Leonard Steinhorn

Were the 1950s about Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best? Or were they Emmett Till and Rebel Without a Cause? Were they years of American abundance and democratic triumph? Or was it a time of atomic anxiety and Joseph McCarthy? We often think of the Fifties as a bland and placid decade: an era of conformity and suburban Levittowns, of gray flannel suits for men and domesticity for women. And to some extent, that’s exactly the way it was. But underneath the surface something else was going on. We tend to remember eras with the sepia-toned images of memory, but the Fifties was a complex decade that in many ways planted the seeds of the culture wars we are living with today. In this talk, Professor Steinhorn will dive into Fifties politics, music, media, and race relations. We’ll look at the Cold War and its contradictions, and the rise of suburbia and mass consumption. We’ll discuss popular culture and the impact of television, and we’ll see how the Fifties led to the Sixties.

Part 1 of 2: The Selling of a President ... Explore and enjoy the history of political advertising and how it influences us. This talk looks at the origins of the 30-second spot — how it grew out of early television advertising — and then shows how candidates from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and all through Obama, Trump and Biden have used the medium to capture our attention and win our votes. Prepare to like Ike, sing “High Hopes” with Sinatra, hear LBJ tell us “we must either love each other, or we must die,” watch the handiwork of Roger Ailes, wake up with “Morning In America,” identify with “The Man From Hope,” and see how Barack Obama inspired the viral videos that now dominate our media ecosystem. We will explore the cultural values embedded in these ads, the role of celebrity in American politics, the way negative ads use emotion to get into our heads.

Part 2 of 2: The Rise of Negative Advertising and Two Versions of America ... Explore and enjoy the history of political advertising and how it influences us. This talk looks at the origins of the 30-second spot — how it grew out of early television advertising — and then shows how candidates from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and all through Obama, Trump and Biden have used the medium to capture our attention and win our votes. Prepare to like Ike, sing “High Hopes” with Sinatra, hear LBJ tell us “we must either love each other, or we must die,” watch the handiwork of Roger Ailes, wake up with “Morning In America,” identify with “The Man From Hope,” and see how Barack Obama inspired the viral videos that now dominate our media ecosystem. We will explore the cultural values embedded in these ads, the role of celebrity in American politics, the way negative ads use emotion to get into our heads.

We may not wear bell bottoms and tie-dyes anymore, and let’s not talk about what happened to our hair. But even though almost half a century has passed since the 1960s, it’s a decade that continues to shape our society, politics, culture, and institutions to this very day. In many ways, America today is a product of the Sixties. From civil rights to feminism to gay liberation to the environmental movement to the silent majority, what started back then has shaped and influenced our country ever since. Before the Sixties, Americans trusted their government and their leaders; since the Sixties, we question almost everything they do. Before the Sixties, it was Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best; since the Sixties, diversity and individuality define who we are. To many, Barack Obama's presidency symbolized the liberation movements of the Sixties. But we must also ask how the Sixties gave us Donald Trump. To understand America today, we must understand the lessons from the 1960s.

No year better captures the Sixties than 1968. It was a year when young people went Clean for Gene in the New Hampshire primary — and then got teargassed in Chicago ... when the country looked to larger-than-life leaders to guide us out of war and division — and then saw them felled by assassins ... when many hoped that a Kennedy would return to the White House — and instead we got a Nixon. In 1968, we saw a political party that represented the common folk get torn asunder by cultural and racial hostilities. We saw no light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam. We saw Black Power meet law and order. 1968 was like an electrical storm that hit our country, one that hot-wired every conversation and event. And it put a charge in the emerging culture war that would define American politics and culture for decades to come. To understand the Sixties generation — and who we are as a nation — it is essential to journey through 1968 and see how that seminal year shaped and influenced our history.

The History of Political Advertising in One Sitting ... Presidential Ads and Political Strategies from Eisenhower & Kennedy Through Trump & Biden ... Explore and enjoy the history of political advertising and how it influences us. This talk looks at the origins of the 30-second spot — how it grew out of early television advertising — and then shows how candidates from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and all through Obama, Trump and Biden have used the medium to capture our attention and win our votes. Prepare to like Ike, sing “High Hopes” with Sinatra, hear LBJ tell us “we must either love each other, or we must die,” watch the handiwork of Roger Ailes, wake up with “Morning In America,” identify with “The Man From Hope,” and see how Barack Obama inspired the viral videos that now dominate our media ecosystem. We will explore the cultural values embedded in these ads, the role of celebrity in American politics, the way negative ads use emotion to get into our heads.

In America today, we don’t merely belong to opposing political parties. We belong to opposing political tribes with different values, worldviews, media, and even definitions of democracy. We interpret freedom, patriotism, the American Dream, government, and even the meaning of America differently. We don’t trust each other, we ascribe the worst motives to one another, and we don’t want our sons and daughters marrying each other. This talk will attempt to ask why. It will examine the partisan divide in America, dive into the psychological, cultural, historical and political reasons behind our polarized society, and explain how we see the world so differently and why we can’t seem to understand one another. We often blame politicians for not grasping the problems we face as a society, but the larger question we must ask is this: Will we ever again find enough common ground to even agree on those problems?