The 1950s in America

American Dream

by Victoria Price

Definition Long-held popular belief that prosperity is within the reach of all Americans

The American Dream reached its fullest expression during the 1950’s—an era that saw unprecedented consumer spending and confidence, as well as private accumulation of material, giving rise to widespread hopes of gaining even greater wealth.

Following a decade of poverty for Americans who suffered during the Great Depression of the 1930’s and a decade of sacrifice and strife brought on by World War II, a weary people began to experience hope and optimism. Despite the perceived threat of world communism and the possibility of another great war and the social inequalities fostered by racial segregation laws, millions of Americans believed that the 1950’s was a good time to be alive and that their efforts to attain the good life would be rewarded if they worked hard enough.

That dream was not precisely defined but generally understood to encompass such goals as greater social equality, personal security and freedom from oppression, better jobs, steadily rising income, home ownership, and eventual comfortable retirement. Almost every aspect of American life contributed to sustaining this dream. For example, unprecedented numbers of Americans were entering the stock market, and American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) became the first corporation in the world to have more than a million individual stockholders. The growing prosperity could also be measured in increased spending on recreation and dining outside the home.

Many new products came onto the market: photocopy machines, UNIVAC computers, automobiles with such features as power steering, color televisions, Diner’s Club and American Express credit cards, transistor radios, sports cars, prepared frozen meals, disposable diapers, and more. The decade was also a period in which Americans expressed their exuberance in harmless fads, such as the hula hoop. The 1950’s saw the beginning of the fast-food industry and a rapid expansion in domestic airline transportation.

Positive Trends

The decade was not without strife, but a number of positive developments helped to buoy public optimism and reinforce faith in the American Dream. For example, Hawaii and Alaska joined the Union and brought the number of states to an even fifty. Racial discrimination was challenged by the Civil Rights movement, Supreme Court rulings, and the first federal civil rights legislation since the nineteenth century. In medicine, the first kidney transplant was done; fluoridation of water greatly reduced tooth decay; mass inoculation against polio, using the Salk vaccine, began. Still feeling the glow of victory in World War II, the nation expressed its technological and military might by developing the hydrogen bomb and competing with the Soviet Union in the exploration of space.

In the cultural field, Leonard Bernstein became the first American-born director of the New York Philharmonic and Van Cliburn became the first American to win the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City. Book publishing was varied and prolific, and new magazines such as MAD, Playboy, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated began circulating.

The decade saw a virtual revolution in labor-saving appliances for the home, family recreation, and entertainment. Television finally emerged from being an obscure experiment to find its way into almost every American home by the end of the decade, and color television made the medium even more popular. The film industry met the challenge of television by experimenting with 3-D and wide-screen movies and offering increasingly colorful and spectacular films. The music industry benefited from the spread of transistor radios and the introduction of long-playing records that made it possible for rock and roll to become the dominant popular music form.

Impact

While not realized by every American, millions of Americans experienced unprecedented prosperity in a new consumer culture that encouraged them to spend freely to fulfill their dreams. Credit cards enabled families to buy now, pay later, and ignore the values of saving and living frugally that had been the norm for their parents and grandparents. Economic prosperity led to a peak in the baby boom that had begun during the early 1940’s. Older couples who had delayed beginning families now felt they could afford children, and the average marriage age of women dropped to 20.1 years in 1956, resulting in the largest ten-year increase in population in American history.

Further Reading

1 

Calder, Lendol. Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001. Study of the problems arising from consumer overuse of credit to make purchases, with a historical survey of the problem.

2 

Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Historical study that traces the origins of the “American Dream” back to the seventeenth century.

3 

Hudnut-Beumler. Looking for God in the Suburbs. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994. This book explains the religion of Americans during the 1950’s in order to understand what happened to American religion and society in later years.

4 

Luttwak, Edward N. The Endangered American Dream. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. While acknowledging continued affluence, Luttwak predicts a downward spiral and identifies areas to be affected.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Price, Victoria. "American Dream." The 1950s in America, edited by John C. Super, Salem Press, 2005. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1950_119.
APA 7th
Price, V. (2005). American Dream. In J. C. Super (Ed.), The 1950s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Price, Victoria. "American Dream." Edited by John C. Super. The 1950s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2005. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.