In the last couple of episodes, we talked about the birth and rise of rock n roll, and how it shaped the modern world.  The birth of Rock n Roll coincided with a kind of golden age for the United States.  The US emerged from WWII with a booming economy, the most powerful military in the world, and a manufacturing sector that had been kicked into high gear by the war.  So the 1950’s and the early 1960’s were a time of growth and prosperity for the US.  

And of course, after the war, as one of the two world superpowers, the US took a leading role in the politics of the western world, and the politics of containing the other superpower, namely, the Soviet Union.