Similarities Between 50s And 60s

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50s and 60s The troubled 1960s represented a huge break from the affluent 1950s, and the two decades had little in common. The differences in these two decades outweigh the similarities by a great margin. The fifties were all about prosperity and modernizing. People were taking full advantage of the rising economy from the war. The sixties were filled with protests and commotion. Women and minorities were fighting to get their rights. These decades were similar in that they both had protesting; however, the protesting in the sixties was more prominent than in the fifties. The 1950s are categorized as affluent because of many reasons. One reason is the ending of World War II. Young adults at the times were glad to be out of the war panic and into a good economy. The economy rose not only because of WWII, but also because of the cold war. Because of the cold war the government wanted to continue to produce military construction. In the book Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, he writes “Like other wars, the Cold War fueled industrial production and promoted a…show more content…
Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique. At one point in the article she declares “If I am right, this problem stirring in the minds of so many American women today is not a matter of loss of femininity or too much education, or the demands of domesticity. It is far more important than anyone recognizes. It may well be the key to our future as a nation and a culture. We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: "I want something more than my husband and my children and my home."” (Friedan 2006) She showed the women at the time that they could be more, and they followed her words. In 1966 the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed. NOW had a huge impact on the women’s liberation movement. This movement inspired a new idea of what freedom was. Then, the Gay Liberation, the Latino Activism, and the Red Power movements

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