Facing the Communists: Society in the 1950's

During the 1950's, at the time when Eisenhower was President, there was some discussion on how to go about dealing with the Communists of the Soviet Union, or otherwise known as Russia. However, before Eisenhower became President, his predecessor, President Harry S. Truman had already created a policy of how to deal with Russia's Communistic people. He wanted to follow a policy of containment, in which the United States would not interfere with Russia by persecuting them or even trying to create a tie with them. He felt like they should just keep to themselves as the United States should keep to their selves. Later on, when President Eisenhower came into office and when he appointed John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State, there was some opposition to this containment policy. Eisenhower wanted to work with Russia peacefully and he had the idea of possibly working cooperatively with them. However, John Dulles felt that the only way to get through to Russia is to go with much harsher and more confrontational policies. In the end, Eisenhower won out the 1952 election and made a promise to "go to Korea" and to find a solution to end this "Cold War." Surprisingly, he did manage to achieve this goal and there was cease-fire on July 27, 1953.

As stated in Marissa's blog, the 1950's offered a time of change, especially in the music industry of America. The 1950's transitioned from the longtime smooth jazz to a new genre of music that would become famously known as Rock 'N Roll. Rock 'N Roll gave the people of America, especially the youth of this time, a chance to express their emotions and creativity through the rebellious lyrics that were present throughout the basis of the Rock N' Roll songs.

Also, as we have learned from David's article, America in the 1950's proved to be a turning point for the people of the nation as they seemed to become, wholly, a more religious nation. Led by the speeches and sermons of the famous evangelist, Billy Graham, many people became aware of the modern day evils Mr. Graham would present in his sermons, such as the idea of materialism, hedonism, and secularism. During this decade the percentage of those who attended and were members of a church increased 20%, just in ten years. Even the President, President Eisenhower seemed led to become a member of the Presbyterian Church and it would be President Eisenhower who would establish our nation's motto as "In God We Trust" and he would also add the line "One Nation Under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. From

From Rajia's blog, we are able to conclude that during the 1950's, America had faced it's biggest problem yet... how to deal with TEENAGERS! Teenagers hadn't really existed before the 1950's. Sure people were still that age at one point in their life, but they were considered to be young adults, able to make rational and responsible decisions and were expected to work full time jobs. However, beginning in the 1950's, teenagers came along and with the influence of the new popular music genre, Rock 'N Roll, coming about, and these young adults would learn the meaning of rebellion, as a majority of youth this age defied their parents' guidance and lived a life discovering more about themselves and who they are and also about the world around them. Parents were unfamiliar with this stage of life initially, seeing that they had not experienced it themselves, yet over the years, parents raising children would soon expect no less and learned to adapt to this new type of behavior.