How would you describe or characterize the 1950s?
In the US, and the rest of the western world it was the social changes that characterized this period. It was a restructuring of the roles people played in society; women had worked and continued to do so, children were no longer expected to work and the teenager was created, people of African American descent had become more 'valuable' to society providing workers during the wartime shortages as well as serving in the army (traditionally in any democracy you are afforded voting/civil rights depending upon your contribution to the community - the value of which is decided by the same community). The information revolution began at this same time ensuring that society took a greater role in political matters due to the nature of television and radio. The economical boom must be tied to this, however, as none of it would have been achieved in a depressed state.
How would you characterize the decade of the 1920's?
I certainly would not characterize the decade of the 1920s in the United States of America (you failed to mention this) as "simply a time of flappers and alcoholics." That is the whitewashed version of History, which happens on a very regular basis, and includes the "Happy Days" version of the 1950s and the "Forrest Gump" version of the 1960s/1970s. The saddest thing of all is that so many people think these versions are all true. The decade of the 1920s can be characterized by segregation (which was still in place in the southern States), labor unrest (strikes, lockouts, police attacking strikers), mass arrests of communists (the Palmer Raids), prevailing propaganda of fear and hysteria, deportations of radicals, and other pleasant activities that were swept under the "flappers and booze" rug for public consumption of falsified history.
The late 1950s and early 1960s were characterized by great public optimism, confidence, and a feeling of progress into the "modern" world.?
The late 1950s and early 1960s were characterized by great public optimism, confidence, and a feeling of progress into the "modern" world. Identify at least three specific events or situations that contributed to this hopeful atmosphere. Why did they have this effect?
Why did many women during the 1960s reject the women's movement?
many women during the 60's had already found a suitable man, married him, and had him trained just the way they wanted him..women in the 60's were already working at jobs, making enough money to share in family expenses and buy themselves their own car to drive to work in...far too many of the women in the 60's had no intention of rocking the boat, especially since they saw that most of the women in the movement were generally unwed, unattractive, mannish types, whom they remember from school in the 50's as being just as unattractive and mannish back then.