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8.5 American Culture after 1945

  • Writer: Rosie Jayde Uyola
    Rosie Jayde Uyola
  • 6 hours ago
  • 2 min read


Learning Objective F: Explain how mass culture has been maintained or challenged

over time.


Learning Target: I can compare and contrast the American cultures of pre-World War II

and post-World War II.


Directions: Complete the stations below. Consider the following prompts:

 

Part A: Briefly describe one major difference between the lives of teenagers from 1939-1945 and the lives of teenagers from 1945 to 1955.

 

Part B: Briefly explain how one historical development can be used to support your description in Part A.

Music: Listen to Chuck Berry’s School Days (1957).

  1. Listen to the lyrics of this song. What type of audience would this song most appeal to? Why?

 

 

  1. What happens to the person in this song? What does this song suggest about the context of the time period?

 

 

  1. Now listen to this 1939 popular British song, “We’ll Meet Again.” What was the song’s purpose? What historical events occurred in 1939?

 

 

  1. How does the message of the song, “We’ll Meet Again”, compare to what was on the minds of teenagers during the 1950s?

 

 

 

Work: Compare these two images and answer the questions below.

  1. How old are the people in the pictures?

 

 

  1. What is the man in the first picture doing? How is this different from the second picture?

 

 

  1. What do you think the man in the first picture does with the money he earns?

 

 

 

  1. What do these images suggest about how much leisure time middle-class teenagers had in the postwar years, compared to earlier times?

 

 

 

Weekly Incomes: Compare the incomes of teenagers and answer the questions below.

  1. How much more did the average teenage boy have to spend per week in 1956 than in 1946?

 

 

  1. What kinds of things do you think the teenager in 1956 would have spent this money on?

 

 

  1. If teenagers in this era were able to spend more money on themselves than teens in earlier times, how do you think this might have affected their relationship with their parents?

 

 

Advertising: Compare these advertisements and answer the questions below.

  1. Who do you see in the first advertisement? What does the picture in the first advertisement suggest about the relationship between parents and children?

 

 

  1. Who do you see in the second advertisement? Who is no longer in the picture? What does this suggest to you about changes in family life in the 1950s?

 

 

  1. In the first advertisement, who is Coca-Cola trying to convince to buy its product? Who is 7-Up trying to convince to buy its product in the second advertisement?

 

 

  1. Why do you think the advertisers changed their focus in this way between 1940 and 1954?

 

 


Based on your analysis of the sources above, write 4-6 sentences for each part. Be specific.

 

Part A: Briefly describe one major difference between the lives of teenagers from 1939-1945 and the lives of teenagers from 1945 to 1955.

 

Part B: Briefly explain how one historical development can be used to support your description in Part A.



 
 

“Our histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.”

​

Angela Y. Davis

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© 2035 by Rosie Jayde Uyola

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