1947 - 1963 ORDERING A POSTWAR WORLD

Order – 1947 - 1963

timeline of the

THE GENERATION OF

AMERICAN SUPERPOWER 

TIMELINE AND COMMENTARIES @ $3.00

FORMAT - PDF

• A TIMELINE OF 15 PAGES
• 14 COMMENTARIES.  

• BUY HERE WITH PAYPAL OR  CREDIT CARDS

THIS GENERATION…

“Witnessed America’s ascendency as a global superpower. Social movements stalled. The middle class grew and prospered. Churches buttressed government. Huge peace time defense budgets were uncontroversial. Mass tastes thrived atop collectivist infrastructure of suburbs, interstates and regulated communication. Declaring “an end to ideology”, respected authorities presided over a bland, modernist and spirit-dead culture.”^[1]

THE “BABY BOOM GENERATION”. Grew up in an era when the middle-class, and suburbia grew and prospered. Technology brought new things like television. Churches were, in many cases, the center of the family orbit. Public schools, sports and nuclear preparedness were typical. Public morals were shared in relatively homogeneous neighborhood.

COMMENTARIES INCLUDE

1948-50 – The Marshall Plan – “How could there be any disagreement with the Marshall Plan? American “ascendency” to status as a “global superpower” was due to U.S. funding reconstruction of devastated Europe and Japan by U.S. companies while providing U.S. technocratic management.”

1949 – From “Heroes of Production” to “Heroes of Consumption” - At some point early in the century the “heroes of production” were celebrated in popular magazines. But that changed to “heroes of consumption.”

1950 - “What Was It Like?”, Ursula K. Leguin – “My friend at NARAL asked me to tell you what it was like before Roe V Wade. They asked me to tell you what it was like to be 20 and pregnant in 1950….”

1951 –  W.E.B DuBois - “A great silence has fallen on the real soul of this nation.” -  “W.E.B DuBois was handcuffed, fingerprinted and searched for concealed weapons was brought to trial for not registering as a ‘subversive’”.

1951 – “ONE LONELY NIGHT”, by Mickey Spillaine - Mickey Spillane’s One Lonely Night sold 3 million copies in 1951. In it the hero Mike Hammer Says: ‘I killed more people tonight than I have fingers on my hand. I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it... they were Commies, Lee.’

1954 – Top Secret Report to President Eisenhower by General Doolittle On War With the Soviets – “We must develop effective espionage and counter-espionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated means than those used against us.”

1955 - Emmett Till – “…fourteen-year-old Emmett Till had unintentionally whistled at a white woman shopkeeper (he had a speech defect from polio) and was lynched three nights later by a party led by the woman’s husband.”

1959 – BOY SCOUT HANDBOOK, The Boy Scouts of America - The Scout movement aims for a high standard of citizenship, character, and physical fitness for every American boy.

1961 – America’s #1 Economic Product – Weapons – “(Robert) McNamara was in control of both defense and development finances. His aim was to increase the production of armaments and transform that into the leading you as e”conomic product.”

1961 – Eisenhower’s Final Address – “Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.”

1962 - “The Obligation To Endure”, from SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson – “How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?”

1963 – “Eulogy For The Young Victims Of The 16^TH Street Baptist Church Bombing”, Martin Luther King, Jr.  – “Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. (Yeah)”

1963 – “Irreversible Inner Change” - “John Kennedy’s assassination (November 22, 1963) became a personal milestone for nearly everyone alive at that time… people wanted to believe nothing had been touched.”