The Power Elite

After World War II, the US experienced a period of affluence. Materialism took hold following a war that called for enormous sacrifices and was preceded by an unprecedented economic depression. It was a time of conformity, with few questioning the newfound economic security. There was a baby boom, and women—many of whom had contributed to the war effort—returned to more traditional roles. Underlying this era's veneer of contentment and stability, however, was a lack of equality. As second-class citizens, women were expected to raise children and to work in subservient roles to men. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups were denied basic rights in the South and discriminated against in other parts of the country. The 1950s preceded the civil rights movements that would challenge these inequalities. As a result, depictions of these years as golden times are misleading for all but a privileged minority of the population.

The Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and a hot war fought in Korea also marked this decade. Because of the destructive capabilities of nuclear weapons, there was a fear of nuclear attack. Schools had fallout shelter signs on them, and students in many US school districts had regular air-raid drills and practiced strategies such as "duck and cover" as preparation for a nuclear attack. The dread of such a war allowed the elite to use a combination of fear and public relations tactics to convince the public of the need for a more powerful military. Mills argues that the American public was distracted by its affluence and by celebrities and simply accepted the military’s version of reality without questioning it. Most citizens, even those who had suffrage rights, did not express public resistance to government policies or authority figures in the pre-civil rights era. With so little diversity of voices in media, academia, and political structures, and a cultural milieu focused on compliance after the war, it was easier for those in power to advance their agendas. Mills, however, wanted the public to break out of this malaise and ask critical questions of those in power. However, he focused solely on class inequality and did not challenge inequalities based on race or sex.