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POP CULTURE PAGE

This is a history site! Why have a Pop Culture page?

What ordinary people use to entertain themselves often reflects the events around them, and what they are thinking about. As a result, studying the music, movies, TV, or other pop culture of any time or culture can often tell you much more about the history of a time and place than studying the more traditional history. This pop culture page is intended to be entertaining, but also to give you deeper insights into history. Enjoy!

Pop Culture of Reconstruction.

We may not have film, tv, or recorded music from this time, you can enjoy an odd artifact on the assassination of Abe Lincoln. One of the more popular game shows on 1950’s TV was “I’ve Got a Secret” where celebrities would try to guess the secret of the guest contestant. This contestant was an eyewitness to an important historic event:

Pop Culture of World War 1.

While the film industry was still in its infancy during World War 1, we can still learn a lot from some of the music that was popular during the war, and from the war the music changed, learn about how people’s attidudes about the war changed.

Pop Culture of World War 2.

One of the most important aspects of World War 2 that we don’t always realize was that it was total war. Everyone was involved, every day, whether it was scrap drives, factory jobs supporting the war effort, or buying war bonds to help the effort. Many on the home front went to the movies almost every week, and listed to songs and shows on the radio reflecting some aspect of the war, with commercials reminding you to buy war bonds, or how few ration stamps a product may actually require.

The Longest Day --- This blockbuster Hollywood film depicts the D-Day

landing in great detail. IMPORTANT NOTE: I have put the film on the page

here, but the film is in YouTube’s “free with ads” format, which means that

unlike the advertising on my site which is carefully vetted to be appropriate

for middle school audiences, I have absolutely no control over the

advertising served within any showing of this film. While I have no belief

any embedded advertising may not be appropriate, this serves as notice

that I am not responsible for any advertising presented with this film and

you should watch accordingly.

World War 2 in More Recent Pop Culture.

Because World War II had such a profound influence on our world, it continues to inspire pop culture. Here are a few examples:

Pop Culture of the Cold War

More POP CULTURE resources coming soon! Holiday Pop Culture: Every year I present a couple of special holiday episodes and films for my students First up is a Christmas episode of the Jack Benny Program. As we substitute online shopping for in-person shopping, students are always surprised how much the in-store shopping experience has changed since the 1950’s, and how the department store experience included full customer service, gift wrapping, and delivery. If your taste runs more to bad movies, here is one of the worst Christmas movies ever made!