AP®︎ US History: Topic 8.5 Flashcards

A nationally shared culture shaped by television, advertising, consumer goods, and idealized white middle-class suburban life

The leading postwar mass medium, spreading national programs, advertising, celebrities, and idealized family and gender roles

A social order in which possessions and purchasing signified success, modernity, identity, and family happiness

National marketing that sold lifestyles and identities through brands, slogans, television sponsorship, and idealized domestic images

Buy-now-pay-later financing, including expanding credit cards, that normalized continued middle-class consumption

Pressure to adjust behavior, appearance, ambitions, and beliefs to accepted corporate, suburban, gender, religious, and political norms

Fear of atomic war expressed through civil-defense drills, shelter preparations, science fiction, film, and literature

Evangelist whose mass revival crusades and use of radio and television brought Protestantism into national popular culture

The ideal of a breadwinning husband, homemaking wife, nuclear family, suburban home, and sharply divided gender roles

Black-influenced youth music combining rhythm and blues, gospel, blues, and country that challenged racial, sexual, and generational norms

African American rock-and-roll innovator whose music brought Black rhythm-and-blues traditions into national youth culture

African American rock-and-roll innovator known for energetic music and performance styles that challenged respectable convention

White performer who popularized Black-influenced rock and roll and became a symbol of teenage rebellion and sexual energy

Writers who rejected materialism, corporate conformity, conventional careers, sexual restraint, and suburban respectability

Postwar art emphasizing abstraction, scale, gesture, emotion, and individual experimentation rather than realistic depiction

Abstract expressionist painter whose poured and splattered drip paintings rejected traditional images and painting techniques

Social critic whose 1956 book The Organization Man condemned the sacrifice of individuality to corporate and group expectations

Whyte’s 1956 critique of employees who traded independence for security and advancement within bureaucratic corporations

Sociologist who argued in The Lonely Crowd that modern Americans increasingly sought guidance and approval from their peers

Riesman’s 1950 book describing modern Americans as increasingly other-directed and guided by peers and social expectations

Guided by peers’ approval and social expectations rather than primarily by independent or internal values

Author who challenged the postwar domestic ideal and helped inspire second-wave feminism through The Feminine Mystique

Friedan’s 1963 critique of the belief that women could find complete fulfillment only through marriage, motherhood, and homemaking

A distinct postwar teenage identity built around peers, music, films, clothing, and symbols that could challenge adult expectations

The profitable teenage consumer audience targeted by record companies, filmmakers, clothing manufacturers, and advertisers

Actor who became a national symbol of alienated and rebellious youth through Rebel Without a Cause

A 1955 film portraying alienation and generational conflict among materially comfortable suburban teenagers

Beat writer whose novel On the Road celebrated travel, improvisation, and intense experience over settled corporate and domestic life

Kerouac’s 1957 novel presenting travel, improvisation, and intense experience as alternatives to settled corporate and domestic life

Beat poet whose Howl attacked conformity and openly addressed sexuality, mental distress, and social marginality

Ginsberg’s poem attacking forces that crushed individuality and openly addressing sexuality, mental distress, and social marginality