Transcript Ch 20 – The PostWar Years

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The Postwar Economy
The Mood of the 1950’s
Domestic Politics and Policy
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After WWII, soldiers wanted to return home to a “normal” life
▪ Americans eager to spend money on things they had been denied during
depression and war
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Businesses Reorganize
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Per Capita Income increased dramatically 1945=$1,223 to 1960=$2,219
Gross National Product (GNP) increases too $212B to $504B
Corporations geared up to supply the growing demands
Technological advances also enhanced what people wanted
Conglomerates (corporations made up of 3 or more unrelated businesses)
formed to better protect themselves against economic downturns
▪ Franchise businesses sprang up all over (in various businesses)
 Ray Kroc (McDonalds) and his Multimixer
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Technology Transforms Life
▪ TELEVISION – Most families had a TV by the end of the ’50’s
▪ Weekly shows replaced radio as the “must see” event of the week
 Kids = The Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody
 Teens = American Bandstand
 Adults = I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best
▪ 3 Networks controlled programming (advertising drove decisions)
▪ COMPUTER INDUSTRY
▪ Wartime advances drove innovations
▪ Debugging ▪ Transistors – began to decrease the size of technologies
▪ NUCLEAR POWER
▪ Nuclear Fusion created great heat – steam could be used to create energy
▪ Navy ships to cities would eventually be powered by atomic energy
▪ ADVANCES IN MEDICINE
▪ Dr . Salk and Dr. Francis developed a vaccine for POLIO (it had disabled or killed 20000 kids yearly)
▪ Advances in antibiotics allowed several diseases to be treated better
▪ Surgical advances during the war allowed doctors to begin to treat heart defects and other
internal disorders
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Changes in the Work Force
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Automation replaced many manual labor jobs
G-I Bill paid for returning soldiers to go to college
Many “blue collar” workers retrained for “white collar” jobs
Office work meant less “hands on” connection with their product
Expanding Middle Class; Unions won better pay, work conditions
Suburbs and Highways
▪ BABY BOOM – 1946-1962 saw a dramatic increase in birthrate
▪ Moving to the Suburbs
▪ GI Bill gave very low interest loans so many could afford to buy a house
▪ Developers build tract housing (mass production of housing)
▪ Hundreds of little “box house” communities sprung up around the country
▪ Cars and Highways
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Suburbs saw people moving further from town (beyond public transportation)
Automakers began to build new cars to meet the demand
Need for newer and better roads (1956 Federal Highway Act)
Federal Highway Act build more than 40,000 miles of roads
 (to move military goods and to aid in a mass evacuation in case of nuclear attack)
▪ New business sprang up around the car (Drive in Restaurants, Drive in Movies)
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The Growth of Consumer Credit
▪ Eager to take advantage of the nation’s want to buy, companies offered
credit cards to their loyal customers
▪ GAS – credit cards allowed to buy gas without cash
▪ GENERAL – Diners Card, American Express and VISA
▪ Consumer Credit rose from $8B in 1946 to $56 B in 1960
▪ Americans used credit to buy washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and
TV sets.
▪ America had become an “affluent” society
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Comfort and Security
▪ America was know for its “INDIVIDUALITY”, but the 1950’s were about
conformity
▪ YOUTH CULTURE: little interest in the affairs of the world
▪ The economy allowed more young people to stay in school rather than
work
▪ The “Middle Class” meant the young people had leisure time
 Teen girls became babysitters because moving to suburbs meant away from
family help
▪ Businesses jumped on the chance to sell to the youth
▪ TV, Magazines sold a “style” to the teens
▪ Teen girls collected linens and silver in anticipation of when they married
▪ A Resurgence of RELIGION
▪ American’s flocked back to churches and synagogues in response to the
“Godless Communists”
▪ “Under God” was added to the national Pledge of Allegiance
▪ “In God We Trust” was added to the US currency
▪ Evangelists used TV and radio to push their message
▪ By the end of the 1950’s, 90% of Americans felt connected to a religion
en’s Men and Women’s Rolesand Women’s Roles
▪ MEN
▪ Expected to go to school and find jobs to support their wives and families
▪ Theirs was the public sphere where important political, economic and
social decisions were made
▪ WOMEN
▪ Expected to be supportive of their men
▪ They were to keep house, cook meals, and raise children in their suburban
homes
▪ Hers was a domestic duty – to take care of the home
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Challenges to Conformity
▪ Women at Work
▪ Many women had enjoyed working during the war; reluctantly gave up
jobs
▪ Some women did work outside the home, mostly as secretaries, teachers,
nurses and sales clerks
▪ Their incomes used to afford the luxuries offered in the 1950’s
▪ Some women began questioning these roles
▪ Youthful Rebellions
▪ Youth CHALLENGED the norms of 1950’s culture
▪ Many felt misunderstood and ignored (“Rebel Without A Cause”,
“Catcher in the Rye”)
▪ Many sought out a style of their own
▪ Rock and Roll
▪ Elvis Presley
▪ Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino crossed the color line
▪ Many adults feared this music (it threatened their way of life:
conformity, racial segregation)
▪ BEAT GENERATION
 Beatniks: promoted spontineity, release from the MONEY culture of
America
 JACK KEROUAC’s ON THE ROAD
Name
Address
City
(skip space)
Date
(skip space)
Dear Mr. Metzelaar
(skip space)
Thank you for . . . .
Tell him about something he said that really hit home with you
Explain why you think it is important that people of your generation hear from survivors of the
Holocaust
(skip space)
Sincerely
(skip space)
(skip space)
(skip space)
(skip space)
Your Name (written neatly)
The 1950’s were VERY CONSERVATIVE
▪ Truman first had to struggle with moving from a war economy to a peacetime
economy
▪ Congress and the President constantly battle over the direction of the US
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Truman’s Domestic Policies (not as organized as FDR, more “scattered”
▪ The Peacetime Economy – 1st Priority “Reconversion”
 Social and Economic transition from war to peace
 Returning the soldiers was first on the list of priorities (“no boats, no votes”)
 Gov’t eased controls and inflation jumped to 25%
▪ Truman’s FAIR DEAL – Extended the New Deal’s goals
 Securing economic justice for ALL Americans
 21 Point Agenda
 Full employment, higher minimum wage, housing assistance
 Ran into a lot of resistance (both in Congress and from the voters)
 Public Support of Truman dropped dramatically
▪ Truman on Civil Rights – while Truman grew up in times that taught racial
prejudices, he realized ‘the President’ needed to take a stand
▪ Met with African American leaders and listened to their concerns
▪ Created a biracial commission to look into race relations
▪ Federal anti-lynching laws
▪ Abolish the poll tax
▪ Create a board to prevent discriminatory hiring practices
▪ Congress controlled by the South, blocked any federal legislation
▪ Truman DID end discrimination in federal hiring and desegregated the military
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The Election of 1948
 Truman decided to run for President again in 1948
▪ Not real popular, even in his own party they ran candidates against him
 Dewey from NY ran against him, but Truman aimed at Congress
 Most polls has Dewey winning easily, but on election night, Truman won
in an upset
 2nd term will see small accomplishments for Truman
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Eisenhower and the Republican Approach (K1C2 approach)
▪ Korea, Communism and Corruption
 “Ike” promised to get the US out of Korea, fight communism and corruption in gov’t
▪ The “Checkers” Speech
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Nixon (Ike’s VP pick) accused of keeping slush fund (not true)
Nixon speech – admitted to taking one gift, a puppy named Checkers
Nixon turned a PR nightmare into a bonanza
He and Ike won huge
▪ Eisenhower as President
 Ike’s natural leadership style was to work behind the scenes, critics called him a weak leader
 American public LOVED him, will easily win reelection in 1956
▪ Modern Republicanism
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Determined to SLOW GROWTH of government
Limited power of President and increase power of Congress and the Courts
Priorities: cut spending, reduce taxes, balance the budget “modern republicanism”
Very pro-business
Efforts to shrink government backfired, economy slumped
Increased Social Security and increased minimum wage (New Deal programs)
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Meeting the Technology Challenges
 USSR launch “SPUTNIK” in 1957
 US feared it was losing the technological edge
 US also feared a nuclear attack from advanced weapons
 NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
▪ Agency whose charge was to explore space
▪ Main goal was to get ahead of USSR in the Space Race
 NDEA – National Defense Education Act
▪ Great minds needed for NASA, so push in schools in the areas of math and science
▪ Millions of dollars in low-cost loads to college students in these fields
▪ Millions of dollars to state schools for science and foreign language programs
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How did advances in technologies change life
in post-war America?
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Describe the roles of men and women in the
1950’s. Compare that to the roles of men
and women today
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Compare the policies and leadership styles of
Presidents Truman and Eisenhower in
post-war America