There are scores of similarities and variances between 1950’s society and 2000’s society. One way the times are similar is by how American is being effected by the war on terror and how American was effected by the Cold War. Also we have major differences like technological advancements and a changing social dynamic. After WWII America began a second war in 1947. This war would be called the Cold War, this was a war of ideals and principles. A war in which the free democracy and communism were fighting for control of other countries. During this time in America, numerous citizens developed a phobia of people from communist nations. During this time, in America, many people from communist, or red, nations were discriminated against and abused. …show more content…
Many commodities, that are viewed as purely common, were not even invented as of 1950. Things like the credit card, television set, video recorder, radio transistor, the commercial passenger jet, black box, and so on were in the 1950’s just now being created. According to Weebly.com, “Science and medical technology has advanced a lot over the last 60 years” (Weebly.com). That is completely true, is it not? As stated an anonymous author on Weebly.com, “Things we were just coming out with back then are part of our daily life now; I'm using a computer to give you this information but back then a computer was unexplored technology” (Weebly.com). Moreover, until September 1958 the first integrated circuits, microchips or semiconductors as they are also called, had not been created. This made the first computer 30 tons in mass and take up approximately 2,000 square feet. Not to mention that without the integrated circuit this computer would have been teeming with roughly 18,000 vacuum …show more content…
Moving on to the 60’s and forward the space program expanded greatly. According to Areospace.com, “The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 31, 1958” (Areospace.com). Advancements continued onward. As stated by Areospace.com, “In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth” (Areospace.com). The spacecraft technology continued to evolve to today’s astronauts who can more easily transverse the atmosphere’s barrier and make it to space now. Moreover, medical develops like the pacemaker, invented in 1959, has been perfected or discovered along with other medical inventions like: the polio vaccine, the open heart surgery, the discovery of DNA, the first organ transplant, the contraceptive pill, and so
In Alabama between 1932 and 2003 many things have changed. The book "To Kill A Mockingbird",was set in the 1930's.I can see many changes in the culture and the general way of life.
During the Cold War from 1945 to 1953, the civil liberties faced many challenges as the citizens of the US faced and lived in a lot of terror. The Cold War in 1945 to 1953 brought about a period of tension and hostility due to the feud between the United States and the Soviet Union. The period began with the end of the Second World War. The situation acquired the title for there was no physical active war between the two rivals. The probability of the tension is the fear of the rise in nuclear ammunition.
The dual stock market rise and fall and the real estate bubbles of the 1920s and 2000s were very similar. The decade during the 1920s marked the flourishing of modern mass-production, mass-consumption economy, which delivered unprecedented profits to investors while also raising the living standard of the urban middle- and working-class. The 2000s marketed the development of the new e-commerce economy, which delivered high earnings for investors during IPOs of some of the biggest tech companies such as Google and Yahoo. According the US Census, home ownership rates in this country rose rom 47.8% in 1930 to 66.2% to nearly 70%in 2006. (US Census)
We Americans have a fondness of looking back to certain times with bouts of nostalgia, clutching closely the burred images of better off and more secure conditions. We seek to revive those past years, hoping to cure all of our current societal ills. Why cannot we bring them back? The economy was good, and the family was happy, we say.
Space travel began in the 1960s with sending humans on single missions into space. Rockets launched into the air and just the tip would land in the ocean after parachuting back to Earth ("Space Shuttle Program," par. 4). The focus of space exploration changed during the 1980s; shifting from the desire for human space flight to the desire to create a reusable spacecraft. Originally called Space Transportation System (STS), NASA created the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) (Heiney, par. 1-2). It wanted a shuttle that was more economical because it could be launched, landed and relaunched and could gather better information. The 1980s began a new era in space exploration and had one the biggest tragedies in the history of space travel.
Although this war was over, the Cold War was just beginning its introduction in the conflict with the Soviet Union. America sharpened its approach toward the Soviet Union in 1947 because Truman was afraid that war-torn Europe would fall under communist control of the Soviet Union.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Americans took a much more urgent approach after seeing what the U.S.S.R. was truly capable of. The United States would respond with various satellites including those of the Explorer Series and more. However, the Soviet Union would again one-up the United States, and all of their now seemingly feeble satellite launches, by putting the first man into outer space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Now the quest gained an even more competitive drive and the United States soon put Alan B. Shepard into space twenty-three days later. The Space Race was truly a trek for the firsts of history, essentially just exterrestrial one-ups throughout an extended period of time. That very same year, John F. Kennedy founded NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, just for that purpose, to explore the world beyond their own, while maintaining the central aim, to beat the Soviets outright. JFK was a leading power in this race, and “by giving NASA programs top priority, his actions essentially played on American fears of communism and implicitly inferred that the Eisenhower administration had not done enough to meet the Sputnik challenge. Too many Americans were beginning to feel a need to vindicate the ‘long-standing communist boast that theirs was the superior system for galvanizing human productivity’” (Koman 43). Winning this space race was way more than just an extraterrestrial victory, it would hopefully squander the communists’ hopes and assert true American dominance. The United States sought to eliminate any presumption of communist superiority and did so in the near future by winning this Cold War space race, thanks to the execution of a truly unimaginable
Out of some of the most turbulent times in history have come the greatest ages of success and prosperity. The 1920’s and 1950’s are two eras that exemplify the spirit of triumph and wealth. In both decades, a nation thrilled by the victorious conclusion of war and the return of their loved ones from war entered into an age of capitalism and materialism, bolstering the economy and with it national pride. Some of features most common to the 20’s and 50’s were consumerism and the accompanying optimistic mindset, the extent to which new ideas entered society, and discrimination in terms of both sexism and racism.
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause: Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable of destroying entire countries.
During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the country in the twenties to the sixties.
The decade after the First World War saw tremendous change. Progressivism was a leading factor of World War I and in the 1920’s the evidence can be seen. Industries were making their products at an increasing rate. Products that were not populous before World War I were now used by millions of Americans. The automobile was only used by less than ten million of Americans and by the end of this post war decade that number has climbed to over thirty million. Also many new inventions were coming through making life for Americans much more comfortable. Radios, vacuum cleaners, irons, washing machines, and refrigerators were among the new necessities Americans just had to have.
The space race was the product of the Cold War. It was an effort to prove technological superiority but on the other hand, it was also feared on both sides that weapons of mass destruction will be placed in orbit. In 1957, the Soviet Union sent the 184 pound Sputnik 1 satellite into Earth’s orbit. It was the first artificial satellite and the first manmade object to be placed into Earth’s orbit. Following that, they also sent the first animal into space, Laika the dog. In 1958, the United Sates also launched their first satellite into orbit, dubbed Explorer 1. The Soviet space program advanced once again in 1959. The Soviet Union launched Luna 2, which was the first space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961, the Soviet Union had the ultimate success, sending the first human into space. The name of the Russian cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin, who made a 108 minute suborbital flight in a Vostok 1 spacecraft. One month after that, Alan Shepard became the American in space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. Continuing from there, each nation step...
Even in the late 19th century, few people believed such a feat was possible, and yet, a mere half a century later, the first man was launched into space (Irvine 5). How did the human race go from just dreaming about space to actually launching human beings into space in such a short time? Surprisingly, the United States’ space program started with the Cold War. The Cold War pushed the United States and the Soviet Union into a space race in which both nations rapidly developed space programs and tried to best each other in space exploration (Cold War 1). The Kennedy Space Center was built in Florida as a control center which handled many of the shuttle launches into space (NASA 1).
Another example of the change in our technology over the last century is the change in the computer. In 1946, the first electronic computer called the ENIAC took up the space of a large room. Instead of using transistors and IC chips, the ENIAC used vacuum tubes. Compared to many computers now, the ENIAC is about as powerful as a small calculator. That may not be much, but it is a milestone because there would not be computers today if it were not for the ENIAC. As the years passed, the computer became smaller and more powerful. Today, more than half of the American population has a computer in their home. The personal computers today are thousands of times more powerful than the most powerful computers fifty years ago.
After World War II there was a strong anti-communist movement in America for decades prior to the 1950s. Nuclear weapons also sent a shot of distrust and fear between America and Russia. Information about nuclear weapons was very limited to the public. There are some facts, details, and reasons on why did this war happen, effects of the Cold War, and how society reacted to the War.