Final

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AP Exam Time

Good luck to all AP Exam takers!!!!!!
You’ve made it this far, now the moment of truth.

The Emergence of A New Society

• Rapid change due to things like computers, TV, jets, contraceptives, and new surgical techniques. A New Society was born.

The Structure of European Society

• Changes in the middle class now including managers and technicians as large corporations and gov’t agencies increased the number of white collar admins and supervisors.
• Specialized knowledge from higher education was a must for the experts and managers. They also took steps to make sure their children were educated for the future.
• Traditional lower classes also moved to more urban areas. Agricultural workers declined but the labor force in industry did not change much. What really increased were the white collar jobs. Increase in real wages allowed the lower class to own the same things that the middle class could own creating a “consumer’s society”.
• However, it was cars that really gave the symbol of a buyer’s market. By 1960s, there were about 45 million cars.
• Rising incomes and short hours gave way to more vacation and leisure time giving 40 hour weeks and paid vacations.
• German and Italian workers received between 32-35 paid holidays a year.
• Everything belonging to pop culture was commercialized with thing such as concerts and sporting events.

Creation of the Welfare State

• Goal of Welfare state was to make people’s lives better and meaningful.
• Postwar reforms extended previous legislation and added new ones such as pensions, medical insurance, and unemployment compensation.
• Men eligible for pensions at 65 and women at 60 but they were not always generous. The British and French only gave $40 a month after 40 years of work.
• Affordable healthcare (something the US sucks at) was another goal for the welfare state. Britain, Italy and Germany gave free medical care to all people with some kind of insurance. France, Scandinavia, and Belgium required people to contribute to their own healthcare which was about 10-25 percent of total cost.
• Family allowances for minimum level of material care for children providing usually a fixed amount per child. Class barrier removal was attempted by expanding # of universities and providing scholarships giving more opportunities. Most students in Western European universities still came from privileged backgrounds.
• The welfare state increase the amount of money spent on social services although critics said the new generation was way too dependent on the state.
• However, when it came to women, there was a debatable classification, whether to treat them as mothers or to treat them as individuals. William Beveridge an economist, drafted the report that was the foundation for the British welfare state saying that women were vital in the adequate continuation of the British race.
• The women that did become employed were treated differently from singles. British welfare system based on a belief that women should stay home with the kids and they received subsidies for children but married women that worked got nothing. Employers encouraged to pay  women lower wages to keep women at home. The West German system also followed suit as it was a differentiation from the Soviet Union and communism which encouraged women to work.
• France wanted to maintain women’s individual rights and gave equal benefits to women as to men but provided extra incentives for women to stay home and bear children.

Women in Postwar Western World

• The return to trad. families created a “baby boom” but the increase in birthrate did not last very long due to the practice of birth control.
• “the pill” was new way to control birth.
• This led women to become eager to enter the workforce but there was still a salary gap.

THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT: THE SEARCH FOR LIBERATION

• WWI gave women the right to vote except France and Italy who gave that right in 1945. After WWII, women tended to return to the traditional ways.
• Late 1960s began to assert rights again with the feminists’ movement.
• Prominent figure of the movement was the work of Simone de Beauvior. She was born into the Catholic middle class family educated in Sorbonne, Paris. She earned money from teaching and becoming a novelist and writer. She never married but had a lifelong relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre.
• De Beauvoir saw her as living a liberated life but still perceived obstacles that men did not have. She published The Second Sex was an argument that women received second class status and took an active role in the French women’s movement.
• Another contributor would be Betty Friedan who was a journalist and mother of 3 children.
• Of course she was uneasy about the traditional life and published The Feminine Mystique arguing women being denied equal rights.
• Her book became famous and Friedan was a celebrity. She went on to form the National Organization for Women (NOW) which was to establish equality of women and men. She called for a constitutional amendment for equal rights for women.

The Permissive Society

• Yeah basically morals went out the window and well stuff went on.
• Sweden took the lead with the first sex ed. program and decriminalization of gays.
• Amsterdam allowed open prostitution and public sale of porn attracting thousand of perverts……I mean tourists.
• Umm yeah, this led to the birth of Playboy magazine.
• Oh yeah, drugs are bad, just say no. And umm…yeah the drug culture rose in this period of time and marijuana was popular among college students.
• It wasn’t just drugs and sex, the youth were also politically conscious and this lead to some protests to the Vietnam War.

Education and Student Revolt

• Higher education was more popular because of the elimination of fees. However, the students overwhelmed the universities and professors paid little attention to the students and acted like little Joseph Stalins.
• They also felt the education did not have much practical instruction.
• This led to student revolts and opposition to the Vietnam War made it all worse.
• The most famous revolt happened in the University of Nanterre outside of Paris but spread to Sorbonne, the main campus of University of Paris demanding a greater voice in society. Then the invited workers to protest with them and they did. Huge debacle.