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1950s

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The 1950s were the all the years between 1950 and 1959.

In the West, the generation traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II created a culture with emphasis on normality and calm conformity.

Economy of the Fifties

Rebirth of Europe

Recovering from aftermath of war, the "Economic miracle" emerged in West Germany and Italy. Additionally, wartime rationing ended in the United Kingdom.

North American Ascendancy

The 1950s in the United States of America were marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, imperialism, and war were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a world returning from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to the liberalism and radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems in the 50s would have a significant impact on the rest of the twentieth century.

Social/Political movements

Korea

The Korean War, began on June 25 1950 until a cease-fire took effect on July 27 1953 (the war has not officially ended) started as a civil war between North Korea and South Korea. When it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly escalated into a Cold War-era conflict and served as a proxy war between the capitalist powers of the United States and its allies and the Communist powers of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union.

U.S./USSR tensions result in "Cold War"

This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. Consult the legend on the map for more details.

The "Cold War," which began as a geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States, intensified. During this time the Warsaw pact and NATO were founded.

Most above ground nuclear test explosions happened during this decade.

The 1950s were also marked with a rapid rise in tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that would heighten the Cold War to an unprecedented level which would touch off the Arms Race, Space Race, McCarthyism, and Korean War. Stalin's death in 1953 left an enormous impact in Eastern Europe that forced the Soviet Union to create more liberal policies internally and externally. The rise of Suburbia as well as the growing conflict with the East are the two generally accepted reasons for the conservative domination of this decade.

The most notable political shift in the Eastern bloc would be the Hungarian revolution of 1956 which would soon falter due to the Soviet Union's intervention.

Communist Fidel Castro gained power in Cuba, the first country in the Western Hemisphere to come under communist rule. In the United States this resulted in a "Red Scare" and the McCarthy Hearings.

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis is also known as the Suez War or the 1956 War, and is commonly known in the Arab world as the Tripartite aggression; other names include the Suez-Sinai war, 1956 Arab-Israeli War, Suez Campaign, Kadesh Operation, and Operation Musketeer, which was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. The conflict pitted Egypt against an alliance between the United Kingdom, France and Israel. The United States also played a crucial role, albeit not a military one.

European Common Market

The common market, the precuror of the European Union was established.

Civil rights

Culture during the Fifties

  • Brylcreem and other hair tonics have a period of popularity
  • Juvenile delinquency said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in USA, though some see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today.
  • Continuing poverty in some regions during recessions later on in this decade.
  • Fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the U.S. and European countries. Mostly liberal or moderate Western governments, though communism/Cold War play a role in reaction to, and within, domestic politics.
  • Beatnik culture/The Beat Generation
  • Optimistic visions of semi-Utopian technological future including such devices as the flying car.
  • The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters.
  • Along with the appearance of the sentence Kilroy was here across the United States, graffiti as an art form develops, especially among urban African Americans; graffiti eventually becomes one of the four elements of hip hop culture
  • Considerable racial tension with military and schools desegregation in the US, though controversy never truly erupts until later on in the 1960s.
  • Rise of evangelical Christianity including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (1950), and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951). Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
  • Carl Stuart Hamblen religious radio broadcaster.

Emerging social perspectives in the Fifties

The Fifties in music

Rock-and-roll music

Traditional pop music such as the bebop era of jazz hit its peak and climaxed as early rock and roll music led byElvis Presley was embraced by teenagers and the emerging youth culture as the first wave of the Baby Boom reached its teen years. Rock music was generally dismissed or condemned by older generations. Other prominent rock and roll musicians inclued Paul Anka, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

The Fifties in cinema

World cinema

Hollywood

Known as the "Golden Age" by most, this era of movie-making would see the release of many classics and a slew of talented stars and directors. Films like "Sunset Boulevard" with William Holden and Gloria Swanson, "All About Eve" with Bette Davis, and "Ben-Hur", with Charlton Heston, would become instant classics.

Westerns were getting bigger in the '50's with films like "High Noon" starring Gary Cooper, and "Cheyenne" with Clint Walker , wrangling us back to the time of outlaws and wild shoot-outs. There were no shortage of war movies as we saw the release of "Stalag 17", directed by Billy Wilder, "The Bridge over the River Kwai" starring Alec Guiness, and Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory", which starred Kirk Douglas as the French Col. Dax, defending three soldiers of cowardace, in this potent anti-war film.

Thrillers were also turning into a huge genre in post-war Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock directed many big name pictures, including "Rear Window", starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, "North by Northwest" with Cary Grant, and "Vertigo", also with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.

Comedies are always popular, and the '50's were no exception. "It Happens Every Spring", "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and "The Ladykillers" starring Alec Guiness and Peter Sellerswould be loved by many. The year 1951 would have an important comedy milestone, the last film of the great comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy, the pair starred as the inheritors of an island in the Pacific.

The Fifties in radio and television

Television replaced radio as the dominant mass medium in industrialized countries. Popular television programs in the U.S. included Texaco Star Theater, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, I Love Lucy, The $64,000 Question, and Gunsmoke. The Twilight Zone premiered as the first major science-fiction show.


In the United Kingdom

In the United States

The Fifties in literature

Beatniks and the beat generation, an anti-materialistic literary movement that began with Kerouac in 1948, stretching on into the 1960s was at its Zenith in the 1950s. Such groundbreaking literature as William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and J.D. Salinger's publishes The Catcher in the Rye are published.

The Fifties in architecture

The Fifties in science and philosophy

The Fifties in sports

The Olympics

The Fifties in technology

National issues

In the Middle East

The growth of the state of Israel happened.

Mahmoud Abbas becomes involved in Palestinian politics in Qatar.

In Africa

Decolonization: Algeria, Vietnam, and elsewhere.

Asia

Early history of the People's Republic of China and of the Indonesian state.

In Japan

In South America

The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.

In the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc

In the United States

In the United Kingdom

In the Commonwealth

People

Entertainers

World leaders

See also

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