Happy Days?: U.S. Social History and Popular Culture in the 1950's

This cultural history course will survey U.S. popular culture and literature as a window into social life in the United States during the 1950s. The course will include numerous primary texts: comic books, Hollywood films, news, popular music, journalism, novels, poetry, and television. On the one hand, the course will explore the active construction of and widespread participation in what146s become known as 147the Happy Days myth148151a narrative of suburban economic prosperity, social conformity, and familial harmony. On the other, the course will also explore the decade as a site of both social unrest and pervasive anxiety151about a nascent youth culture, ongoing race and class divisions, family roles, the workplace, and the place of political dissent in the Cold War. Topics include: McCarthyism, the Quiz Show scandal, the Beat Poets, the Organization Man, Rock 145N146 Roll, the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, and so on. The primary assignment for the course will be a research paper, and a weekly film screening is MANDATORY.