CW - Creating a New Society: Culture and Society During the Cold War, con't. (Lesson)

Creating a New Society: Culture and Society During the Cold War, con't.

Photo of Beatles arriving at JFK Airport in New York City. Counter-Culture: rebellion against parents, authority figures, and status quo.

The baby boom, after WWII, developed a distinctive and international youth culture.
Many were raised in economic prosperity and a more democratic class structure.
The new generation was influenced by a revival of leftist thought and created a "counter-culture."
Youth in America took the lead.
Some youth rebelled against conformity and the boredom of middle-class suburbs.
Rock music helped tie counter-culture together.
The Beatles, a British rock band, became one of the biggest pop groups in music history.
Increased sexual behavior among many young people during the 1960s and 1970s.
A growing tendency of young unmarried people to live together on a semi-permanent basis with little thought of getting married or having children.

Causes of the emergence of an international youth culture in the 1960s.

Mass communication and youth travel linked countries and continents together.
The baby boom meant that youth became an unusually large part of the population and exercised an exceptional influence on society as a whole.
Postwar prosperity and greater equality gave youth more purchasing power than ever before.
Youth set mass trends and fads in everything from music to the use of chemical stimulants.
Common patterns of consumption and behavior fostered generational loyalty.
Good jobs were readily available.
High demand for workers meant youth had little need to fear punishment from straight-laced employers for unconventional behavior.

Causes:

Opposition to the U.S. war in Vietnam triggered a revolutionary ferment among youths everywhere.
Influenced by Marxist undercurrents in French universities after 1945 & the new left thinking in the U.S.
Believed an older generation & the U.S. was fighting an immoral & imperialistic war against Vietnam.
Students in Western Europe shared U.S. youth's rejection of materialism and belief that postwar society was repressive and flawed.
Problems in higher education - classes overcrowded; little contact with professors; competition for grades intense; demanded even more practical areas of study to qualify for high-paying jobs after college.
Some students warned of the dangers of narrowly trained experts ("technocrats") who would serve the establishment to the detriment of the working class.

Students took over the university, leading to violent clashes with police.
Most students demanded changes in curriculum and a real voice in running the university.
Appealed to industrial workers for help; spontaneous general strike spread across France.
To many, it seemed the French Fifth Republic might collapse.
De Gaulle called in troops and called for new elections (which he won decisively).
The mini-Revolution collapsed.

For much of the older generation in Western Europe, the student revolution of 1968 signaled the end of illusions and the end of an era.

Due to Khrushchev's reforms in USSR, the 1960s brought modest liberalization and more consumer goods to Eastern Europe.
In 1968, reform elements in the Czechoslovak Communist Party gained a majority and voted out long-time Stalinist leader.
Alexander Dubcek is elected leader and ushers in a new period of thaw and rebirth in the famous "Prague Spring" of 1968.
Czech reformers building "socialism with a human face" frightened hard-line communists.
In retaliation, Soviet troops brutally invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Czechoslovakia became one of the most hard-line communist regimes well into the 1980s.

Brezhnev Doctrine: The Soviet Union and its allies had the right to intervene in any socialist country whenever they saw the need.

Image: Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops and armored vehicles block access to Prague Castle.

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