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Year 11
AQA

Post-war American popular culture

I can assess the changes in American popular culture during the post-war period.

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New
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Year 11
AQA

Post-war American popular culture

I can assess the changes in American popular culture during the post-war period.

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Share activities with pupils
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These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Televisions became widely available and popular.
  2. A new 'teenage' identity developed in the 1940s and 1950s.
  3. Rock and Roll became a popular form of music.
  4. Advertisers and the entertainment industry targeted teenage audiences.

Keywords

  • Popular culture - popular culture is the types of entertainments enjoyed by ordinary people in a country

  • Broadcast - a broadcast is to send out a TV or radio programme

  • Generation - all the people in a society or family who are approximately the same age are called a generation

Common misconception

All older Americans were opposed to teenage culture in the 1940s and 1950s.

Adults working in advertising as well as some in the entertainment industry were happy to target teenage audiences.


To help you plan your year 11 history lesson on: Post-war American popular culture, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

After reading the Frank Sinatra quote in section D of the additional material, get students to discuss what may have influenced Sinatra to have such a negative opinion on Rock and Roll. Push students to consider how teenage tastes and preference for Rock and Roll would affect artists like Sinatra.
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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Write the missing word: is a situation in which some groups in a society have more advantages than others.
Correct Answer: Inequality, inequalty
Q2.
How did average family incomes change between 1945 and 1954 in the USA?
Only white family incomes rose.
Only non-white family incomes rose.
Correct answer: White and non-white family incomes rose.
White family nor non-white family incomes rose.
Q3.
What was the American Dream?
idea of racial equality in the USA
name of President Truman's economic policies
Correct answer: idea that anyone could be successful with hard work
Q4.
Who introduced the Fair Deal?
President Hoover
President Roosevelt
Correct answer: President Truman
Q5.
Which statement is most accurate?
TV prices rose after WW2, so few were owned.
Correct answer: TV prices fell after WW2, so many were owned.
TV prices fell after WW2, but remained high so few were owned.
Q6.
Starting with the earliest, sort the following events into chronological order.
1 - US unemployment rises during the Great Depression.
2 - WW2 begins.
3 - Many women enter the workplace and millions join the army.
4 - WW2 eds.
5 - Many women return to being housewives.

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Write the missing word: The types of entertainments enjoyed by ordinary people in a country are known as popular .
Correct Answer: culture, Culture
Q2.
Before the 1940s, when did most Americans leave school?
Correct answer: By the age of 14
Between the ages of 15 and 16
Aged 17 or over
Q3.
Who became a famous Rock and Roll artist in post-war America?
Correct answer: Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
James Dean
Marilyn Monroe
Q4.
How much did the average US teenager spend per week by 1957?
$0-5
$5-10
Correct answer: $10-15
$15-20
Q5.
Which factor contributed to declining cinema audiences in the 1940s and 1960s?
cost of tickets
emergence of teenagers
Correct answer: television ownership
Q6.
Whichh statement is most accurate?
All adults criticised teenage culture.
Correct answer: Many adults criticised teenage culture.
Almost all adults approved of teenage culture.

Additional material

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