Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Reading Comprehension Worksheets
The 1950's
The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties

The 1950's
The 1950's

The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 9 to 12
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   9.57

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    appliance-filled, beatnik, bongo, image-conscious, maelstrom, nonconformist, simplistic, spacey, subculture, cynical, disdain, morphed, novelist, implication, froth, sync
     content words:    United States, West Coast, New York, Jack Kerouac, Poet Allen Ginsberg, San Francisco, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg

Print The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties
     Print The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print
     Quickly print reading comprehension

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     The culture of the 1950s was a complex blend of viewpoints. The trauma of WWII had left its mark upon Americans of all types. In the hearts of many, the suffering of the Depression years lurked just below the surface. The majority of people wanted desperately to believe that such tragedies were anomalies, just odd bumps on an otherwise sunny path to the good life.
 
2     At first, this faith seemed justified. The "bad news forties" faded away and the fifties dawned with the promise of peace and prosperity. But this sunny prospect was dampened almost immediately by events taking place on the other side of the world. The two halves of Korea were at war with each other. This conflict would seem barely worth mentioning in the United States, which had emerged from WWII as a major player on the world scene.
 
3     Yet somehow this war in a backward country in a small corner of Asia was a lightning rod for dangerous hostilities between the world's most powerful countries. It wasn't just the prospect of war that caused people to lie awake at night. It was the creeping fear of a scientific Frankenstein. Man had formulated a monster, a weapon capable of annihilating whole cities, even nations. The weapon, if heedlessly used, could conceivably wipe out the entire human race. The awesome power of this marvel had been demonstrated in 1945. Two big cities in Japan had been reduced to rubble by atomic bombs dropped by U.S. planes.

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Weekly Reading Books

          Create Weekly Reading Books

Prepare for an entire week at once!

Feedback on The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties
Leave your feedback on The Beat of a Different Drum - Rebels of the Nifty Fifties   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

The 1950's
             The 1950's

More Lessons
             High School Reading Comprehensions and High School Reading Lessons

United States
             United States


    American Government  
 
    Black History and Blacks in U.S. History  
 
    Children in History  
 
    Government Careers  
 
    Hispanic Heritage  
 
    How Can I Help?  
 
 
    Immigration  
 
    National Parks and Monuments  
 
    Native Americans  
 
    Presidents of the United States  
 
    Women's History  
 

United States History
    A Nation Divided
(1840-1861) 		 
 
    A New Nation
(1776-1830) 		 
 
    After the Civil War
(1865-1870) 		 
 
    American Revolution  
 
    Cold War
(1947-1991) 		 
 
    Colonial America (1492-1776)  
 
    Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806) 		 
 
    Pearl Harbor  
 
    Spanish American War (1898)  
 
    The 1890's  
 
    The 1900's  
 
    The 1910's  
 
    The 1920's  
 
    The 1930's  
 
 
    The 1940's  
 
    The 1950's  
 
    The 1960's  
 
    The 1970's  
 
    The 1980's  
 
    The 1990's  
 
    The 2000's  
 
    The Civil War
(1861-1865) 		 
 
    The Great Depression
(1929-1945) 		 
 
    The United States Grows
(1865-1900) 		 
 
    The War of 1812  
 
    Wild, Wild West  
 
    World War I
(1914-1918) 		 
 
    World War II  
 

50 States

             Fifty States Theme Unit

Document Based Activities
      Document Based Activities



Copyright © 2025 edHelper