMA--AND AN AMERICAN ISM
Film excerpts frpm
"Point of Order," "Good Night and Good Luck," and "McCarthy: An
American Ism."
Questions
to
Consider for Class Discussion:
These
questions are taken from “Teach with Movies:
1. “When a society feels threatened, how far should
it go in imposing tests of loyalty and
requiring
proofs of faith in commonly held beliefs?
2. How does a society ensure justice and fairness
when it believes that its fundamental beliefs are under attack?
3. Should a person, in order to avoid an undeserved
punishment, admit to something he didn't do and cooperate
in an unjust investigation
in which innocent people will be hurt?”
DUE: Paper on "The Loneliness and Anxiety of Modern
Man" and "A Frightening Message for a Thanksgiving Issue"
9/27
SEEKING CONFORMITY IN LATIN AMERICA: THE CIA
AND GUATEMALA
Assignment
1. Tim Wiener, “"CIA in
1950's Drew Up List of Guatemalan Leaders to Be Assassinated,"
New York Times,
May 28, 1997.
2. Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh, “CIA and
Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents,”
National Security Archive
Electronic Briefing Book No. 4.
3. OPTIONAL:
peruse released
CIA archives on Guatemala, at:
http://intellit.muskingum.edu/cia_folder/cia50s_folder/cia50sguattoc.html
Film: Excerpt from the segment of the History
Channel’s series on the fifties called
“Selling The American Way”on the 1954 CIA coup in
Guatemala.
Also,
possibly, “Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everardo & the CIA in
Guatemala,” Produced by New Day Films.
10/2 MASS CULTURE AND MASS CONFORMITY:
MUST EVERYTHING
LOOK THE SAME?
Assignment
1. Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass
Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press,
1985),
chapter 13, "The Baby Boom and the Age ofthe Subdivision" (pp.
230-245), and chapter 14, "The Drive-In Culture
of Contemporary
America" (pp. 246-271). On electronic reserve.
2. Optional: Halberstam, The Fifties,
pp. 133-179.
Film: excerpt
from the segment of the History Channel’s series on the fifties called
“The Fear and the Dream” on
Levittown.
Questions to
Consider for Class Discussion (From the History
Channel’s web site):
1.
“The suburb as we know it today was born in the 1950s, with the
creation of William Levitt's Levittown.
How did
demographics and the baby boom contribute to the creation of the modern
suburb?
2. William Levitt did for housing what Henry Ford did
for automobile manufacturing. What did Levitt do?
How did Levitt
revolutionize the building industry as Ford had done four decades
earlier for the automobile industry?
3.
Levittown was for white families only. African Americans were not
permitted to buy these houses and live in
these new
suburbs. How was this possible? Why did a new neighborhood refuse
African Americans?
What does this
say about attitudes in the 1950s? How would instances such as this lead
to the Civil Rights
movements of the 1960s?”
10/4
HOW TELEVISION SHAPED ATTITUDES AND LIFESTYLES
Assignment
1. Halberstam, The
Fifties, 180-187, 496-520,
643-666.
2. Marsha F. Cassidy, What
Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s
(Austin: University of Texas
Press,
2005), Chapter 1, “Introduction: Daytime Television in
the Era of the Feminine Mystique,
1948-1960.” On electronic reserve.
3. “TV Families of the
1950's” .
Questions to
Consider for Class Discussion:
1. How did television shape attitudes and lifestyles?
2. How did America’s postwar economic boom contribute
to pressures to conform?
3. How did Betty Furness and advertising spark the
postwar economic boom?
4. How might the popular family shows, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,
Father Knows Best,
and Leave It to Beaver have shaped
mainstream attitudes and behavior in the 1950s?
5. How do you explain the great popularity of radio
and television quiz shows of the 1950s?
6. Did daytime television reflect a “feminine
mystique” in the 1950s?
Film: Excerpt from the segment of the History
Channel’s series on the fifties called “Selling The
American Way” on television.
10/9
WOMEN AND CONFORMITY: MAKING THE MOST OF MARRIAGE
Assignment
1. Jessica Weiss, To Have and to Hold: The Baby Boom
&
Social Change
(Chicago:
University of ChicagoPress, 2002), Introduction, and Chapter 1: “Making
the Most of
Marriage:
Youthful
Marriage and Gender Roles in the 1950s.” This reading is on electronic reserve.
2.
See also, Wendy Sombat, “Teenage
Dating in the 1950s” .
Questions to Consider for Class
Discussion
1. What is Weiss’s main argument?
2. What does Weiss think Glen and Lois Dyer reveal
about common assumptions
concerning married people in the
1950s? What was not “traditional” about the Dyers?
3. What questions did Weiss think were important to
ask about married people, and how did
she try to answer them in her
study?
4. How might the Cold War have caused some Americans
to focus more on family life?
5. What economic and social forces may account for
changes in family behavior since 1960?
6. What do some studies suggest was the reason why
girls and young women who grew up in the
1950s might have rejected their
mothers’ roles and values?
7. How and why does Weiss think people who were
parents in the 1950s changed in following decades?
8. How well do your grandparents resemble the people
Weiss studied in the IHD sample?
9. What do you think of Weiss’ approach to
studying the “parents of baby boomers”?
10. How does
Sombat portray teens as being pressured to conform in the 1950s?
10/11
MEN AND CONFORMITY
Assignment
Hamberstam, The Fifties, pp. 521-533.
Film: Excerpt
from “The Man in The Gray Flannel Suit”
Questions to
Consider for Class Discussion:
1. Why were this book and film so popular?
2. How did the characters struggle to create
authentic lives?
3. Do men face similar pressures today?
PART III:
RUMBLINGS OF DISCONTENT AND CHANGE
10/16
MODERN MAN AND THE SEARCH FOR AN AUTHENTIC LIFE
Assignment
1. Updike, Rabbit,
Run, pages 5-116.
2. A paper on “A Young Man’s Struggle for Identity
in the 1950s,” based on Updike’s
Rabbit,
Run and on other course
material about men. Focus on three issues:
A. How
did Updike suggest that men were pressured to conform in the 1950s?
B. How did Harry try to create a meaningful life for
himself?
C. Was Harry successful? Why or why not?
Length: 3-5 pages
Due: October 25.
Questions to Consider for Your
Journal and for Class
Discussion:
1. In her
review of this book in The New
Republic (a magazine) Hermione Lee says that
Harry Angstrom (Rabbit) is
“Sexist, dumb, lazy, illiterate (he spends the whole novel not finishing
a book on American history), a
terrible father, an inadequate husband, an unreliable lover, a tiresome
lecher,
a failing businessman, a cowardly patient, a
typically "territorial" male. What kind of moral vantage point is this?”
she asks. Do you agree? Does Harry have
any redeeming qualities?
2. What’s
Harry’s problem? Is he aware of it? How does he try to deal
with this problem?
3. How would you try
to find out if Harry Angstrom, a fictional character, actually was
typical of men in the 1950s?
4. What is
Updike’s view of religion and religious figures in this book?
5. How does Updike
portray women in this novel?
6. Why does
Harry Angstrom seek physical supremacy in athletics and in sex?
7. Does Updike
present any solutions to the problems of men that he portrays in this
book?
8. What are the
values that seem to guide Harry’s life? How does he try to create an
authentic life for himself?
9. Do you know
men today who resemble Rabbit?
10/18
MODERN MAN AND THE SEARCH FOR AN AUTHENTIC LIFE
(CONT.)
Assignment
Updike, Rabbit, Run,
finish book.
10/22
THE INVISIBILITY AND RAGE OF BLACK MALES
Assignment
1. Ralph Ellison, “Prologue,” from Invisible Man
(New York: Vintage Books, 1952), 3-12.
This reading
is on electronic reserve.
2.
James Baldwin, “Notes of A Native Son, ” in Baldwin, Collected Essays
(New York:
Library of America[1952] 1998), 63-84. This reading is on electronic reserve.
10/25
COULD WOMEN GET THE BEST OF
EVERYTHING?
Film: Excerpts
from “The Best of Everything” (1959)
DUE: Paper on Rabbit, Run.
10/30 A YOUNG WOMAN’S
STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY
Assignment
1. Moody, Coming of Age in
Mississippi, Parts
I and II.
2. A paper on “A Young Woman’s Struggle
for Identity in the 1950's,” based on Moody’s
Coming of Age in
Mississippi. Focus on three issues:
A. How did Moody suggest that black women were
pressured to conform in the 1950s?
B. What values did Moody reject and embrace in
her life?
C. Was
Anne Moody successful in creating an authentic life for herself?
Why or why not?
Length: 3-5
pages
Due: November
8.
11/1
A YOUNG WOMAN’S STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY (CONT.)
Assignment
Moody, Coming of Age in
Mississippi, finish
the book.
11/6
WOMEN, BIRTH
CONTROL, AND BETTY FRIEDAN’S THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE
Assignment
1. Required: Betty Friedan, The Feminine
Mystique (New York:
W.W. Norton, 1963),
Chapter 1, “The
Problem That Has No Name,” and Chapter 2,
“The
Happy Housewife Heroine.”
2.
Suggested: Halberstam, The Fifties,
pp. 282-294, 587-606.
Film: Excerpts
from the History Channel’s Fifties segment on “Let’s Play House” on
Betty Friedan,
and from the segment, “A Burning Desire,” on
Margaret Sanger.
Questions to Consider for Class
Discussion
1. According to
Friedan what was “The Feminine Mystique”?
2. Do you
believe Friedan’s conclusions applied to all women in America?
What evidence is there from Chapter 1
that indicates the kinds of women Friedan studied?
3. Why did
Friedan argue that the claims that “the problem that has no name
stirring in the minds of
so many American women today is not a
matter of loss of femininity or too much education,
or the demands of domesticity” (end of
Chapter 1)?
4. According to
Friedan, how did the “happy housewive heroines” of the 1950s differ from
those
of the 1930s and 1940s?
5. Why do you
think Betty Friedan and Margaret Sanger touched such responsive chords
among many American women in the 1950s?
11/8
THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
Assignment
Suggested:
Halberstam, The
Fifties, pp.
272-281, 564-586.
Film: Excerpts
from “A Burning Desire” on Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine,
Marilyn
Monroe,
and Alfred Kinsey. This History Channel film
examines the sexual attitudes and realities of the 1950s.
Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s sensational study about
Americans’ sexual behavior revealed that the nation’s ostensible
strict moral code regarding sex did not match
Americans’ sexual desires or practices. The film also recounts
how Hugh Hefner tapped into male sexual appetites
and fantasies in his Playboy
magazine, and depicts how
Marilyn Monroe became America’s sexual icon. It
concludes with a segment on Margaret Sanger’s contributions
to birth control, and to the development of the
revolutionary birth control device, “the pill”.
Questions to Consider for Class
Discussion
1. How do
sexual mores of the 1990s differ from those of the 1950s?
2. What do the
sexual mores of the 1950s reveal about the gender expectations of that
era?
3. Why do you think
Dr. Kinsey’s report created such controversy?
4. How did
Playboy and the birth control pill reflect different attitudes toward
women in the 1950s?
DUE: Paper on Coming of Age in Mississippi.
11/13
THE BEATS: KEROUAC’S ON
THE ROAD
Assignment
Kerouac, On the Road,
parts I and
II.
Questions
to Consider for Class Discussion
1. How does the book
deal with alienation?
2.
In what ways are the characters conventional, and in what ways are they
not?
11/15 ON THE ROAD–AND BACK HOME
AGAIN
Assignment
Kerouac, On the Road, finish book.
11/20 IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT ON ON THE ROAD
Be sure to
read chapter 2 of Frakes’ book, Writing for College
History, on “The In-Class Essay”.
DUE: ROUGH DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER
11/22
NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING
11/27 HOW ROCK ‘N ROLL SHOOK UP
AMERICA
Assignment
Altschuler, All Shook Up,
chapters 1-3.
Questions
to Consider for Class Discussion
1. What is Altschuler’s main argument?
2. What does Altschuler think are the links between
Rock music and race?
3.
How does Altschuler think Rock affected the sexual revolution?
11/29 HOW ROCK ‘N ROLL SHOOK UP
AMERICA (cont.)
Assignment
Altschuler, All Shook Up,
chapters 4-6 and the Epilogue.
Questions to Consider for
Class Discussion
1. How was Rock
related to generational conflict?
2. How did Rock music shape the
pop culture wars?
3. How and why
did Rock falter between 1958 and 1963?
12/4 IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
ON ALL SHOOK UP
12/6
DISSENT: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Film: “The
Rage Within”
Another film from the History Channel’s fifties
series, “The Rage Within” explores how
the simmering rage of African Americans began to
explode in the 1950s and shattered white
American complacency about race
discrimination. The film focuses on the 1954 Montgomery
bus boycott and the start of the Civil Rights
Movement; the murder of young Emmett Till in Tallahatchie
County, Mississippi, a year later; and the
integration of Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.
Questions to Consider for Class
Discussion:
1. Why did the writer Ralph Ellison title his book
The Invisible Man?
2. How could such a system as “Jim Crow” exist in
America?
3. What were the effects of Emmett Till’s murder?
4. How did television contribute to the growth of the
Civil Rights Movement?
12/11
SUMMARY 
DUE: Final papers
Declaring
a History Major
When you have earned in excess of
45
credits and have not yet declared a major, you are encouraged to do
so. You must have declared and completed the requirements of a
major in order to graduate. If you are interested in declaring a
major in History or simply exploring that idea, you should contact
Professor Neal Pease, at pease@uwm.edu, or at 414-229-5205.
Return to: History
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Gordon's Home Page
If you have questions,
please contact Michael
Gordon .