Date of Award
8-1-2011
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Lieberman, Robbie
Abstract
The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, I will examine the influences shaping the choices of teenagers living in an affluent society during the early days of the Cold War, specifically 1950 - 1955. I will discuss the contradictions about society, the family unit, and gender roles teenagers attempted to sort out as they moved through adolescence. Secondly, I will focus on two forms of mass media, specifically comic books and movies of the 1950s. Media has always had the power to change and shape the opinion of the youth culture who consumed it. I will discuss the lengths parents, educators, law enforcement, and government officials went to in order to blame the messages media conveyed for the behavior of this youth in revolt.
Access
This thesis is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.