I learned a lot about the economics and politics of the 1960’s that I didn’t know before. I learned a lot about the Soviet Union and their relationship with the United States and how this could have possibly started WWIII, beginning with the Cold War. I also learned the importance of the “space race” and the impact it had on the political standings. In addition to the impact of the space race, colored television also played a very important role in politics. From the presidential debates to local new, television was the new way to show people what was happening around them.
When thinking about how the ideologies of the 60’s are still alive today, somethings that stand out right away are the political influences and the amount of control television has. When first voted into office, Kennedy tasked himself with trying to convince the people that civil rights belonged to everybody and that we neither needed to be friend nor foe right away. We didn’t need to fight if unprovoked, but we also didn’t need to carelessly give away our resources either. Similarly, our president today has a well-known face and is talked about a lot in the public eye. Television, another thing that was extremely influential back then, is also impactful today. Back then, television was used to broadcast presidential debates and local news. Today, we use it to better inform ourselves of international news that, without television, we probably wouldn’t know. While these two things remain the same, many things have changed since the 1960’s. For example, the way we dress, the amount of racism and segregation has decreased, and minorities have been given a lot more freedom.
Out of the four artifacts that we created, I really liked the newspaper because of the format. I thought it looked really nice and authentic. The work on this artifact was also split evenly and Andrew and I got a lot of feedback and critique from a lot of different people. It's safe to say we spent the most time on this artifact and a lot of research went into it as well.
Out of the social, economical, and political aspects, I feel I learned about economics the most. Going into this project, I feel like I had a pretty good understanding of the culture and politics of the time but I didn’t know a lot about the economics. After researching I found out that because of the economic boom after WWII and the integration of minorities, the economy could’ve been really good but because of slow but large government spending and inflation, the overall economy was neutral. It wasn’t extremely good but it wasn’t terribly bad either.
For my group, if I could change anything about the project, I would manage our time a little better. Despite receiving an extension we spent a lot of time on one artifact instead of equally working on all of the artifacts. My suggestion to change this project as a whole would be to not have it right after the World’s Fair Project or similar projects because, to me, this just kind of seemed like the exact same thing. I really enjoyed doing this project because I got to learn about the decade and do research but the way we had to present was just too similar to previous projects.
Andrew and I read Fallout by Tom Strasser, a book about a boy whose family owns the only bomb shelter in the neighborhood while the U.S is on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Based off true events, this book talks about what it would have been like if a nuclear bomb had been dropped. It’s split into two parts that alternate each chapter. In half of the book a nuclear bomb is dropped and the family rushes into their shelter, two other families push their way in and they end up having to survive while feeding 10 people instead of the planned 4. In the other half, it talks about the life of the main character, Scott, and his life living in fear of nuclear war. The book talked a lot about the segregation issue of the time and one character even suggested kicking the maid out, because she was African American, just so they could have more food. It also took some things lightly that, today, we would consider unorthodox. For example, giving a young boy a glass of wine or letting them smoke a cigarette.