What were the elements of conformity in the American culture of the 1950s.

The 20- and 30-somethings of the 1950s, remember, were the
Americans who had survived both a Great Depression and World War II, back to back
catastrophes that touched almost every family.  So that generation (also sometimes
referred to as "The Greatest Generation") felt the 50s were a time to settle down, start
families, buy a home and enjoy what life had left to offer.  It was in this national
mood that conformity took root.

It was accelerated and
intensified by the Cold War, as the possibility of a nuclear war or at least World War
III with the Soviet Union seemed a real threat.  The Second Red Scare (McCarthyism)
spread fear as Americans were investigated and questioned and a sense of
hyper-patriotism developed that also was conformist in nature.  The playwright Arthur
Miller tried to point out what a witch hunt McCarthyism had become in his 1953 play
The Crucible.

Sloan Wilson published
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit in 1955, highlighting and
criticizing how Americans had come to define happiness as working 9 to 5 jobs in an
office or factory somewhere, and questioned whether or not there was more to life than
that.