The independence and strength of the characters epitomized the ideals that made America so unique. Families sat down with their TV dinners to watch such shows as " Gunsmoke," the Lone Ranger," the Rifleman," Have Gun, Will Travel," and " Maverick." You were not anybody unless you could sing the theme songs of each show.
Moviegoers were also being drawn into the theaters by the monster/science-fiction movies. About 500 film features and shorts were produced under this broad theme in the 1950s and early 1960s, explains the 50s B-Movie website. One might argue convincingly that never in the history of motion pictures has any other genre developed and multiplied so rapidly in so brief a period. As Paul Michael comments, "On a sheer statistical basis, the number of fantasy and horror films of the 1950s... has not been equaled in any country before or since." Moreover, Alan Frank points out that the 1950s "saw science fiction at its peak in terms of sheer output and diversity of theme and diversification into various subgenres, notably the monster picture...." (50s B-movie website). From any perspective the emergence and popularity of low-budget Horror, Science Fiction and Monster movies in the 1950s was an extraordinary cultural fashion. One reason for their becoming fashionable was the growth of a cinema based on the development of new special effects. Another reason, as noted previously, was that these movies offered another way to escape into other worlds.
People escaped from the everyday world in other ways as well. Rock 'n Roll was loved by the young people, and disdained by the old. The "Hit Parade," became one of the most watched shows -- like American Idol is today (Americans have come so far since the 1950s!). Broadway musicals, drive-in hamburger joints, picnics and barbeques (and more martinis), Tupperware and S&H Green Stamps made up the good life.
This does not mean that everyone in the U.S. were interested in "never-never land." The Beatniks, some U.S. scholars and intellectuals, were following the more serious Europeans in thinking about profound issues such as existentialism and the reason for living. The idea behind existentialism, advocated by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus among others in the 1940s and 1950s, was to determine the value of life. Bottom line: if life did not have value, then...
World War II -- a Catastrophic Event that Changed the World What was the most crucial and important cause of World War II? It would be fair to look to the Nazis and Hitler's fanaticism as the most crucial and important cause of World War II. And certainly historians and scholars have few doubts as to Hitler's accountability in the tragic, bloody and catastrophic slaughter in Europe. But what were the events
By the end of the war, over 19 million American women had left the kitchen and gone to work in factories, but Haak's mother was not among them. She did help coordinate a campaign to send letters and cookies to soldiers from the farmhouse in Wisconsin, but the farm required both Haak's father and mother to stay and work the land. A fair percentage of the food (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots
World War I Tactics and Weaponry In many ways, the "War to End All Wars" was fought with a wide range of increasingly modernized weaponry that was matched with obsolete tactics that resulted in millions of deaths and casualties on both sides of the conflict. Indeed, during the period between 1914 and 1918, the full brunt of early 20th century technology was brought to bear on the battlefields of Europe and
The Nazis, however, were seriously mistaken. According to Thomas D. Morgan, "No group that participated in World War II made a greater per capita contribution, and no group was changed more by the war." Native Americans willingly enlisted in the war more than any other group in America. Native American tribes that had a long tradition of warrior culture took up arms to defend the American nation. They also
soldier in today's army. Specifically, it will define what a soldier is, with an ideal target audience of college-age readers. The news media seems to show soldiers in fighting regalia, always at the ready for a skirmish or a war. While this media ideal is certainly part of the soldier's life, it is not the only thing soldiers do each day - a soldier is much more complex that
Hemingway uses his lack of feeling to indicate how the soldiers came home feeling hollow and empty inside, struggling to find meaning in a world that no longer made any sense. Krebs does not even attempt to find meaning. He knows there is nothing inside of him, and everything in life is too much "work." He is empty and dead inside - the war has killed him even though
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