Paper Summary:

The paper describes how the fears that rose out of the Cold War had paralyzing effects on American society, and created an atmosphere of paranoia, complacency and anti-intellectualism. The paper also discusses how a booming economy created a sense of pride, peace and affluence that caused the 1950s to be romanticized as "The Golden Age." The paper shows however, how the 1950s can be used as an example to portray how society can go horribly wrong; the apathy and conformity threatened to obliterate American values like free speech and choice of religion, and held back nearly a decade of progress in the midst of irrational fears. The paper asserts that undoubtedly, the stagnation of the '50s was a major contributing factor to the revolutionary and reform movements that followed in the 1960s, and beyond.

From the Paper:

"Americans in the 1950s were faced with a number of conflicting messages and corresponding emotions, relating to a number of different aspects of their lives. Following their triumphant end to World War II, the American people felt overwhelmingly reassured of their dominant status in the global arena (O'Neill 7), thanks in no small part to the development and usage of nuclear weapons. Yet Americans found themselves in a peculiar position when their monopoly on nuclear power was threatened by the Soviet Union's own atomic bomb (O'Neill 7). The fears that rose out of the Cold War, and their paralyzing effects on American society, created an atmosphere of paranoia, complacency, and anti-intellectualism (O'Neill 14) that was to become the defining characteristics of the era."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bottome, Edgar M. The Balance of Terror: A Guide to the Arms Race. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.
• Kaledin, Eugenia. Daily Life in the United States, 1940-1959: Shifting Worlds. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000.
• Miller, Douglas T. and Marion Nowak. The Fifties: The Way We Really Were. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1977.
• O'Neill, William L. "Introduction." American Society Since 1945. Ed. William L. O'Neill. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969. 3-29.

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