Americans turned to scientists and experts for advice on everything from nuclear power to family relationships to determining your social class in the postwar era. Why did science and expertise achieve such prominence in this period, and were there any drawbacks to that prominence?
By the late 1950s, many social critics derided the conformist tendencies in American society, including where Americans lived, what they bought, how they raised their families, even how they expressed themselves politically. What were the sources of the appearance of “conformity?” Was the pressure to conform as significant as critics assumed?