Subterranean Days of Rage: How Magazine Letters to the Editor in 1952 Foretold a Generation of Revolution

Abstract

Golden hues of nostalgia have helped create a whitewashed pop culture portrayal of the 1950s as a Father Knows Best time of innocence and tranquility, when most Americans “liked Ike,”believed what they read in their newspapers, and lived carefree Happy Days and Wonder Years. But a study of letters to the editor printed in 10 popular national magazines in 1952 tells quite a different story.

The research in the current article confirms the argument that the 1950s were much more complicated than generally perceived. The focus here is on the previously unheralded letters to the editor that voiced opposition to much of the status quo. In many letters there is simmering rage expressed by unquiet men and women: Letter writers of 1952 punctured the image of a culture of complacency by challenging the anti-communist hysteria of McCarthyism, railing against racial inequality, demanding drugs be decriminalized, decrying bias in their newspapers, and challenging the subjugation of women.

The research in this article examined all the letters to the editor, a total of 3, 719, published in 10 largely general interest magazines—The Atlantic, Ebony, Harper's, Life, Look, The Nation, New Republic, Newsweek, The Progressive and Time—from Jan. 1, 1952 through Jan. 1, 1953.

What this current research reveals is what people in 1952 wrote to the national magazines, describing their feelings about a wide range of issues and news of the day.