Provides accounts of key events that occurred during the 1950s in the areas of science, technology, transportation, the economy, society, literature, art and architecture, fashion, stage and screen, music, sports and recreation, and war, and includes photographs and primary sources.

Traces changes in fashion during the 40s and 50s including military styles, utility clothes, Dior glamour, and the modernist look.

Discusses the political, economic, and cultural life of the United States in the 1950s, including the effects of the Cold War, the civil rights movement, television, music, art, science, and technology.

During the 1950s and 1960s, popular media was doing everything possible to undo the strong, work-oriented Rosie the Riveter image of the 1940s and bring women back into the domestic fold. The young, blonde Gidget image offered young girls a role model for carefree living before they settled down to fulfill their patriotic duty as wives and mothers. Yet many women weren't buying the images that advised them on how to catch husbands and become dutiful...