Visions of Classlessness: Early Teen Advertising

There are a few main points in Visions of Classlessness by Roland Marchand. First, the rise of popular culture after World War II, and the juggernaut called advertising Americans were becoming classless. Second, while the old classes were disappearing, new ones, based on new ideas, were taking over. Thus keeping America separated by classes. Marchand also delves into the mass consumption of the 1950s and 1960s.

Another aspect is the emerging (I hesitated to say new. It was always there, but in the back ground), of the teenager, and the markets and problems with them. Marchand talks about the impact that the Cold War had on all of these things. All of these issues are related to each other. Some of them came about because of one or more of the other issues. “In response they embraced popular culture reveries that seemed to enhance their sense of personal dominion.” (p. 144).

Charles Roland Marchand was born in Seattle in 1933.He attended Stanford University where he earned a B.A. in journalism, graduating summa cum laude in 1955. He served as a naval officer for three years, then returned to Stanford, and completed his Ph.D. in history in 1964. He then joined the teaching staff at the University of California, and specialized in 20th century United States History. Professor Marchand’s teaching skills are well known to many students and alumni. UC Davis’s Academic Senate honored Marchand with its Distinguished Teaching Award. He was a national finalist for the American Historical Association’s Mentorship Award. Marchand, who was eligible for retirement in 1991 continued to teach until the eve of his final hospitalization in the fall of 1997. Marchand was also an internationally acclaimed scholar. His book, Advertising the American Dream, established his international reputation as a leading scholar of the cultural role of business in 20th century United States. His last book, Creating the Corporate Soul, was published posthumously by the UC Press in the spring of 1998.

First of all the Cold War was the leading force behind all of the other issues. When the servicemen were coming home from Europe and the Pacific, everyone thought the country would go back to normal. Small towns, large families; mainly agricultural was how the country was, and how they hoped it would remain. The Cold War with the Soviet Union changed that in many ways. Granted, with the baby boom, there were still large families, but the old ideas of the family had changed. It evolved (and is still evolving today) into a weaker family unit. This will be discussed more with teenage culture. People moved to cities and worked in factories. Men felt insecure about the future. They worried about another war, possibly a bigger, more destructive one than they just fought. Marchand said about it, “Instead, the postwar world brought bureaucratic complexity, cold war insecurity and a shrunken sense of individual mastery.” (p. 144).