Rutgers University
Harry Furman
[email protected]
American Studies
01-050-303-80
Spring 2013
The Good Old Days? - America In The 1950s
“Whither goest thou America, in thy shiny car, in the night?”
--- Jack Kerouac from On The Road (1957)
“What do you want to be if you grow up?”
--- Tommy in The Atomic City (1952)
“…In the 21st century, everything’s pretty easy, right? You have
your drive-thru espresso. Or why go to the store when you can get it
online? You hardly have to interact with anyone- except for all those
people you’ve never even met who enter your life through your
computer, pulling you every which way.
In the 1950s, it’s different. In the ‘50s you have to go places.
You have to talk to people. You pick up the phone to make a call and
there’s an operator on the other end and you say “Good morning.” Or
say you want to find something out, you go down to the library and Miss
Wilkes looks it up in the Dewey Decimals. There’s a separate store for
meat, and fish, and fruit, and a gent behind each counter who knows
your name…
--- from Maple and Vine, a play by Jordan Harrison
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
For young students, the 1950s seems like a very long time ago. So
it would be understandable to ask why we should care about the postWorld War II era. Central to this assumption of the psychic distance of
the 1950s is the perception that the Fifties was some bland period in
which Americans felt good about themselves and their country and the
kind of conflict we see in 2013 was non-existent. As we commonly
understand it from the prevailing public consciousness as presented in
television shows such as “Happy Days”, Americans in the 1950s were in
a good mood, the family was stable, people knew who they were and
their place in the culture and Americans felt united by a common
purpose. Thus, students should understand that there remains a
visceral and emotional nostalgia for the Fifties among many Americans
based upon the presumption that it was indeed a very good time in our
history- in fact, one worth replicating as a goal for the future.
In reality, the 1950s were a whole lot more complicated
than people think. Moreover, the themes for study in this
course about the Fifties remain very much ever-present in
today’s culture. We will see that the 1950s laid the seeds for
the transition in thinking that would come soon about what we
should be as a nation and as a people. So, as we go through
this course, keep in mind the following overlapping themes that
still represent fundamental issues in our own lives and in
understanding American history and culture:
1. the role of fear in the framing of consciousness
2. the perception of the threat- the internal and external
enemy- in the cultural and psychological life of a nation
3. the degree to which people can be manipulated- built- to
do certain things
4. the psychic value of material possessions,
“appearances” and consumer culture as central to
American life and “success”
5. the social response to the transgressor- those who cross
the accepted boundaries of law and culture (as to
gender, sexuality etc.)
6. the re-creation and social construction of the family and
gender roles in American culture
7. the effect of the rise of the American teenager and youth
culture on the larger society
8. the dissenting voice to the consensual view of how
people should live and the way society is structured and
the response to that dissent.
9. The role of race and the civil rights in American
consciousness
10.authenticity as a seminal element of personal identity
11.surveillance, voyeurism and the loss of privacy
Our study will include the intersection of law and culture in the
1950s through the prism of race, class, gender and sexuality as we
examine how that time period led to changes that greatly impacted the
fabric of current times. In doing so, we will depict the themes expressed
above in the popular culture of the 1950s- and so you will be seeing
feature films of the 1950s, listening to music, reading poetry and
examining art. I will attempt to make our study of the law and culture
of the Fifties personally relevant, compelling and even controversial.
One of my academic goals is to demonstrate that the study of the law
and culture of the 1950s raises larger issues about American values and
what each of us believes is important in our lives and for the nation as a
whole. And so, in answering whether the Fifties were indeed the “good
old days,” we will, in reality, be thinking about our own culture and
ourselves. With an eye to the big cars with large engines that dominated
the 1950s, it should make for a great ride.
BOOKS
Karal Ann Marling- As Seen On TV (ISBN 13- 978-0674048836)
J.D. Salinger- The Catcher In The Rye ( ISBN-13 978-0316769488)
David Margolick- Elizabeth and Hazel (ISBN 1—978-03001807922)
Tennessee Williams- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (ISBN 13-978-0811216012)
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Classroom attendance is vital as we meet only 14 times- and so,
every missed class matters. Attendance and promptness will be taken
into account when determining your final grade. Participation in class
is encouraged and expected. If you must miss due to sickness or
extenuating circumstances please use the University absence reporting
website: https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra. An email will be automatically
sent to me. Although there will be, by necessity, a small portion of most
sessions that will involve lecture, there will be significant opportunity
for discussion and debate as we will often engage in a seminar format.
A central goal of the course will be to enhance your communication
skills in both debate and written expression.
CONDUCT, ETIQUETE AND INTERNET CONTACT
All opinions are valued and respected in class. I expect everyone to
listen respectfully to others’ point of view and to take responsibility for
meeting deadlines and being prepared for class. Bring to class a
notebook and the materials that we will be dealing with during that
week’s session.
The class includes a Sakai site that will serve as a center-point for
materials in the class. Multiple film/music/art references are provided in
Resources on Sakai for which only a few will be used in class. Most
classes will involve a reading of multiple short selections and a viewing
of at several film shorts in anticipation of class discussion. There will be
regular requests to provide a Blog entry of one’s own thoughts about an
issue or a reading or a cultural source over the extent of the course.
I will be communicating with the class as a whole and with
individual class members via Sakai. Everyone should have a
functioning email address that will become part of that network. Email
will be used to explain class assignments, provide a preview of issues to
think about before or after class and a means of discussing matters that
may affect your work in the course. As a matter of courtesy, I will
expect you to let me know via email (or telephone) that you cannot
attend a class. Email will also provide a means of turning in extra
credit efforts- or the cancellation of class if there is some personal
emergency
GRADING:
Class Attendance, Participation, Weekly Blogs (30%)
Essay/Extended Commentary- (25%)
1 Midterm- (25%)
Final Exam- (20%)
Intangibles- Extra credit will enhance your grade: Excessive absences
or lates will result in penalization of your grade
CLASS SCHEDULE
CLASS 1- 1/23- The Secret Word: An Introduction to the 1950s
A review of the Syllabus, Booklist, central themes and “key”
words for the course
CLASS 2- 1/30- “We Will All Go Together When We Go”- Americans
Discover Outer Space and Fear (and Love) the Bomb
Readings-
Atomic Kids- Robert Jacobs – 25-41
Do It Yourself Security- 39-51
Domesticating Hiroshima Maidens
Rod Serling’s Eeerily Accurate Portrayal…
The Bomb For My Pillow
Thirty-Minute Reality Check
Eisenhower: Faith and Fear in the Fifties
View 1950s science fiction film- to be assigned in prior class
CLASS 3- 2/6- “Senator, Have You No Shame?”- McCarthyism and
the Great Fear
Readings-
Adler v. Board of Education (1952)
Communists Shall Not Teach in American Colleges
Blacklists and Other Economic Sanctions
Homo-Hunting in the Early Cold War
Wieman v. Updegraff (1952)
Barenblatt v. United States of America (1959)
Ambivalence as a Theme in On The Waterfront
Invasion of the Body Snatchers- a review
Fear of Polio in the 1950s
View 1950s science fiction/anti-communist film- to be assigned in prior
class
CLASS 4- 2/13- What Have They Built You To Do?- The Manchurian
Candidate- Brainwashing, Manipulation and the Era of Surveillance
Viewing in class of The Manchurian Candidate- prepare for class
discussion:
Readings- Excerpt on The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate- Film Analysis
Brainwashed: Where the Manchurian Candidate
Comes From
Homeland and The Manchurian Candidate
At home- watch Suddenly
CLASS 5- 2/20- The Postwar (Sex) Crime Panic and the Heyday of Law
in the 1950s
Readings The Postwar Sex Crime Panic- George Chauncey
We the Jury: 12 Angry Men
Psycho: Queering Hitchcock’s Hollywood Classic
When Gangs Were White
View 1950s crime/law film- to be assigned in prior class
CLASS 6- 2/27- Painting By The Numbers: The 1950s, TV and
“The Pink-With –Pushbuttons” Consumer Culture
Readings- As Seen On TV- all except “When Elvis Cut His
Hair” chapter
View Powerpoint on the 1950s and Marling themes
CLASS 7- 3/6- Home as the Hearth: Containment and The 1950s
Family- Illusion and Reality
Readings- Cold War Fears- Rosalind Rosenberg
Cold War Warm Hearth
Leave It To Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet
Domesticating Dads and Double-Shift Moms
Home Economics and Housewifery in 1950s
America
I Love Lucy
One Housewife’s Recollections
Rear Window and Post-War Gender Dynamics
The Ideal Woman
The Other American Kitchen
CLASS 8- 3/20- “There Ain’t Nothin’ More Powerful Than The Odor
of Mendacity”: Sex and Lies (And No Videotape) in
the 1950s
Readings- All of Tennessee Wiliams’ play- Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof
Hoboes Sissies and Breeders: Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof
The Truth That Must be Told
Vertigo: A Spiral of Gender Confusion
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- an Overview
Peyton Place’s Real Victim
CLASS 9- 3/27- “I’d Just Be The Catcher in the Rye”: The Rise of Teen
Culture
Readings- Read all of The Catcher In The Rye
Cherished and Cursed: Towards a Social History
of The Catcher In The Rye
Rebels Without a Cause…
The Catcher in the Rye- An Overview
Monster at the Soda Shop
The Life of the 1950s Teenager
View 1950s teenager film- to be assigned in the prior class
CLASS 10- 4/4- Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay: Rock and Comics as
Teen Culture
Readings- Chuck Berry and Teenage Culture in the 1950s
Speeding Towards Death
Comic Book Censorship in the 1950s- A Slide
Show
Homophobia and Batman Comics in the 1950s
As Seen On TV- Elvis Presley – “When Elvis Cut
His Hair”
CLASS 11- 4/11- “Whither Goest Thou America…”: The Beat
Movement and the Attack on the Consensus
Readings- Howl- Allen Ginsberg
How Howl Changed The World
Howl: How The Poem Came To Be
Roth v. U.S. (1957)
The Hero of Howl
CLASS 12- 4/18- “With All Deliberate Speed”- The Contours of the
Early Civil Rights Movement
Readings- Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
The Cold War and the Struggle for Civil Rights
Brown as a Cold War Case
Awakenings
American Nightmare: Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible
Man’ at 60
CLASS 13- 4/25- The Little Rock Nine- and the Aftermath
Readings- Read all of David Margolick- Elizabeth and Hazel
The Many Lives of Hazel and Bryan
CLASS 14- 5//1- “There’s A Place For Us”…What We Can Learn
About Ourselves From the 1950s?
Readings- America 1950 v. America 2012
How the Fifties Became the Sixties
Sputnik: The Satellite That Inspired Generations
The New Politics of Nostalgia
The Real Life Drama Behind West Side Story
Maple and Vine- excerpt from Jordan Harrison
play
Final Exam Discussion