The Affluent Society
Read this article, which takes its name from John Kenneth Galbraith's book about the postwar economic boom and political culture. It was undoubtedly an unprecedented time in American history, but it ultimately did not quite match mainstream expectations.
Conclusion
The postwar American "consensus" held great promise.
Despite the looming threat of nuclear war, millions experienced an
unprecedented prosperity and an increasingly proud American identity.
Prosperity seemed to promise ever higher standards of living. But things
fell apart, and the center could not hold: wracked by contradiction,
dissent, discrimination, and inequality, the Affluent Society stood on
the precipice of revolution.