In the decades following the end of World War II, Western
Europe witnessed remarkably rapid change. Such
products of new technologies as computers, television, jet
planes, contraceptive devices, and new surgical techniques
all dramatically and quickly altered the pace and
nature of human life. Called variously a technocratic society,
an affluent society, or the consumer society, postwar
Europe was characterized by changing social values
and new attitudes toward the meaning of the human
experience.
The structure of European society was also altered in
major respects after 1945. Especially noticeable were
changes in the nature of the middle class. Traditional occupations
such as merchants and the professions (law,
medicine, and the universities) were greatly augmented
by a new group of managers and technicians, as large
companies and government agencies employed increasing
numbers of white-collar supervisory and administrative
personnel. In most cases, success depended on specialized
knowledge acquired from some form of higher
education. Since their jobs usually depended on their
skills, these individuals took steps to ensure that their
children would be similarly educated.
Changes occurred in other areas as well. Especially noticeable
was the dramatic shift from the countryside to
the cities. The number of people in agriculture declined
by 50 percent. Yet the industrial working class did not
expand. In West Germany, industrial workers made up
48 percent of the labor force throughout the 1950s and
1960s. Thereafter, the number of industrial workers began
to dwindle as the number of white-collar service employees
increased. At the same time, a substantial increase
in their real wages enabled the working classes to
aspire to the consumption patterns of the middle class.
Buying on the installment plan, introduced in the 1930s,
became widespread in the 1950s and gave workers a
chance to imitate the middle class by buying such products
as televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, vac-
uum cleaners, and stereos. But the most visible symbol of
mass consumerism was the automobile. Before World
War II, cars were reserved mostly for the upper classes. In
1948, there were 5 million cars in all of Europe, but by
1957, the number had tripled. By the mid-1960s, there
were almost 45 million cars.
Rising incomes, combined with shorter working hours,
created an even greater market for mass leisure activities.
Between 1900 and 1980, the workweek was reduced from
sixty hours to about forty hours, and the number of paid
holidays increased. All aspects of popular culture—music,
sports, media—became commercialized and offered
opportunities for leisure activities, including concerts,
sporting events, and television viewing.
Another very visible symbol of mass leisure was the
growth of tourism. Before World War II, most persons
who traveled for pleasure were from the upper and middle
classes. After the war, the combination of more vacation
time, increased prosperity, and the flexibility provided by
package tours with their lower rates and low-budget
rooms enabled millions to expand their travel possibilities.
By the mid-1960s, some 100 million tourists were
crossing European borders each year.
Social change was also evident in new educational
patterns. Before World War II, higher education was
largely the preserve of Europe’s wealthier classes. Even in
1950, only 3 or 4 percent of Western European young
people were enrolled in a university. European higher ed-
ucation remained largely centered on the liberal arts,
pure science, and preparation for the professions of law
and medicine.
Much of this changed in the 1950s and 1960s. European
states began to foster greater equality of opportunity
in higher education by eliminating fees, and universities
experienced an influx of students from the middle and
lower classes. Enrollments grew dramatically. In France,
4.5 percent of young people went to a university in 1950;
by 1965, the figure had increased to 14.5 percent. Enrollments
in European universities more than tripled between
1940 and 1960.
With growth came problems. Overcrowded classrooms,
unapproachable professors, and authoritarian administrators
aroused student resentment. In addition, despite
changes in the curriculum, students often felt that the universities
were not providing an education relevant to the
modern age. This discontent led to an outburst of student
revolts in the late 1960s. In part, these protests were an extension
of the disruptions in American universities in the
mid-1960s, which were often sparked by student opposition
to the VietnamWar. Protesters also criticized other
aspects of Western society, such as its materialism, and
expressed concern about becoming cogs in the large and
impersonal bureaucratic jungles of the modern world.
The most famous student revolt occurred in France in
1968. It erupted at the University of Nanterre outside
Paris but soon spread to the Sorbonne, the main campus
of the University of Paris. French students demanded a
greater voice in the administration of the university, took
over buildings, and then expanded the scale of their protests
by inviting workers to support them. Half of France’s
workforce went on strike in May 1968. After the Gaullist
government instituted a hefty wage hike, the workers returned
to work, and the police repressed the remaining
student protesters.
One source of anger among the student revolutionaries
of the late 1960s was the lingering influence of traditional
institutions and values. World War I had seen the
first significant crack in the rigid code of manners and
morals of the nineteenth century. The 1920s had witnessed
experimentation with drugs, the appearance of
hard-core pornography, and a new sexual freedom. But
these changes appeared mostly in major cities and
touched only small numbers of people. After World War
II, they were more extensive and far more noticeable.
Sweden took the lead in the so-called sexual revolution
of the 1960s, but the rest of Europe soon followed.
Sex education in the schools and the decriminalization of
homosexuality were but two aspects of Sweden’s liberal
legislation. Introduction of the birth control pill, which
became widely available by the mid-1960s, gave people
more freedom in sexual behavior. Meanwhile, sexually
explicit movies, plays, and books broke new ground in the
treatment of once-hidden subjects.
The new standards were evident in the breakdown of
the traditional family. Divorce rates increased dramatically,
especially in the 1960s, while premarital and extramarital
sexual experiences also rose substantially. The
1960s also saw the emergence of a drug culture. Marijuana
use was widespread among college and university
students, and Timothy Leary, a professor who had
done research at Harvard on the effects of LSD (lysergic
acid diethylamide), promulgated the purported “mindexpanding”
effects of hallucinogenics.
World History
