Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times
Notes on Doctorow’s Welcome to Hard Times
Outstanding Writer Course: Dr Z. Ramin
Sara Khazai , 2014
Historical Background: 1950s-1960s
In The Sixties, Arthur Marwick describes the Fifties as “rigid”:
[R]igid social hierarchy; subordination of women to men and children to parents; repressed attitudes toward sex; racism; unquestioning respect for the authority in the family, education, government, the law, and religion, and for the nation-state, the national flag, the national anthem; Cold War hysteria; a strict formalism in language, etiquette, and dress codes; a dull and cliché-ridden popular culture, most obviously in popular music, with its boring big bands and banal ballads”
(Marwick, Arthur. The Sixties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
The United States in the 1950s experienced marked economic growth - with an increase in manufacturing and home construction amongst a post-World War II economic boom. The Cold War and its associated conflicts helped create a politically conservative climate in the country. Anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the period. The 1950s in the United States are generally considered highly materialistic in nature. Major U.S. events during the decade included: the Korean War (1950–1953); the Red Scare, the 1957 launch by the Soviet Union of the Sputnik satellite, a major milestone in the Cold War.
The Kefauver hearings about country-wide organized crime and corruption were held between 1950 and 1951. Headed by Estes Kefauver, the committee traveled the country, investigating all levels of corruption. The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings in April and June 1954, focused specifically on graphic crime and horror comic books.
The sixties was a time of intense disillusionment and startling recognition for the American nation. A combination of political and social factors in the 1960s in the US led to what is commonly called a spirit of "regeneration." The
Outstanding Writer Course: Dr Z. Ramin
Sara Khazai , 2014
Historical Background: 1950s-1960s
In The Sixties, Arthur Marwick describes the Fifties as “rigid”:
[R]igid social hierarchy; subordination of women to men and children to parents; repressed attitudes toward sex; racism; unquestioning respect for the authority in the family, education, government, the law, and religion, and for the nation-state, the national flag, the national anthem; Cold War hysteria; a strict formalism in language, etiquette, and dress codes; a dull and cliché-ridden popular culture, most obviously in popular music, with its boring big bands and banal ballads”
(Marwick, Arthur. The Sixties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
The United States in the 1950s experienced marked economic growth - with an increase in manufacturing and home construction amongst a post-World War II economic boom. The Cold War and its associated conflicts helped create a politically conservative climate in the country. Anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the period. The 1950s in the United States are generally considered highly materialistic in nature. Major U.S. events during the decade included: the Korean War (1950–1953); the Red Scare, the 1957 launch by the Soviet Union of the Sputnik satellite, a major milestone in the Cold War.
The Kefauver hearings about country-wide organized crime and corruption were held between 1950 and 1951. Headed by Estes Kefauver, the committee traveled the country, investigating all levels of corruption. The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings in April and June 1954, focused specifically on graphic crime and horror comic books.
The sixties was a time of intense disillusionment and startling recognition for the American nation. A combination of political and social factors in the 1960s in the US led to what is commonly called a spirit of "regeneration." The