Making Sense of the Sixties

The first one, "Seeds of the Sixties," examines the postwar period, especially the 1950s. It adopts the traditional interpretation that the era was bent on consensus and conformity, the result of the anti-communist crusade at home and abroad, and it investigates two different groups that would have an impact on the 1960s—white northern kids usually growing up in the suburbs and southern blacks. The program contains interesting footage of babyboomers in schools learning nationalism and patriotism, and at home learning respect for authority. By the late 1950s, of course, a few blacks and some white teenagers became restless, and the show listens to participants describe the aspects of the 1950s that lead them to become activists in the next decade. Eventually, the program demonstrates that babyboomers grew up in circumstances considerably different than their parents, and that postwar society planted the seeds of rebellion.