Suburban Conformity

• Suburban Conformity

  Eisenhower Years 1953-61:

  • 'Age of Conformity'- created by Cold War politics & mass society in which standardisation, co-operation & conformity replaced traditional American values of self-reliance, competition & rugged individualism and in which many Americans worked in increasingly faceless & standardised corporate organisations
  • Contemporary liberals argued Eisenhower's popularity & the general lack of passion for social reform suggested a self-satisfied population- critics considered that suburbia (Levittowns best illustrated blandness & conformity)
• The 'Organisation Man'

  Mid 20th Century- Nature of the American workforce changed:

  • 1947-57- number of salaried middle-class workers rose by 61%- fuelled by the explosive growth of large corporations that needed specialised personnel to market & manage the corporate product +
  • General Motors employed thousand of white-collar workers, scientists would oversee the development of new inventions/designs, marking analysts would investigate the sales potential of the product & management science experts would co-ordinate the personnel involved in the production
• 1950's Critics of American Life & Society

  • Best selling books about men who worked in offices of big corporations & lived in suburbia:
  • David Riesman's- The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (1950)
  • C.Wright Mills'- White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1956)
  • William Whyte's- The Organisation Man (1956)- sold 2 million copies
• Whyte: 'That suburban life promoted 'getting along' and 'belonging''
• Organisation Man Definition


  A new managerial personality created by huge corporate enterprises like General Motors, who had to get along with thousands of co-workers
• Organisation Man (1)

  Americans had increasingly subordinated themselves to the interests & ethos of big organisations that provide security & prosperity
• Organisation Man (2)

  The 'social ethic' of suburbia reflected the corporate 'organisation man'
• Organisation Man (3)

  The nature of suburban life & growth of large, bureaucratic organisations threatened individualism & entrepreneurial-ism that had made America great
• Whyte 


  • Pressure to conform began when Americans were young
  • Many post-war high schools introduced course on socially acceptable behaviour- California vocational school informed prospective employers that is socially engineered its graduate into 'custom-built men' with the right attitude to work
  • Highlighted that business organisations increasing use of personalty tests to ensure social conformity- clear that those who failed to conform to dominant white middle-class were likely to be ostracised & disadvantaged