Alan Petigny's The Permissive Society: America

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Aside from the approach taken by Elaine Tyler May and Jessica Weiss, Alan Petigny argues in his book The Permissive Society: America, 1941-1965 against the traditional narrative of the 1950s being the years of conservative values, religious resurgence, and family orientation. Instead, Peking argues that American social norms remained conservative during the 1950s, however, personal values and behavior underwent a significant process of liberalization between 1941 and 1965. This is a similar view shared by Jessica Weiss. In making the case for the “dramatic liberation of values during the Truman and Eisenhower years,” Peking points to the “emergence of the Permissive Turn.” Essentially, this position argues that “during the latter half of …show more content…

That because of the government, “all of the social sciences received…an injection of adrenaline, as well as money.” That “the increasing respect accorded to physiologists, sociologists, economists, and social workers enabled a battery of experts to better challenge the traditional or religious view of the way life should be ordered.” That people stopped consulting the bible, or asking what would their parents do when it came to moral authority, instead they started to ask “what do the experts say?” The expansion of higher education was also another factor facilitating “more liberal attitudes during the 1950s.” That this altered “the way Americans thought about a host of sensitive issues, including attitudes toward psychology, sex, religious faith, and the role of women in society.” On the subject regarding the transformation of gender roles, Petigny reaches the same conclusion that Jessica Weiss did: “The Husband may have persisted in his traditional role of breadwinner, but his status as the ‘head of the household’ was clearly undermined by the increased democratization of the husband wife relationship.” This is not a surprise since Petigny uses the same study used by Weiss. The study found that “Wives dominating family decision just as often as husbands (22 percent of …show more content…

They bring missing components in the offered narratives. Because of this, they moved the subject from the local to the national level and vice versa. Some of their themes overlap, but at the same, each narrative brings a fresh viewpoint to the dialogue. When read together, one can have a clear sense in how much the historiographic view of 1950s and the transformation of gender roles has and continues to change. May, Weiss, and Petigny have all composed impressive and unique books that will have an enduring effect on the historiography of the 1950s and the American family. The monographs sway the reader with the extent of their inquiry and the comprehensive range of their examination. These studies demonstrate that the history behind the transformation of gender roles during the postwar period is migrating to an area that not only abandons the 1950s clichés, but also questions popular assumptions of this period. These three maneuver above the narrative of the 1950s as a time of conformity and embracement of “traditional values.” Not only do they show the various paths for the transformation of gender roles in postwar America, but also demonstrate the basic and important relation between the government and the general public. They remind us that the 1950s is simply a decade that is connected to the past, as well as its future, and not simply a static period of unchanged dynamics. Realized and composed thirty

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