What does the author, researcher, and historian Stephanie Coontz mean when she refers to the "nostalgia trap"? Families in the 1950's typically experienced fewer social and economic problems than they do today. We often overlook the high rates of poverty, abuse and marital dissatisfaction from the 1950's We take for granted how good most families had it in the early to mid-1900's. We hold an accurate idea of what family life was like in all previous generations.