CEHI 0918 - A-Bombs, Milkshakes and Love-Ins: Decades of Change in America, 1940-1970

Institution:

Brown University

Subject:

Description:

What do nuclear weapons have to do with the nuclear family? How does Playboy magazine connect with women's liberation? How does Nagasaki relate to Vietnam? What does FDR have to do with JFK? The three decades between 1940 and 1970 witnessed some of the most dramatic changes in American history. This course on the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s will serve as an important complement to standard twentieth-century American history courses by providing a deeper analysis of critical cultural, social, economic, and political themes of the postwar era. The forties were a time of transition from New Deal to Cold War. Beyond milk shakes and happy days, the fifties was a decade of contrasts: conformity and discontent, consensus and upheaval. Did father know best in 1950s America? How pervasive were fears of communism and atomic destruction? The 1960s featured love-ins and riots, cultural change and political repression. How can we reconcile the "good sixties" with the "bad sixties"? Can we find the roots of the 1960s protest within the activism of the 1940s and the tensions of the 1950s? Examining diverse sources, we will move past nostalgia and myth to explore these decades in all their complexity by focusing on sources of conflict from a variety of perspectives-film, fiction, art, magazines, poetry, music, social protest and popular memory.

Credits:

0.00

Credit Hours:

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Instructional Type:

Lecture

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Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.brown.edu

Phone Number:

(401) 863-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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