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United States Cultural History
1950-1959

Facts About This Decade

• 151,325,798 people in the United States in 1950
  
• In 1950 10.3% of the population was foreign born.
  
• In 1955 the approximate percentage of persons 25 and older with a high school degree or higher was 34%.
  
• Harvard College Tuition 1955 $5,500.
  
• In 1950 there were 19.1 million veterans in civilian life.
  
• Between 1950-1959 there were approximately 700 executions under civil authority.
  
• In 1950 there were 118 state and federal prisoners per every 100,000 people.
  
• Approximately 15,000 new books were published in 1955.
  
• Teenage slang from the fifties
  • Cool was the word used most to approve of something.
  • To cool it was to relax, take it easy.
  • Girls who liked something might say it was neat; something a little bit offbeat might be kooky.  
  • Teens who enjoyed a really funny joke might say it fractured them; something that was easy was no sweat.
  • Man, cat, and baby were terms of address for anyone, male or female.
  • If someone went crazy or out of control, he had wigged out or gone off the deep end.
  • To punk out was to be a coward.

References

Caplow, Theodore, Louis Hicks and Ben J. Wattenberg.  The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000.  Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2001.

Rollin, Lucy.  Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades: A Reference Guide.  Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002. New York: World Almanac Books, 2002.