His 135 Final Paper

A World of Change

HIS/135

Tasha White

Christine Hooper

September 11, 2011

Most people think of history as boring, especially when it comes to that of the United States. During the mid to late 20th century, the United States started to come of its own and move away from the European traditions of culture and entertainment. Immigrants started to come over to the United States in search of freedom and better work and Americans themselves pushing through discrimination and giving themselves a voice. When remembering upon United States history, people think of the wars, civil rights movements, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The following will depict what is felt to be the more influential social, economical, or political events throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

1950's – The start of a new generation: Television

The 1950s was the start of a whole new generation that no one thought would take off as much as did and has. Before the 1950s, television was mostly for the middle to upper class people of the United States. It was also in a format that would not be recognizable to some today with very limited availability. Broadcasting of news or shows, for the most part, could only be viewed from the city in which they were broadcasting from. The people, cartoons, or figures on the television were not as defined and lifelike as they are in this day and age. Prior to the 1950s, companies were big on trying to improve the quality of the television by making the picture clearer and the televisions bigger. Once World War II (WWII) started, these improvements on the television were halted until the war was over.

Once the WWII was over, stations began to broadcast more shows which lead to companies that made televisions to start up production once again. Due to the fact that the economy improved after the war, television pricing was lowered and became more optional to more classes of people. People...