American Movie Classics Company
The Film Site: A Streetcar Named Desire
This resource offers good material on Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire," including a quote from Williams on art, and information on the original 1947 production of the play and the 1950s film version.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Beat Movement
This encyclopedia entry surveys the Beat movement in American literature and culture during the 1950s and early 1960s, which was personified by such writers as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Strange Case of the Cyclops Sheep
In the 1950s, a group of ranchers in Idaho were baffled when their sheep gave birth to lambs with only one eye. Mystified by these cyclops sheep, they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. What...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: What Is Mc Carthyism? And How Did It Happen?
In the 1950s, as part of a campaign to expose suspected Communists, thousands of individuals were aggressively investigated and questioned before government panels. Named after its most notorious practitioner, the phenomenon known as...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Path
Partially inspired by Plath's experiences with depression, The Bell Jar follows the emotional breakdown of Esther Greenwood, a promising college student who cannot reconcile her desires with American conventions during the 1950s-1960s....
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller
In +J1105:J1113this allegorical drama, inspired by the witch hunt trials of 1692-93 and the 1950s Red Scare, the town of Salem is plagued by hysteria and accusations of witchcraft. Selected (9) reading passages (grades 8-12) to pair with...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Desegregation Integration, Making of African American Identity: V.3
This resource presents James Farmer (1920-1999), a major figure in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, and the distinction he draws between integration and desegregation, two terms often used interchangeably and often confused.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Commercial Elections
This is a hands-on, technology-based U.S. Government lesson in which students will view a series of political television advertisements from the 1950s-2000. Students vote on which presidential candidate has the best commercial after each...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Sncc and Core
Read about the two civil rights groups that organized nonviolent protests during the 1950s and 1960s.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Atomic Fears and the Arms Race
Read about the impact of nuclear proliferation in the 1950s, including fears of atomic bombs and increasing militarization.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Space Race
This set focuses on the Space Race during the mid-1950s and 1960s and examines the impact of the Space Race today. Includes a teacher's guide.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Rock 'N' Roll: Beginnings to Woodstock
The resources in this set highlight the artists and sounds that were central to the rock 'n' roll musical genre that contributed to social and cultural change in America beginning in the 1950s.
A&E Television
History.com: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King sought equality and human rights for African...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Gusii
The Gusii are divided into seven clan clusters: Kitutu (Getutu), North Mugirango, South Mugirango, Majoge, Wanjare (Nchari), Bassi, and Nyaribari. Gusiiland is located in western Kenya, 50 kilometers east of Lake Victoria. Since...
A&E Television
History.com: Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Fought Bravely in Korea Then Had to Fight for Redemption
The Borinqueneers, the U.S. military's only all-Hispanic unit, saw their sacrifice and achievements overshadowed by a trumped-up court martial. The U.S. Army's 65th Infantry Regiment, the only all-Hispanic unit that hailed mostly from...
A&E Television
History.com: Barbie Through the Ages
Take a look at Barbie's cultural revolution through the decades. Barbie's official birthday is March 9, 1959 -- the day she was officially introduced to the world. Handler always saw Barbie as a reflection of the times, with the first...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Eisenhower National Historic Site: Presidency
Learn about the ways in which Eisenhower's presidency and personality mirrored the country as a whole during the years he was president (1952-1960). Includes many artifacts of the era, such as campaign paraphernalia and articles of...
PBS
Pbs: Picture Power
An overview of early television and its impact on American society. Also, two interviews with people who remember watching their first TV!
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: America Rocks and Rolls
Read a brief history of rock and roll and its roots. See why this form of music shook the establishment and shattered the idea of conformity.
Digital History
Digital History: Simple Justice
Follow the civil rights quest for integrated schools from the beginning in 1849 through the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education and the struggle that ensued for decades following in the most reluctant...
Other
Columbus Museum of Art: Curator's View: Norman Rockwell's "Soda Jerk"
See the painting 'Soda Jerk' by American commercial artist of the mid-20th-century, Norman Rockwell, in this Curator's View series description of the piece from the Columbua Museum of Art.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Period 8: 1945 1980
This Khan Academy resource provides a table of contents with notes for several sections of AP US History: Period 8: 1945-1980.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Understanding Television
A course from MIT on the cultural history of television. Includes readings, assignments, exams, and videos of lectures.
George Washington University
Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project: House Un American Activities Committee
A description of the genesis of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the bullying inquisition of those the committee accused of having Communist leanings.
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