The year 1954 witnessed the end of wartime food rationing in the United Kingdom, almost 9 years after the end of the war and promises to end the program. For those living in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, the war was finally over.  The reconstruction of most British cities were nearly completed and a new consumer culture was taking over. However, the British found themselves in a colonial war in Kenya at the same time the French were being forced out of Vietnam and coming under attack in Algeria. British troops were also stationed in South Korea where they were forced to deal with the aftermath of a Cold War conflict. In the United States, mass vaccination campaigns against polio were highlight American ingenuity and desegregation. The  Brown decision, brought a little  sense of equality to the African-American minority. Thus, 1954, was a year of dealing with long standing problems while also looking towards the future.

Following the chaos of World War Two and is messy aftermath, which will be detailed below, a sense of people throughout Europe began to have a sense of optimism and expectation of improvement. People throughout the continent desired a better and more peaceful life, access to a dizzy array of consumer goods (especially as new products came out every year) and hoped for a better life for their children. The middle class grew in size and the trappings of the middle class began to reach the working class. The state began taking on a new importance as, in exchange for an increase in taxes, it guaranteed a certain standard of living to its people, protecting the old, infirm and unemployed. Certainly, many were left behind-those in Eastern Europe were left without a political voice and immigrants, increasingly from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, to Western Europe became the new underclass.