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1. 1 2016-03-06T19:58:38-08:00 Vince Sandri f1c5ba0a4f7b96b251ed23b27f5bd5ddc781e56b Primary Source Gallery Vince Sandri 7 A gallery of the primary source material used for this project. structured_gallery 2016-03-06T21:42:58-08:00 Vince Sandri f1c5ba0a4f7b96b251ed23b27f5bd5ddc781e56b

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• 1 media/camera-801924_1920.jpg media/background-texture-1014963_1280.jpg media/A_Picture_of_a_Southern_Town-_Life_in_Wartime_Reading,_Berkshire,_England,_UK,_1945_D25264.jpg 2016-02-22T17:43:31-08:00 Constructing a Culture 86 Introduction: A Snapshot in Time gallery 243731 2016-03-14T08:55:49-07:00

  Post-World War II: The Rise of the Teenager

  As men and women returned home from war, how did post-World War II American life change?
  
  What ideals emerged? 
  
  How were teenager's identities shaped as the new ideology emerged? 

  As a result of postwar fever, adults created a network of resources and tools to coerce and disseminate their concocted standard of upstanding American youth to teenagers across America.   

  Post-World War II life had changed as GI’s returned home to begin families, and the rise of the middle-class began with the creation of suburbanization in the early 1950s.[1] In response to movement to the suburbs, the social-emotional American landscape promoted homogenization, blandness and conformity.[2] During this same moment, the American post-war life gave rise to a new class of people: teenagers. 
  
  Despite the growing terror spreading across the American landscape, teenagers were viewed as a "threat" that could be controlled. Film and print media attempted to constrain teenagers by using different modes of educational material. Informational sources such as The Journal on Audio-Visual Learning and Educational Screen: The Audio-Visual Magazine aimed at disseminating information and promoting conformist ideology to educators, who in turn, cultivated and circulated "idealist" dogma upon their students, American teenagers. Across America, teens were "tuning in" to films created by production agencies such as Cornet. During this same moment, magazines such as LIFE circulated photo-essays concerning the new group and acted as an agent of culture to the public using multidimensional images. The hope was that the image would "speak louder than words" and further impress white, bourgeois ideals upon the impressionable youth. 

  How to Use "Constructing a Culture"

  Our project allows for users to navigate and access information through several methods. Although the site was designed to be linear in fashion, users are invited to move throughout the site in whichever manner you choose. First, you may choose to follow the prescribed path by clicking on the "Begin with..." button at the bottom of this page, which will take you to the first page of the chapter. By continuing to click on the "Begin with..." and/or "Continue to..." button at the bottom of each page, you will be taken through the content in a linear fashion. 

  Feel free to move back and forth between the pages. ​You can navigate through the entire content of the book by hovering over the small menu icon  in the upper left corner of any page. Within this menu, all of the chapters for "Constructing a Culture" are outlined for simple maneuvering amongst chapters. You are invited to search the collection using your own key words, simply click the magnifying glass above to open the search dialog box.

  
                   Most importantly, we welcome you into "Constructing a Culture."
                      We hope that you enjoy the site, and welcome any feedback. 

   

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  [1] Donald Miller, “Program 23: The Fifties/From War to Normalcy,” Video, Fred Barzyk (2000; WGBH Education Foundation.), Online Video.https://www.learner.org/series/biographyofamerica/prog23/transcript/index.html.
   

  [2] S. Mintz & S. McNeil, “The Cold War,” Digital History, Retrieved (January 7,2016) 
  http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3401.

  
   
  
  
• 1 media/camera-801924_1920.jpg media/background-texture-1014963_1280.jpg media/Vintage Camera 2.jpg 2016-02-28T16:03:13-08:00 Nina Leen 39 The Quiet, Fashionable Life of a Photojournalist image_header 241030 2016-03-08T13:00:13-08:00 Preeminent photojournalist Nina Leen, employed by LIFE magazine in the 1940s primarily photographed animals, women and teenager. December 11, 1944 marked Leen's first coverage of teenage girls, "Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of their Own". In this article, through photographs, Leen introduced LIFE audiences to "the time in the life of every American girl when the most important thing in the world is to be one of a crowd of other girls and to act and speak and dress exactly as they do. This is the teen age. Some 6,000,000 U.S. teen-age girls live in a world of their own--a lovely, gay, enthusiastic, funny, and blissful society almost untouched by the war." 
  
  Seven months later, June 11, 1945, Leen revisted the teenager's livelihood, but this time photographed boys. The photo-essay, "Teen-Age Boys: Faced with war, they are the same as they have always been," ... 
  
  
  
  As American life transitioned postwar, the livelihood of teenage girls flourished. "Tulsa Twins: They Show how much the Teen-age World has Changed" showcases the transformation in teen girls, such as presenting cutting-edge, trendsetting, “New Look” clothing that made girls look more flirty and feminine. 
  
  In an up-close-and-personal photo shoot, serving as representatives for all teen girls nationwide, identical twins Barbara and Betty Bounds show off their fashion style, social life, and domestic tasks. “Tulsa Twins” welcomes you visually into the fashionable social world of middle-class, postwar teen girlhood, where being a lady requires domestic responsibility and acceptance to be “one of the crowd,” and in which “parties with boys are their favorite things in life.”