Well, I was gearing up to get offended as I am a housewife/mom in suburbia and then I kept reading and I couldn't do it. I am ridiculously spoiled in the way I think about my role because women have so much power in the home (if they want it) now as compared to then. I am guilty of yearning for a society that looks perfect on the outside, but never was. The women of the 50's and 60's, like my grandmother, had to conform in ways I've overlooked in time. Really happy you have shared this series. I am learning a lot.
We typically think of suburbia as an American phenomena. How has this played out in the rest of the world?
Also, these changes wrought by suburbia seem awfully fast. We go from barely having them, to disorder because of them in a mere 20 years (1945-1965)? I would suspect that the cultural web would've taken longer to sunder. Or is that perhaps the issue that it has sundered in some regions quickly while others have taken far longer (or are still undergoing it)?
I think the rise of mass media has been understated here, too. The same time period you refer to was the first time the nation had single media sources, instead of a conglomerate of local newspapers and other sources that could filter, spin, or alter what was being told to their community vs. what was being told to that in the next state over. That unification of, ahem, propaganda seems to have been an historical anomaly, particularly looking at the fragmentation before and after.
Hmm...I will obviously need to clarify some of this installment if I ever wind up folding it into a book or essay collection. Thank you!
So, to attempt to give you your due here...
The suburbs were both a crystallization point and an epitome of some long-term cultural forces that were already at work due to accumulated technological and economic change starting all the way back at the Black Death. Their an epitome because their emphasis on the trappings of leisure without its heart and soul, their regimented conformity-disguised-as-freedom, and their economic and social unsustainability all typify the post-WW2 governmental and social values.
Second, because the women who were imprisoned in the suburbs were exactly the social class that generally goes on to shape the world on every level (whether they want to or not), so it's difficult to understand all of what's coming if we don't first understand the crucible in which was formed the moral fervor of the moral crusades (and panics) that have been burning over our civilization for the last fifty years (the previous generation that burned America over also had its crusades led by well-to-do women of [relative] leisure whose mentalities were forged in the Civil War).
Third, both the forces (of economic growth and social conformity) that created the suburbs are ones that broke loose from America and prevailed everywhere, and the social and technological changes to reproductive patterns and sexual politics they led to is a huge part of the story.
I seem to be wandering here. Let's see.
So, to answer your questions directly:
All of the first-phase post WW2 alliance members have experienced something analogous, usually on a time table delayed by 5-10 years. Rapid growth and urbanization, rapid disruption of the social fabric and culture, rapid propagandization (dammit, you jumped the gun on me, this is slated for a fuller treatment the next installment!), and more rapid centralization along all axes.
The Western world (and, to a lesser extent), its imperial holdings, had already internalized a LOT of disruption by the time the post-WW2 era hit. For us, the cultural disruption since WW2 (of which the 50s were perhaps the most disruptive even while they *appeared* to be the "return to normal" after tumultuous times--another one of the reasons I selected this narrative track) has been huge to the point of potentially breaking us. In the developing world, all that change hit at once (in a couple decades). That made them more susceptible to some kinds of breakage (such as birth rate disruptions that spin an economy into a post-growth death spiral) and less susceptible to others (cultural identity is stronger in many of these places--such as Japan--so there is much less personal misery and dislocation), at least in the short term. Long term may be a different picture, as "no children" kinda does eventually doom a culture.
So, if you'll forgive the previous rambling and this confused sum-up:
The suburbs are still largely an American phenomon, but they have spread a bit. The rest of the world has gotten the benefit of the solutions to the problems that crystalized in the suburbs, and the unintended downsides as well. A lot of the export of those technologies and ideas is gonna pop up in the next installment when I talk about mass media and the internet as more seeds of destruction.
Well, I was gearing up to get offended as I am a housewife/mom in suburbia and then I kept reading and I couldn't do it. I am ridiculously spoiled in the way I think about my role because women have so much power in the home (if they want it) now as compared to then. I am guilty of yearning for a society that looks perfect on the outside, but never was. The women of the 50's and 60's, like my grandmother, had to conform in ways I've overlooked in time. Really happy you have shared this series. I am learning a lot.
I am delighted and humbled that you are finding such value in the series. Thank you!
We typically think of suburbia as an American phenomena. How has this played out in the rest of the world?
Also, these changes wrought by suburbia seem awfully fast. We go from barely having them, to disorder because of them in a mere 20 years (1945-1965)? I would suspect that the cultural web would've taken longer to sunder. Or is that perhaps the issue that it has sundered in some regions quickly while others have taken far longer (or are still undergoing it)?
I think the rise of mass media has been understated here, too. The same time period you refer to was the first time the nation had single media sources, instead of a conglomerate of local newspapers and other sources that could filter, spin, or alter what was being told to their community vs. what was being told to that in the next state over. That unification of, ahem, propaganda seems to have been an historical anomaly, particularly looking at the fragmentation before and after.
Hmm...I will obviously need to clarify some of this installment if I ever wind up folding it into a book or essay collection. Thank you!
So, to attempt to give you your due here...
The suburbs were both a crystallization point and an epitome of some long-term cultural forces that were already at work due to accumulated technological and economic change starting all the way back at the Black Death. Their an epitome because their emphasis on the trappings of leisure without its heart and soul, their regimented conformity-disguised-as-freedom, and their economic and social unsustainability all typify the post-WW2 governmental and social values.
Second, because the women who were imprisoned in the suburbs were exactly the social class that generally goes on to shape the world on every level (whether they want to or not), so it's difficult to understand all of what's coming if we don't first understand the crucible in which was formed the moral fervor of the moral crusades (and panics) that have been burning over our civilization for the last fifty years (the previous generation that burned America over also had its crusades led by well-to-do women of [relative] leisure whose mentalities were forged in the Civil War).
Third, both the forces (of economic growth and social conformity) that created the suburbs are ones that broke loose from America and prevailed everywhere, and the social and technological changes to reproductive patterns and sexual politics they led to is a huge part of the story.
I seem to be wandering here. Let's see.
So, to answer your questions directly:
All of the first-phase post WW2 alliance members have experienced something analogous, usually on a time table delayed by 5-10 years. Rapid growth and urbanization, rapid disruption of the social fabric and culture, rapid propagandization (dammit, you jumped the gun on me, this is slated for a fuller treatment the next installment!), and more rapid centralization along all axes.
The Western world (and, to a lesser extent), its imperial holdings, had already internalized a LOT of disruption by the time the post-WW2 era hit. For us, the cultural disruption since WW2 (of which the 50s were perhaps the most disruptive even while they *appeared* to be the "return to normal" after tumultuous times--another one of the reasons I selected this narrative track) has been huge to the point of potentially breaking us. In the developing world, all that change hit at once (in a couple decades). That made them more susceptible to some kinds of breakage (such as birth rate disruptions that spin an economy into a post-growth death spiral) and less susceptible to others (cultural identity is stronger in many of these places--such as Japan--so there is much less personal misery and dislocation), at least in the short term. Long term may be a different picture, as "no children" kinda does eventually doom a culture.
So, if you'll forgive the previous rambling and this confused sum-up:
The suburbs are still largely an American phenomon, but they have spread a bit. The rest of the world has gotten the benefit of the solutions to the problems that crystalized in the suburbs, and the unintended downsides as well. A lot of the export of those technologies and ideas is gonna pop up in the next installment when I talk about mass media and the internet as more seeds of destruction.
Thanks Ed! A pleasure as always