The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion, why is this misleading? This is very misleading because in society there wasn’t very much cohesion socially. The civil rights movement was starting and people we divided socially and racially. Also comic books where divided in concepts of what they can and cannot print. The comic code authority was instituted in 1948. This was a self regulated organization that significantly limited comic book creator’s thoughts, ideas and creations. Because of the CCA the age of very creative, free comics we over, because of crime comics and gruesome horror comics the code was instituted. This code continued through the 1950s. The 1950s was a time of recovery from World War 2 so it would seem that society was coming together after fighting the biggest war of all time. In some lights the 1950s is seen as America getting back to being one unified country again. But back in America many things were beginning to spark up and cohesion was not one of them.
Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
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