1950s were an extremely important period in the world history. In spite the fact that the World War II had already ended the turbulence and conflicts in international political relations as well as the domestic policy within the US still caused numerous troubles to the extent that the events that had occurred during this period practically shaped the future of the US and the entire world. In fact, 1950s were the years of important changes on both national and international levels and these changes and new trends were not always positive. In stark contrast, some of the trends typical to 1950s truly threatened to the democratic development of the US and the rest of the world. On the other hand 1950s became an extremely important point in the history of the civil right movements in the US as well as in the entire world.
 

First of all, it should be said that after the end of the World War II and the following beginning of the Cold War between democratic countries headed by the US and the Soviet block headed by the USSR, the democratic world, including the US were extremely disturbed about the so-called communist threat. In fact, the threat of the expansion of communism was perceived practically in the similar way as the spread of fascism, i.e. it was the major threat to democracy and traditional American lifestyle. As a result, McCarthyism grew in power in the US. This movement targeted at the prevention of the communist threat by all means which were often far from democratic principles. As a result, many people who were suspected to be ‘red’ were severely oppressed and many of them were forced to leave the country, like it was in the case of Charlie Chaplin (Jameson 1998). Obviously, McCarthyism produced a profound impact on American society but it was rather a lesson to Americans revealing them what they should not do in their domestic and international politics in order to preserve effectively their basic values and develop a democratic society.
 

In fact, McCarthyism faced a strong opposition from the part of American society which after the end of the World War II had nothing to fear and people perfectly realized their power and their rights which they wanted to protect. At the same time, there appeared such movement as dynamic conservatism which attempted to preserve the basic values and traditions of American society but on the other hand atypically to a conservative movement, dynamic conservatism was ready to accept innovations and implement essential reforms as long as they did not harm historical traditions of American society (Norton 1999).
 

On the international level, the tension between the US and the USSR continued to grow but it was obvious that both countries as well as the world at large could hardly bear the new World War. In such a situation, it was quite natural that countries attempted to launch the politics of consensus looking for alternative solutions of the existing problems between the superpowers. However, these efforts failed since the tension between the superpowers only grew worldwide. As a result, the USSR amply supported communist movements while the US attempted to find new allies in different parts of the world and stop the spread of communism by all possible means. Eventually, this led to the involvement of the US in military conflict worldwide, especially in South-East Asia, namely in Korea in 1950s.
 

Such politics of consensus was extrapolated on the level of domestic policy and basically referred to the racial policy within the US. The major point of this policy was to create conditions for co-existence of representatives of different race when the interests of each race are not oppressed. In fact, it was a sort of the segregation ideology when different races could exist within a society, while the efforts to make them closer to each other and develop interracial relations were, in practice, few.
 

However, the development of the civil rights movement in 1950s contributed considerably to the change of American society. In fact, the civil rights movement in 1950s was basically related to the movements of African-Americans for their rights many of which were inspired by Martin L. King, the major ideologue and promoter of the idea of interracial interaction and peaceful co-existence of white and African-Americans based on equality of rights and opportunities for all people regardless their race (Watson 2001).
 

Finally, it was not only political but socio-economic life of Americans that had changed dramatically during 1950s. In fact, it was the period of Eisenhower presidency, when the shift to the consumerist society was made and consumerism eventually became the major ideology replacing traditional moral and ethical values.
 

Thus, 1950s were a very important period of substantial changes that shaped the modern image of the US and life of millions of Americans.