Research Essay (History)
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman et al.. (2012). Major Problems in American History Volume II: Since 1865. : 3rd
ed.. (pp. 341-343).
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1111 l'o,rWAR 1100.\\" AFFlUFNU' ANI) ANXIII Y 34 1
{lJ/lrl'mp(Jrtlrif~ dn' tlu' $1111(((' I~r d;rurit>ll Ivr ,Ill' illdil'idlhl1---t-rrlla tlwsl' ktltlU~1 iii 1,,111 or {/uHf willi 111"ml Itt' is 1m/i,m!)' IUqll<lUlIl'd, Ih""~1!11 frirtlds mId tllflllIg/r ,11/: 111</$$ 1IU'lfitl. -nlis source is t{ fl'lIne "illlcn1<lIi::I'/f" ill lire St'llSl' /11<1/ dcpcmlt·//cl' Oil il ,(tIT .I!tlld,mcr ItI fife is Imp/,m/rtf (',/r/),_ n,l' .\!'h,ls ldll'll,d which rll(' olher-tlirffu·J //t'rsOIl Sfnl't'S sl,!{t 1.111, ,1,,1/ guidallce: if i_' 011/)' ,Ill' prtl(l'SS 4srnl'UlJ~ iw'!f ami 1111' prOll'SS 'YJl,I),ill.l! dt.'$l' III/tlllitm WI/,e SI.'?IUII •. (rOllllllltel'S ,h,1I 't'lllIIi" Ulwilcmll/twlI.l!/Wlit life. ThiS lIlod~ ofkccplllg III (Ouch wIth mitcN pl'nmh ;l dos(' bchl\;Ora! confonlllty. not through drill III beha"ior n~elf. J.~ in till" lrndltlon-dircctcd character, but ralher through .111 ex- ceptioll:l.1 \emlll\'iry to Ih,· JCtlOllS and \\!Shcs of othcr'\ ....
In tillS change of p.lrelltJl attitude the Illass Illedia of CO!llm uni c.lUon p!:l.y a dual role. Froll1 the m:l.'~ media-radio. 1I10\'les. comics-as well J~ from tht"ir 0\\ n peers. chlldrt'n can ea5i ly leam whal the nom) of parelUJI behavior is .. lIld hold it over theLf parcllt.~· he:uk ...
Despite ,he dinnnulion of thl'lrauthonty. the parcms still try [Q con trollllattl'rs; but with the lo<;!, of sdf-assurance their techlllqucs change. They can neither hold lhem- 5Clves up as a l'xel1lp la r;--wh"n both they and the child know better--nor fCSOrt. III good conscience. to ~~'\'erc corporal pLl!li~lllnent and deprivations. At L1I0<;t du:re afe tOken spankHlb'S, wLth open phy~ical wan-1fc confined to the lower classes.
The parl'nt..~· recour'\c, c)pccially in the upper middle class. is to "pcf'lollnel" Illethods-IO manipui:ltIoll in the fonll of reasoning. or, more accurately. of r.l- tionali7..lIlg. The child r~'Spond~ III the $.11lle manner. One might sU lllman"e the hislOncal sequencc by saying !lut the tradition-directed ch ild propitiates hi~ parenb; the IIll1er-dm:Cled child fights or ~uccllmbs 10 them; the other-direCl(."(\ chi ld malllpuiat(.'S them .1I1d I~ III tum mampulatcd ....
8 . Mi c hae l Harring t o n U n v eils "The Other Americ a" Outside Suburbia , 1961
There IS .1 falllili.lr Americ.l. [t i$ celebrated in speeches and advertised on televi - sion and 111 the lllahr.lZllle~. It ha\ thl' highest mass s[:lIldard oflivmg the world has ever kllo\\ n.
In ,he 1950'~ thi~ America worried abom Itself, yet even Its anXletic~ were products of abundanet.·. The title of a brilliant book was widely misinterpreted. and the f.ll1l1har America began to call itself "the amuent society." There wa~ introspection about Madison Avelluc and tail fins; there was di~cu.ssion of the ellIotio nal sulTc rin g laklllg place in tlu .. · subu fbs. In all this, there was an implicit a~~u11lption that the basic grinding economic problems had been solved in the Unit~' d St.lIes. In thi~ theory the nation's problems were no longer a matter of basic human Iweds. of food. shelte r. alld clothing. Now they were ~een as qU;lli- tarive. a que~tlon oflearning to live decc ntly amid luxury.
While tillS discmsion was carried on. there existed ano ther America. In it dwl'lt somewhere between 40,000.000 and 50.000.000 citizens of this land. Thcy were poor. They still arc.
M"hkll.bmnt-tt<>n. /"1..- 0 ....... ~_. /V'""1 m ./" ("mINI ." ..... r..cnbn~. ~IIJ'''' A 'S;.:hu ... .".. 1'1'/7). P 1-7.
R~rn"'c.t b,- 1'<"""""'"
342 ~1AJOIt I'ItOllnt.,1\ IN AMfKH.A:-; HI\TOKY
To be sure, rhe other Arnenca 1\ not ullpovemhed III the \,1111'" Wlls(' a~ tho~ poor na.tiom where Illilliom ding to hungn as a defen<.c a~,\lml ~tar"'ation. This country has e~aped such eXlfcme~. ThaI docs not changt' the f.1C[ that tens of Illilliom of Arnericam ,lTe. ,n tim very moment. lll,lUlled III body and ~Plrit. exmlllg al levels ben('ath thos(.' nen·~s.lry for human decency. If Ihese people arc not ~tarvJng, they an: Imngry. and somNlmes f.lt with hunger, for thaI is what cheap toods do. I hey arc without adequate homlllg and education Mid medical carc.
The GovemmClH has doculllemt'd what this means 10 thl' h()l.ilt's of dw poor, and the fih'Ure<> will be cited throughout this book. But even more b.lsic, this po\"- t·rty twislS ,lIld defonns Iht' spmt. The American poor an.: pC'i~iTllisric and dde.1ccd. and they art' \'\Ctilluzed by lll('ntal ~ulfcnllg to a dCb'1l'e unkno\\"n III Subun)la ....
The millions who arc poor III the UlUted State<> tend to become Illcrea~ingly U1vi~iblc. Here is a great llla~s of people. yel it takt·s an elTon of the Intellect and Will even to see tlll'11l ...•
rherc arc perennial reasom that lluke the other Amcnca an l1l\'i~ible \and. Poveny i~ often ofrthe beaten track. [t ;llways ba~ been. The ordinary tour-
Ist nt'Vt'r left the main l11gh\\".IY .. md toda), he rides 1I1teNate turnpikes. I-Ie dOt'S not b'O 11ltO the valleys of Pen1lSylva11la where the towm look like 1II0vie ~er\ of Wale~ 111 rhe thirties. I-It' dOt"; not ~'e the compJlly bOl1Se~ 111 row~. tht' mtted road~ (t he poor always have bad ro.1ds whether they h\"e 111 the ciry. 111 towns. or on f.1nm), and everyth1l1g 1~ bbck ,md dirty ...
Now the American city ha~ been tramfonned. Th l..' poor ~Iill mhablt the nllSeTrlblC housing III rhe central area, but they arc 11lcrea~11lgly I~olated from COllt.lct wnh. or sight of. anybody cI~e. Middk~cl:1.sS WOnlt'n CO lllmg III from Suhurb ia 011 a rare trip 1II •• y 1..lLl.h Ihe lIu,;n:~1 Hlll11P'1.' of the uther America 011 the way to an evemng at tilt' tiw:lter, but tile If children .He segregated in \llbllrban ~chools. The bmine<;, Of professional man Ill.l}' dn"e .llong the fringt·\ of slums 111 J car or bu~. but It is not all Import,lm experience [0 h11n. The railurc~. rhe umkllled. the di~lbled, the agt'd, and the milloritic~ arc nght there. across the [~Ick" where they han' alway\ be(.'n. Bm hardly anyone cJ~t' is ....
Clothl"i make the poor lIwi-;ible too: America ha~ the be~l-dTt.~ed poverty the world h.1$ ever known. For a vanery of reasons, the bem'fit~ of 111a~s produc- tion havt' been spread much more evenly in this area th.m m lIlany others. It is much e:1.~ier ill the Umted ~t,lte~ to bl' decemly dressed thnn ir i~ to bt, decemly homed. fed. Of docto red. Evcn people with ttTribly depre~~cd 1I1C01l1eS can look prospnom
Then, many of the poor ,Ire the wrong age to be sec n. A good nlllllbt"r of thelll (o\'er 8.000.000) arc ~ixry-fivc ye,lrs of agc or better: an c"'en larger nU111- ber arc undtT eigluet'n. The aged 1l1emhel"'i of the olher America arc often sick, and tlwy cannOt 1110\·e. Anolher group of [hem \in' Out their li"e~ 111 lonclines.~ and fm~tration: they ~It 111 rented room s. or else they slay close to a home 111 a neighborhood that has completely changed from the old days.
And finally. rhe poor arc poill ically invisible. It is one of the cml'icSI irollie~ or ~ocial lire III advanced countries that rhl' di~possessed at the bottom of socicty
Tllf I'n\IWAI~ Kn(l~1 ,UflUIN( I ... NIl A1'.'dHY 343
are Ulublc to spl'ak for Ihem~dves. The people of tilt.' other AmenCI do not. by tJr ;H1d brgl'. belon~ to union~. to fratenl,ll org:ulIz;lliOlh. ()T [0 politic .. l pames. Thl::~ :lTI: wilhollt lobbies of their 0\\ n: they pm f01'w,lTd 110 lcwsbtln' PWb'T:l1l1· As a h'TOtlP, dlt')' arc ,H011liz('d. They have no t~cc: they h,l\'e 110 \'oice ....
9. Feminist Betty Friedan Describes the Problem That Has No Name, 1963
The problem by buried, un~poken. for 111m}' ),e,u>; 111 th e nl1nd~ of Aml'Tu:all \\'01l1Cll. It W,h J qrange ,>tining. a ~ell';e of dl'~<1ti~f.1C(ion. J ),e,lnllllg Ih,lI women ~ulTercd in the Illiddk' of th e (\\Tlllicth n . .'lltury 111 rill' Um(l'd St:lte~. Each ~ub urban wife ~tn l ggled with it alone. A~ ~he 111ade the beds, shopped for grocerie~, matchcd slipcover material. :ltt.' peantH hutter ~1nd\\'ichl'~ with her child ren, chalificlired Cub Scout~ and BroWllie~. b y be~ide hcr husb:lIld at night-"\he \\'a~ afr.l id to ask even of herself the ~ilcnt ql1C~tiOIl- " I ~ this all?"
For over fifteen years there w.a~ 110 word of this Yl'a rnlllg III the III111iom af words wntten about WOlllen, far W0111en, in :til thl' col umn~. book~ and article~ by expens (('lling women their role \\,:l~ to seck filHillment :t.~ wi\'e~ ,lnd motheN. Over and over wonwn Ill'ard III vo ice>; of tradition and of Freudian ,aplll)ticarian that thc), cou ld c\cqre no b>Tcater de~tiny than to glory in tlwir own femininiry. Expc~~ told them how to catch a man and keep 111m, how to breastfeed childrcn and handlc their toilet training, how to cope with ~ibling rivalry ,md :Idalc~cent rebellion: how to buy a di~h\Vasher, b:lkc bread. cook go untl Ct snaih, and bl1ild a ~wi11ll1ling pool with their own hand~: how to dres~. look. and ;lct marc fCllmulie and makl' marriagc mOTl' exci tlll g: how to kecp their husbands frotH dyin g young and their sans hOnl b'TowlIlg IIltO delinquents. They \\TTI:: t,lugln m pity the neu- rotic. unfeminine, 1I1lh,1PPY WOnlen who wanted to be poets or physicists or pre- sidellt~. Thcy learned that Inlly ti.'mininc women do not want c:lTeer;, hi gher education, political rights-the independcnce and tht' op portunities that the old- fushiolled femillls[s fought for. Sonll' women. in th t'ir forties :tnd fifties, still re- membered painfully l:,';ving up those dre:nllS, but most of the younger women no longer l'VCll thought about them. A thouS:lnd cxpert voiccs ap plauded their felllllliniry, their adjllst1111'nt. theIr new maturity . All they had to do was dcvote thClr lives from earliest girlhood to finding :t hmband and beari ng children.
\3 y the end of thl' ninl'tccn-fifties. the average marriage ,Ige of \vomen in America dropped to 20. and was srill dropping, into rhe tet'ns. Fourteen million b'lrls wefl' engaged by 17. The proportion of wamen attending college in com- parison with Illcn dropped from .].7 per cenr in 1920 to 35 per ce lli ill 1958. A ce mu ry earlier. wOlllen had fought for higher education: now girls went to college to ger a husband. \3y the 1IIid-fi frie~, 60 per cem dropped out of collcge to many, or becausc they were afnid too much educ:ltia n would be:1 lll.lmage bar. Colll'ges built donllltoneS for "manied qudcnts," bur the students were almoSt
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