Why did the activism of the 60's have such a lasting impact on college campuses?"
Why did the activism of the 60's have such a lasting impact on college campuses?"
America was in a post-war boom in the 1960’s. World War II was a memory and the country was changing. Following the war the country’s citizens were more affluent. This was demonstrated by the massive increase in purchasing homes. Much of this is said to be John F. Kennedy’s doing. Following the war he expressed to the country “affluent society”, and thus allowing Americans to believe that society could be perfected. This was far from true. Actually, consumerism and capitalism was not a solution. It took America quite a while to catch on to this fact. Furthermore, between the years of 1955 and 1965 America was actually in a standstill. There was nothing differentiating liberal beliefs and conservative ones. This rose issue with two crowds, the urban poor and upper middle class youth. The upper middle class youth largely made up higher level education, college students. Although these two different crowds rarely shared commonality, this changed everything.
This new younger generation was not pleased with how things worked during their parents’ time. In order to create change the youth of the 1960’s created a “counter culture”. Ideally, discarding the beliefs of America and the general society. With this being said, these young adults did not grow up in hardship. They were given every opportunity from their parents, including an expensive education at a university.
The middle of the 1960’s approached and nearly six million students attended college in America. This tremendous increase in attending higher education forced institutions to grown, and quickly. Size changed how Universities operated. Instead of becoming more welcoming and homey, they transformed into unfriendly and bureaucratic. With the sudden growth in student body, American universities lacked the proper facilities. With few dormitories, students were housed in “student communities” surrounding their
America was in a post-war boom in the 1960’s. World War II was a memory and the country was changing. Following the war the country’s citizens were more affluent. This was demonstrated by the massive increase in purchasing homes. Much of this is said to be John F. Kennedy’s doing. Following the war he expressed to the country “affluent society”, and thus allowing Americans to believe that society could be perfected. This was far from true. Actually, consumerism and capitalism was not a solution. It took America quite a while to catch on to this fact. Furthermore, between the years of 1955 and 1965 America was actually in a standstill. There was nothing differentiating liberal beliefs and conservative ones. This rose issue with two crowds, the urban poor and upper middle class youth. The upper middle class youth largely made up higher level education, college students. Although these two different crowds rarely shared commonality, this changed everything.
This new younger generation was not pleased with how things worked during their parents’ time. In order to create change the youth of the 1960’s created a “counter culture”. Ideally, discarding the beliefs of America and the general society. With this being said, these young adults did not grow up in hardship. They were given every opportunity from their parents, including an expensive education at a university.
The middle of the 1960’s approached and nearly six million students attended college in America. This tremendous increase in attending higher education forced institutions to grown, and quickly. Size changed how Universities operated. Instead of becoming more welcoming and homey, they transformed into unfriendly and bureaucratic. With the sudden growth in student body, American universities lacked the proper facilities. With few dormitories, students were housed in “student communities” surrounding their