Following the end of World War II, the return of peace and prosperity fostered a baby boom that sent families scrambling for new housing and increasingly away from the cities. Suburbs grew as housing developers such as William Levitt built affordable, mass-produced homes in the suburbs and as the federal government provided new highways that allowed suburban residents to commute to their jobs in the cities. With increased income, consumers purchased the latest models in automobiles as well as newly introduced televisions, reshaping how they spent their leisure time. As the baby boom generation entered their teenage years, their sheer numbers and general affluence helped make them a significant economic and cultural force. They poured their dollars into clothes, music, and other forms of entertainment, which reinforced their identity as teenagers and set them apart from adults.

The increasingly distinct teenage culture owed a great deal to African Americans, who contributed to the development of rock ’n’ roll and revolutionized jazz, thereby providing a standard for teenage rebellion and attacks on mainstream values by the beats. Yet African Americans remained most focused on tearing down the legal and institutional foundations of white supremacy. First in the courts and then in the streets, they confronted segregation and disfranchisement in the South. By the end of the 1950s, African Americans had persuaded the Supreme Court to reverse the doctrine of “separate but equal” that buttressed Jim Crow; they also won significant victories in desegregating buses in Montgomery, schools in Little Rock, and lunch counters in Greensboro. Black teenagers reinvigorated the civil rights movement through their boldness and energy, opening the path for even greater racial changes in the coming decade.

In addition to struggles over racial equality, the 1950s witnessed serious tensions at home and overseas. Teenage cultural rebellion; sexual revolution; McCarthyite witch-hunts; a bloody war in Korea; foreign crises in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia; clandestine operations in Iran, Guatemala, and the Congo—all of these confronted the citizens of Alan Freed’s and Grace Metalious’s America. Nevertheless, the popular image of the 1950s as a tranquil and innocent period persists, mainly because of the presence of President Dwight Eisenhower as a symbol for the age. A cheerful, grandfatherly patriarch, Eisenhower in this version of historical memory reflects a kinder and gentler time. The Republican Eisenhower provided moderate leadership that helped the country adjust to the changes it was undergoing. His critics complained that the nation had lost its spirit of adventure, had misplaced its ability to distinguish between community and conformity, had failed to live up to ideals of racial and economic justice, and had relinquished its primary place in the world. Nevertheless, most Americans emerging from decades of depression and war felt satisfied with the new lives they were building. Despite upheavals at home and abroad, they still liked Ike.

When Eisenhower left office in 1961, a new decade began with a Democratic president in charge. Yet the challenges that Eisenhower had faced and the diplomatic, social, and cultural forces that propelled them continued to confront his successors. During the following years, many of the teenagers and young people who had benefited from the peace and prosperity of the 1950s would lead the way in questioning the role of the United States in world affairs and its commitment to democracy, freedom, and equality at home.