{"id":354,"date":"2015-08-21T18:06:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T18:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/ushistory2os2xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=354"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:11:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:11:12","slug":"popular-culture-and-mass-media","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/popular-culture-and-mass-media\/","title":{"raw":"Popular Culture and Mass Media","rendered":"Popular Culture and Mass Media"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Discuss the way contemporary music, movies, and television reflected postwar American society<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm168596096\">With a greater generational consciousness than previous cohorts, the baby boomers sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. Music, especially rock and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of popular culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm43204480\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Rock and Roll and the Youthful Rebellion<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp2013728\">In the late 1940s, some White country musicians began to experiment with the rhythms of the blues, a decades-old musical genre from rural southern Black communities. This experimentation led to the creation of a new musical form known as rockabilly, and by the 1950s, rockabilly had developed into <strong>rock and roll<\/strong>. Rock and roll music celebrated themes such as young love and freedom from the oppression of middle-class society. It quickly grew in favor among American teens, thanks largely to the efforts of disc jockey Alan Freed, who coined the term \"rock and roll\" and popularized the music by playing it on the radio in Cleveland, where he also organized the first rock and roll concert.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp116963216\">The theme of rebellion against authority, present in many rock and roll songs, appealed to teens. In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets provided youth with an anthem\u2014\u201dRock Around the Clock.\u201d\u00a0The song, used in the 1955 movie <em data-effect=\"italics\">Blackboard Jungle<\/em> about a White teacher at a troubled inner-city high school, seemed to be calling for teens to declare their independence from adult control.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_28_04_Haley\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"520\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203310\/CNX_History_28_04_Haley.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows seven young men singing in jackets and bow ties. Three men pose on each side of a central singer, who gestures with his hands as he performs. Photograph (b) shows Chuck Berry in a tuxedo playing the guitar.\" width=\"520\" height=\"274\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The band Bill Haley and His Comets (a) was among the first to launch the new genre of rock and roll. Their hit song \u201cRock Around the Clock\u201d supposedly caused some teens to break into violent behavior when they heard it. Chuck Berry (b) was a performer who combined rhythm and blues and rock and roll. He dazzled crowds with guitar solos and electrifying performances.[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp68956512\">Haley illustrated how White artists could take musical motifs from the African American community and achieve mainstream success. Teen heartthrob Elvis Presley rose to stardom doing the same. Thus, besides encouraging a feeling of youthful rebellion, rock and roll also began to tear down racial barriers, as White youths sought out African American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard.<\/p>\r\nThe new youth culture rapidly expanded and became a dominant element in American life. Keenly aware of the discontent bubbling beneath the surface of society, many youth embraced rebellion. The 1955 film\u00a0<em>Rebel Without a Cause\u00a0<\/em>demonstrated the restlessness and emotional incertitude of a postwar generation raised in increasing affluence yet increasingly unsatisfied with their comfortable lives. At the same time, perhaps yearning for something beyond the \u201cmassification\u201d of suburban, consumerist American culture, American youth embraced rock \u2019n\u2019 roll's contrarianism, including that on display in the performances of Elvis Presley, whose novel, sexually suggestive hip movements were judged subversive.\r\n\r\nDespite adults\u2019 dislike of the genre, or perhaps because of it, more than 68 percent of the music played on the radio in 1956 was rock and roll.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"390\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203311\/CNX_History_28_04_Dmytryk.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows Edward Dmytryk testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.\" width=\"390\" height=\"344\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. One of the original Hollywood Ten, director Edward Dmytryk publicly announced he had once been a Communist and, in April 1951, answered questions and \u201cnamed names\u201d before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm71735568\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Hollywood on the Defensive<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm239379520\">At first, Hollywood encountered difficulties in adjusting to the post-World War II environment. Although domestic audiences reached a record high in 1946 and the war\u2019s end meant expanding international markets too, the groundwork for the eventual dismantling of the traditional studio system was established in 1948, with a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, film studios had owned their own movie theater chains in which they exhibited the films they produced; however, in <em data-effect=\"italics\">United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.<\/em>, this vertical integration of the industry\u2014the complete control by one firm of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures\u2014was deemed a violation of antitrust laws.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm164283456\">The zealously anticommunist House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings also targeted Hollywood. When Senator McCarthy called eleven \u201cunfriendly witnesses\u201d to testify before Congress about communism in the film industry in October 1947, only playwright Bertolt Brecht answered questions. The other ten, who refused to testify, were cited for contempt of Congress on November 24. The next day, film executives declared that the so-called <strong>Hollywood Ten<\/strong>\u00a0would no longer be employed in the industry until they had sworn they were not communists. Eventually, more than three hundred actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals were placed on the industry blacklist. Some never worked in Hollywood again; others directed films or wrote screenplays under assumed names.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\r\nWatch a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ILedThreeLivesArmyInfiltration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1953 episode of a popular television show<\/a> from the 1950s, <em data-effect=\"italics\">I Led Three Lives<\/em>, the highly fictionalized story of a member of a communist organization who is also an FBI informant.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm81775008\">Hollywood reacted aggressively to these various challenges. Filmmakers and exhibitors employed novel technologies, like CinemaScope and Cinerama, which allowed movies to be shown on large screens and in 3-D. Audiences were drawn to movies not because of gimmicks, however, but because of the stories they told. Dramas and romantic comedies continued to be popular fare for adults, and to appeal to teens, studios produced large numbers of horror films and movies starring music idols such as Elvis. Many films took espionage, a timely topic, as their subject matter, and science fiction hits such as 1956's\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em>, about a small town whose inhabitants fall prey to space aliens, played metaphorically on audience fears of communist invasion and nuclear technology.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idp83764352\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">The Triumph of Television<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"390\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203313\/CNX_History_28_04_Television.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a man, a woman, three teenage girls, and a teenage boy sitting in a living room, watching a television.\" width=\"390\" height=\"303\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. An American family relaxes in front of their television set in 1958. Many gathered not only to watch the programming but also to eat dinner. The marketing of small folding tray tables and frozen \u201cTV dinners\u201d encouraged such behavior.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm18913856\">By far the greatest challenge to Hollywood, however, came from the relatively new medium of television. Although the technology had been developed in the late 1920s, through much of the 1940s, only a fairly small audience of the wealthy had access to it. As a result, programming was limited. With the post-World War II economic boom, all this changed. Where there had been only 178,000 televisions in homes in 1948, by 1955, over three-quarters of a million U.S. households, about half of all homes, had television.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm96417824\">Various types of programs were broadcast on the handful of major networks: situation comedies, variety programs, game shows, soap operas, talk shows, medical dramas, adventure series, cartoons, and police procedurals. Many comedies presented an idealized image of White suburban family life: Happy housewife mothers, wise fathers, and mischievous but not dangerously rebellious children were constants on shows like <em data-effect=\"italics\">Leave It to Beaver<\/em> and <em data-effect=\"italics\">Father Knows Best<\/em> in the late 1950s.<\/p>\r\n<em>Leave It to Beaver<\/em>, which became the prototypical example of the 1950s television family, depicted its breadwinner father and homemaker mother guiding their children through life lessons. Such shows, and Cold War America more broadly, reinforced a popular consensus that such lifestyles were not only beneficial but the most effective way to safeguard American prosperity against communist threats and social \u201cdeviancy.\u201d\r\n\r\nWesterns, which stressed unity in the face of danger and the ability to survive in hostile environments, were popular too. Programming designed specifically for the children of the baby boom emerged with shows such as <em data-effect=\"italics\">Captain Kangaroo<\/em>, <em data-effect=\"italics\">Romper Room<\/em>, and <em data-effect=\"italics\">The Mickey Mouse Club.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Dr. Spock and Popular Childcare<\/h3>\r\nPostwar mothers and fathers alike flocked to the experts for their opinions on marriage, sexuality, and, most especially, child-rearing. Psychiatrists held an almost mythic status as people took their theories and prescriptions, as well as their vocabulary, into everyday life. Books like Dr. Benjamin Spock\u2019s\u00a0<em>Baby and Child Care<\/em>\u00a0(1946) were diligently studied by women who took their career as housewife as just that: a career, complete with all the demands and professional trappings of job development and training.\r\n\r\nUnlike leading child care experts prior to the 1940s, Spock supported flexibility in child-rearing, advising parents to treat each child as an individual. Drawing on his psychoanalytic training, he explained the behavior and motivations of children at each stage of growth, allowing parents to make their own decisions about how to raise their children. For example, Spock had an entire chapter devoted to \"The One-Year-Old,\" in which he explained that babies at this age like to explore the world around them. He then suggested ways to arrange the house and prevent accidents with a \"wandering baby.\"\r\n\r\nSpock emphasized that ultimately, the parents' \"natural loving care\" for their children is most important. He reminded parents to have confidence in their abilities and to trust their common sense; his practice as a pediatrician had proven to him that parents' instincts were usually best.\u00a0Many later criticized his emphasis on love and affections as permissive parenting and for placing most of the responsibility of early child care on mothers, thus enforcing gender stereotypes. He also\u00a0promoted prone sleeping for babies, which greatly increases a baby's risk of dying from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The book sold 500,000 copies in the first six months of its publication and 50 million by the time of Spock's death in 1998. It\u00a0was popularly referenced in the <em>I Love Lucy<\/em> television series when the characters are raising a baby and led to\u00a0some labeling a whole generation of children as \"Spock Babies.\"\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/d4957aaa-9c97-4b15-bcbd-49c68ab6ea75\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\n<section>What challenges did Hollywood face in the 1950s?\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"347267\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"347267\"]Antitrust lawsuits deprived studios of their theaters, and the careers of many actors, directors, and screenwriters were destroyed by Senator McCarthy\u2019s blacklist of suspected communists. Meanwhile, the new technology of television drew audiences away from the movies by providing convenient at-home entertainment.[\/hidden-answer]<\/section><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>Hollywood Ten: <\/strong>ten House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) witnesses fired and blacklisted by Hollywood executives for refusing to answer questions related to McCarthy's anti-communist campaign\r\n\r\n<strong>rock and roll:\u00a0<\/strong>a musical form popular among baby boomers that drew on country and blues, and embraced themes such as youthful rebellion and love\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Discuss the way contemporary music, movies, and television reflected postwar American society<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm168596096\">With a greater generational consciousness than previous cohorts, the baby boomers sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. Music, especially rock and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of popular culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.<\/p>\n<section id=\"fs-idm43204480\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Rock and Roll and the Youthful Rebellion<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idp2013728\">In the late 1940s, some White country musicians began to experiment with the rhythms of the blues, a decades-old musical genre from rural southern Black communities. This experimentation led to the creation of a new musical form known as rockabilly, and by the 1950s, rockabilly had developed into <strong>rock and roll<\/strong>. Rock and roll music celebrated themes such as young love and freedom from the oppression of middle-class society. It quickly grew in favor among American teens, thanks largely to the efforts of disc jockey Alan Freed, who coined the term &#8220;rock and roll&#8221; and popularized the music by playing it on the radio in Cleveland, where he also organized the first rock and roll concert.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idp116963216\">The theme of rebellion against authority, present in many rock and roll songs, appealed to teens. In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets provided youth with an anthem\u2014\u201dRock Around the Clock.\u201d\u00a0The song, used in the 1955 movie <em data-effect=\"italics\">Blackboard Jungle<\/em> about a White teacher at a troubled inner-city high school, seemed to be calling for teens to declare their independence from adult control.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_28_04_Haley\">\n<div style=\"width: 530px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203310\/CNX_History_28_04_Haley.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows seven young men singing in jackets and bow ties. Three men pose on each side of a central singer, who gestures with his hands as he performs. Photograph (b) shows Chuck Berry in a tuxedo playing the guitar.\" width=\"520\" height=\"274\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The band Bill Haley and His Comets (a) was among the first to launch the new genre of rock and roll. Their hit song \u201cRock Around the Clock\u201d supposedly caused some teens to break into violent behavior when they heard it. Chuck Berry (b) was a performer who combined rhythm and blues and rock and roll. He dazzled crowds with guitar solos and electrifying performances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"fs-idp68956512\">Haley illustrated how White artists could take musical motifs from the African American community and achieve mainstream success. Teen heartthrob Elvis Presley rose to stardom doing the same. Thus, besides encouraging a feeling of youthful rebellion, rock and roll also began to tear down racial barriers, as White youths sought out African American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard.<\/p>\n<p>The new youth culture rapidly expanded and became a dominant element in American life. Keenly aware of the discontent bubbling beneath the surface of society, many youth embraced rebellion. The 1955 film\u00a0<em>Rebel Without a Cause\u00a0<\/em>demonstrated the restlessness and emotional incertitude of a postwar generation raised in increasing affluence yet increasingly unsatisfied with their comfortable lives. At the same time, perhaps yearning for something beyond the \u201cmassification\u201d of suburban, consumerist American culture, American youth embraced rock \u2019n\u2019 roll&#8217;s contrarianism, including that on display in the performances of Elvis Presley, whose novel, sexually suggestive hip movements were judged subversive.<\/p>\n<p>Despite adults\u2019 dislike of the genre, or perhaps because of it, more than 68 percent of the music played on the radio in 1956 was rock and roll.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203311\/CNX_History_28_04_Dmytryk.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows Edward Dmytryk testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.\" width=\"390\" height=\"344\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. One of the original Hollywood Ten, director Edward Dmytryk publicly announced he had once been a Communist and, in April 1951, answered questions and \u201cnamed names\u201d before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm71735568\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Hollywood on the Defensive<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm239379520\">At first, Hollywood encountered difficulties in adjusting to the post-World War II environment. Although domestic audiences reached a record high in 1946 and the war\u2019s end meant expanding international markets too, the groundwork for the eventual dismantling of the traditional studio system was established in 1948, with a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, film studios had owned their own movie theater chains in which they exhibited the films they produced; however, in <em data-effect=\"italics\">United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.<\/em>, this vertical integration of the industry\u2014the complete control by one firm of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures\u2014was deemed a violation of antitrust laws.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm164283456\">The zealously anticommunist House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings also targeted Hollywood. When Senator McCarthy called eleven \u201cunfriendly witnesses\u201d to testify before Congress about communism in the film industry in October 1947, only playwright Bertolt Brecht answered questions. The other ten, who refused to testify, were cited for contempt of Congress on November 24. The next day, film executives declared that the so-called <strong>Hollywood Ten<\/strong>\u00a0would no longer be employed in the industry until they had sworn they were not communists. Eventually, more than three hundred actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals were placed on the industry blacklist. Some never worked in Hollywood again; others directed films or wrote screenplays under assumed names.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\n<p>Watch a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ILedThreeLivesArmyInfiltration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1953 episode of a popular television show<\/a> from the 1950s, <em data-effect=\"italics\">I Led Three Lives<\/em>, the highly fictionalized story of a member of a communist organization who is also an FBI informant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm81775008\">Hollywood reacted aggressively to these various challenges. Filmmakers and exhibitors employed novel technologies, like CinemaScope and Cinerama, which allowed movies to be shown on large screens and in 3-D. Audiences were drawn to movies not because of gimmicks, however, but because of the stories they told. Dramas and romantic comedies continued to be popular fare for adults, and to appeal to teens, studios produced large numbers of horror films and movies starring music idols such as Elvis. Many films took espionage, a timely topic, as their subject matter, and science fiction hits such as 1956&#8217;s\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em>, about a small town whose inhabitants fall prey to space aliens, played metaphorically on audience fears of communist invasion and nuclear technology.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idp83764352\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">The Triumph of Television<\/h2>\n<div style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203313\/CNX_History_28_04_Television.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a man, a woman, three teenage girls, and a teenage boy sitting in a living room, watching a television.\" width=\"390\" height=\"303\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. An American family relaxes in front of their television set in 1958. Many gathered not only to watch the programming but also to eat dinner. The marketing of small folding tray tables and frozen \u201cTV dinners\u201d encouraged such behavior.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm18913856\">By far the greatest challenge to Hollywood, however, came from the relatively new medium of television. Although the technology had been developed in the late 1920s, through much of the 1940s, only a fairly small audience of the wealthy had access to it. As a result, programming was limited. With the post-World War II economic boom, all this changed. Where there had been only 178,000 televisions in homes in 1948, by 1955, over three-quarters of a million U.S. households, about half of all homes, had television.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm96417824\">Various types of programs were broadcast on the handful of major networks: situation comedies, variety programs, game shows, soap operas, talk shows, medical dramas, adventure series, cartoons, and police procedurals. Many comedies presented an idealized image of White suburban family life: Happy housewife mothers, wise fathers, and mischievous but not dangerously rebellious children were constants on shows like <em data-effect=\"italics\">Leave It to Beaver<\/em> and <em data-effect=\"italics\">Father Knows Best<\/em> in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<p><em>Leave It to Beaver<\/em>, which became the prototypical example of the 1950s television family, depicted its breadwinner father and homemaker mother guiding their children through life lessons. Such shows, and Cold War America more broadly, reinforced a popular consensus that such lifestyles were not only beneficial but the most effective way to safeguard American prosperity against communist threats and social \u201cdeviancy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Westerns, which stressed unity in the face of danger and the ability to survive in hostile environments, were popular too. Programming designed specifically for the children of the baby boom emerged with shows such as <em data-effect=\"italics\">Captain Kangaroo<\/em>, <em data-effect=\"italics\">Romper Room<\/em>, and <em data-effect=\"italics\">The Mickey Mouse Club.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Dr. Spock and Popular Childcare<\/h3>\n<p>Postwar mothers and fathers alike flocked to the experts for their opinions on marriage, sexuality, and, most especially, child-rearing. Psychiatrists held an almost mythic status as people took their theories and prescriptions, as well as their vocabulary, into everyday life. Books like Dr. Benjamin Spock\u2019s\u00a0<em>Baby and Child Care<\/em>\u00a0(1946) were diligently studied by women who took their career as housewife as just that: a career, complete with all the demands and professional trappings of job development and training.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike leading child care experts prior to the 1940s, Spock supported flexibility in child-rearing, advising parents to treat each child as an individual. Drawing on his psychoanalytic training, he explained the behavior and motivations of children at each stage of growth, allowing parents to make their own decisions about how to raise their children. For example, Spock had an entire chapter devoted to &#8220;The One-Year-Old,&#8221; in which he explained that babies at this age like to explore the world around them. He then suggested ways to arrange the house and prevent accidents with a &#8220;wandering baby.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spock emphasized that ultimately, the parents&#8217; &#8220;natural loving care&#8221; for their children is most important. He reminded parents to have confidence in their abilities and to trust their common sense; his practice as a pediatrician had proven to him that parents&#8217; instincts were usually best.\u00a0Many later criticized his emphasis on love and affections as permissive parenting and for placing most of the responsibility of early child care on mothers, thus enforcing gender stereotypes. He also\u00a0promoted prone sleeping for babies, which greatly increases a baby&#8217;s risk of dying from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The book sold 500,000 copies in the first six months of its publication and 50 million by the time of Spock&#8217;s death in 1998. It\u00a0was popularly referenced in the <em>I Love Lucy<\/em> television series when the characters are raising a baby and led to\u00a0some labeling a whole generation of children as &#8220;Spock Babies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_d4957aaa-9c97-4b15-bcbd-49c68ab6ea75\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/d4957aaa-9c97-4b15-bcbd-49c68ab6ea75?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_d4957aaa-9c97-4b15-bcbd-49c68ab6ea75\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<section>What challenges did Hollywood face in the 1950s?<\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q347267\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q347267\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">Antitrust lawsuits deprived studios of their theaters, and the careers of many actors, directors, and screenwriters were destroyed by Senator McCarthy\u2019s blacklist of suspected communists. Meanwhile, the new technology of television drew audiences away from the movies by providing convenient at-home entertainment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Hollywood Ten: <\/strong>ten House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) witnesses fired and blacklisted by Hollywood executives for refusing to answer questions related to McCarthy&#8217;s anti-communist campaign<\/p>\n<p><strong>rock and roll:\u00a0<\/strong>a musical form popular among baby boomers that drew on country and blues, and embraced themes such as youthful rebellion and love<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-354\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\">http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>The Affluent Society. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/26-the-affluent-society\/#V_Gender_and_Culture_in_the_Affluent_Society\">https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/26-the-affluent-society\/#V_Gender_and_Culture_in_the_Affluent_Society<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>The Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcare. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Common_Sense_Book_of_Baby_and_Child_Care\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Common_Sense_Book_of_Baby_and_Child_Care<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at 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