Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Lesson 3

Contents

Major Concepts

Objectives

Suggested lesson/activities


Postwar prosperity and the development of new technologies improved the lives of many Americans.

Objectives: The student will be able to:

  1. Identify and evaluate reasons for the economic boom of the 1950s.

  2. Analyze and evaluate important effects of the 1950s boom on American lifestyles and culture.

  3. Draw conclusions about the importance of nuclear weapons in relation to other new technologies of the era.

Suggested lesson/activities:

  • Interview parents in preparation for this activity. From responses obtained from parents or another adult who lived in the 1950s, construct a list of inventions and improvements from the 1950s that had an impact on the lifestyle and culture of the American people. (This list will be used in later activities.)

  • Use textbooks and other sources to complete the CROSSROADS Resource "Role Playing Analysis: Causes and Impacts of the Postwar Economic Boom," parts 1 and 2.

  • Explain to the students that this activity allows them to become researchers of the past using methods of the sociologist. Distribute the CROSSROADS Resource "Impact of Technology on American Cultural, Economic, and Political Life in the 1950s."

    A Crossroads Resource: ROLE-PLAYING ANALYSIS - CAUSES AND IMPACTS OF THE POSTWAR ECONOMIC BOOM
    A Crossroads Resource: IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON AMERICAN CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL LIFE IN THE 1950s

    Back to Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975