Chapter 19 p. 660The Postwar Boom

Essential Question: What economic, social, and political changes occurred in the postwar

US?You have returned home from serving in WWII to find that your country is changing.

The cities have swelled. Outlying suburbs are being built up with almost identical homes. America produces more and cheaper goods. In a booming economy, couples

marry and start families in record numbers. As you watch clever ads on TV for the newest labor-saving gadgets, you feel nostalgia for a simpler time.

Section 1 p. 662Postwar America

• Main Idea: The Truman and Eisenhower administrations led the nation to make social, economic, and political adjustments following WWII.• Why it matters now: In the years after WWII, the US became the

economic and military power that it still is today.• Terms and Names: GI Bill of Rights, suburb, Harry S. Truman,

Dixiecrat, Fair Deal

• Readjustment and Recovery: By the summer of 1946, about 10 million men and women had been released from the armed forces. They were returning to American society settling down to rebuild their lives along with the rest of America. With the return of these veterans, a new set of problems emerged.• Impact of the GI Bill: To help returning veterans to civilian life,

Congress passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act- or the GI Bill of Rights in 1944. It encouraged veterans to get an education by partially paying for their tuition, it also guaranteed them a year’s worth of unemployment benefits white job hunting, offered low-interest federally guaranteed loans. Millions of young families used these benefits to buy homes, farms or to establish businesses.

• Housing Crisis: With so many veterans returning from war, there was a severe housing shortage. Many families lived in cramped apartments or had to move in with relatives. This led developers (like William Levitt and Henry Kaiser) to use efficient, assembly-line methods to mass produce houses. Houses could be assembled quickly and were built in small residential communities surrounding cities called suburbs for less than $7,000. They were standardized homes that looked exactly alike to meet zoning laws. Americans loved the small-town feel of the planned suburbs. The GI Bill helped many veterans and their families to own homes and live in this new lifestyle.

• Redefining the Family: With the changing roles of both men and women during the war years, the divorce rate climbed. Traditionally: men – the breadwinners, head of the household.

women- expected to stay at home and care for the family.Problem: about 8 million women (75% married) entered the paid workforce. They supported their families and made important household decisions. Many were reluctant to give up their newfound independence when their husbands returned home. Even though most women left their jobs, by 1950, more than a million war marriages ended in divorce.

• Economic Readjustment: After WWII the US converts back to a peacetime economy. The government no longer needs to make war machines and supplies. The government immediately cancels war contracts of$35 billion. Within 10 days of the Japanese surrender, more than a million defense workers were laid off. Unemployment goes through the roof – laid off defense workers as well as returning veterans are looking for job! In March of 1946, unemployment peaked with about 3 million looking for work.

Section 2 p. 669The American Dream in the

Fifties

• Main Idea: During the 1950s, the economy boomed, and many Americans enjoyed material comfort• Why it matters now: The “American dream,” a notion that was largely

shaped by the 1950s, is still pursued today.

•After WWII, Americans turned their attention to families and jobs. The GI Bill helped millions of returning veterans attend college, start businesses, and buy homes. New technologies created fresh opportunities. As the economy prospered, incomes rose, nearly doubling the size of the middle class. Americans were enjoying the highest standard of living in the world. The American dream of a happy, successful life seemed within reach.

• In the 1950s businesses rapidly expanded and most Americans were no longer blue-collar workers (factory/labor jobs – made manufactured goods). They help higher-paid white-collar jobs (clerical, managers, professional occupations – performed services in sales, advertising, insurance, communications). Many white collar workers worked for large corporations or government agencies. Some of these large companies formed into conglomerates - a major corporation that includes a number of smaller companies in unrelated industries – such as ITT and• Disney -House of Mouse, ABC, Pixar, Entertainment Sports,

programming Network (ESPN) Time Warner, Marvel Comics, A&E Networks and• Comcast – Universal Studios, NBC Sports, MSNBC

• Franchise – a business that has bought the right to use a parent company’s name and methods, thus becoming one of a number of similar businesses in various locations. McDonalds, Churches Chicken.

Social Conformity:• Franchises like Mc Donald’s helped standardize what people ate,

some American workers found themselves becoming standardized as well. Employees who were well paid and held secure jobs in thriving companies sometimes paid a price for economic advancement: a loss of their individually. In general, businesses did not want creative thinkers, rebels, or anyone who would rock the corporate boat. • How were conglomerates and franchises alike and different? Both

were successful business entities that grew rapidly. The conglomerate grew by diversifying; franchises grew by opening identical stores in new locations.

• New large organizations created “company people.” Companies would give personality tests to people applying for jobs to make sure they would “fit in” the corporate culture. Companies rewarded employees for teamwork, cooperation, and loyalty and so contributed to the growth of conformity, which was called “belongingness.” For many, conformity replaced individuality.

The Suburban Lifestyle: Achieving job security did take a psychological toll on some Americans who resented having to repress their own personalities, it also enabled people to provide their families with the so-called good things in life. Most Americans worked in cities but no longer lived there. New highways, cars, low gas prices, made commuting possible. Nearly every major city is surrounded by suburbs. The “Burbs” embodied the American dream of affordable housing, good schools, and a safe and healthy environment for children with good neighbors.

• Baby Boom: returning WWII soldiers came home and settled into family life contributing to an unprecedented population explosion called the baby boom. It starts in the late 1940s and continues until the early 1960s. Its height was in 1957 when one American infant was born every 7 seconds = 4,308,000 for the year. It created the largest generation in the nation’s history. What factors contributed to the size of this generation? Reunions of husbands and wives after the war, decreasing marriage age, desirability of large families, confidence in continued economic prosperity, advances in medicine.

• Advances in medicine and childcare: medical advances in medicine were saving hundreds of thousands of children’s lives with the discovery of drugs to fight and prevent childhood diseases – typhoid fever – a common worldwide bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, polio – the infection of the spinal cord’s grey matter. It destroys motor neurons leading to muscle weakness and paralysis. It can involve limbs, breathing – can lead to atrophy. Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio . It was one of the most feared diseases in the 1950s. The government sponsored free inoculation programs for children. • How did women’s roles and opportunities in the 1950s differ from

today? In 1950s women were homemakers and fewer had educational and career opportunities than today.

• Automobile Culture: During WWII the government rationed gas to curb inflation and safe gas supplies. After the war, there was an abundance of petroleum which made gas inexpensive and plentiful for consumers. Also easy credit terms and ads persuaded Americans to buy cars in record numbers. America becomes mobile.• Suburb living made owning a car necessary. Many outer areas did not offer

public transportation so people had to drive to jobs, school, church, doctor.• In 1956 President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act which

authorized the building of a nationwide highway network – the creation of the Interstate system. The system helped unify and homogenize the nation. With access to cars, gas, new highways, more Americans hit the road. • Problems: America becomes dependent on cars = noise pollution, traffic

jams, air pollution, increased stress, public transportation declines, upper and middle classes leave cities – businesses follow them; only the poor are left in the inner cities with no jobs and vital services. RESULT: gulf widens between urban/suburban and middle/poor.

• Consumerism: By the mid-1950s, nearly 60% of Americans were members of the middle class, about twice as many as before WWII. They wanted, and had the money to buy, increasing numbers of products. Consumerism: the buying of material goods that equate success. New products appeared in the marketplace, washing machines, dryers, freezers, dishwashers in record numbers. With this comes more leisure time and people invested in recreational items – TV's, tape recorders record players, casual clothing – suburban styles, power mowers, pools, lawn decorations.• Planned obsolescence: market strategy created by manufacturers. They

encouraged consumers to buy more goods by designing products to become obsolete – to wear out, break down, or go out of style. Some felt American culture was becoming a “throwaway society.”• The Diner’s Club issued the first credit card in 1950, American Express in 1958.

Consumers made purchases on credit – not having to pay for them right away. People bought large items on the installment plan and made regular payments over a fixed time – homes, cars. Instead of saving, Americans were spending and confident that prosperity would continue – BULLISH!

The First Credit Cards

• Advertising Age: The advertising industry capitalized on this runaway consumerism by encouraging even more spending. Ads were everywhere prompting people to buy goods from cars to cereal and cigarettes. Since Americans had satisfied their basic needs, advertisers tried to convince them to buy things they really didn’t need. Ad execs turned to psychology to create new strategies to sell. TV becomes a powerful new advertising tool. The TV not only is the chosen medium for mass transmission of cultural values, but a symbol of popular culture itself.

Section 3 p. 680Popular Culture

• Main Idea: Mainstream American, as well as the nation’s subcultures, embraced new forms of entertainment during the 1950s.• Why is matters now: TV and rock n roll, integral parts of the nation’s

culture today, emerged during the postwar era.

• TV was first available in 1948 to 9% of American homes, by 1960 it was 90%. • FCC – Federal Communications Commission – government agency

that regulates and licenses television, phone, telegraph, radio and other communications industries. This period in the 1950s of rapid expansion of TV entertainment was called the “golden age.” • TV news – Edward R. Murrow: veteran radio reporter and broadcaster

introduces 2 innovations: 1. on the scene news reporting and 2.Interviewing. • How did the emergence of TV affect American culture in the 1950s?

More households used TV for entertainment and people spent an increasing number of hours watching TV. More varied shows were broadcast, and TV dinners were invented to accommodate viewers. TV showed idealized families and omitted poverty and discriminations.

• How did radio and movies maintain their appeal in their appeal in the 1950s? They concentrated on what they did best – local news, weather, and music programming on radio; wide screen sizes, Technicolor, and the stereophonic sound in movies appealed to audiences also. • Why do you think many young Americans were attracted to the beat

movement? Teenagers looking for alternatives to the conformity and consumerism of their parents found a celebration of poverty, unconformity, and art that reflected immediate sensory experience.• Rock – n – roll: Elvis Presley , Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets,

brought rock n roll to teens who made it popular. Adults condemned it. They thought it would lead to teen delinquency and immorality. In some cities, concerts were banned. TV and radio exposure of rock n roll helped bring it into the mainstream and more acceptable by the end of the 1950s.

Section 4 p. 688The Other America

•Main idea: Amidst the prosperity of the 1950s, millions of Americans lived in poverty.•Why it matters now: America today continues to experience

a marked income gap between affluent and non-affluent people.

• Urban Poor: Despite the life in America portrait – not all lived up to the “American Dream.” Nearly 1 in every 4 Americans were living below the poverty level. Many were these poor were elderly, single women and their children, and members of minority groups. • White flight: remember, in the 1950s many middle-class whites left

the cities for the suburbs (the Burbs) taking economic resources and isolating themselves from other races and classes. At this time also, rural poor migrated from the rural areas to the inner cities. From the end of WWII to 1960 nearly 5 million Af/Am left the rural South to urban areas. “White flight” whites left cities followed by businesses. Cities lost people, businesses and income taxes from properties abandoned. Cities could no longer afford to maintain schools, public transportation, police/fire so the urban poor suffered. This loss of people and income led to decaying ghettos.

• Urban renewal: National Housing Act of 1949 – to provide a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American. This act called for tearing down rundown neighborhoods and constructing low-income housing. This leads to a new presidential cabinet position HUD – Housing and Urban Development – to aid in improving conditions in the inner city. • Even though dilapidated areas were torn down, rarely was housing built to

replace it – what was built? Parking lots, shopping centers, highways, parks, factories. • In LA a barrio was cleared – to build Dodger Stadium. These poor people

were displaced and moved from one ghetto to another. Some claimed urban renewal had become urban removal. • Why were attempts at urban renewal viewed as less than successful?

Because the building boom primarily took place in the suburbs; because of lack of jobs, discrimination, and the impact of white flight.

• Braceros: Mexican hired hands allowed into the US to harvest crops. This was part of a federal program to deal with the shortage of agricultural laborers. When the short termed employment ended, many remained in the US illegally – escaping poor economic conditions in Mexico. • Longoria Incident: Felix Longoria was a WWII Hero killed in the Philippines.

The outrage was that the only undertaker in his town refused to provide his family with funeral services. Returning Mex/Am stepped up efforts to stamp out discrimination. They started a movement to register Mex/Amer voters and to promote candidates who would represent their interests. The Longoria incident spurred them on to become more politically active and organized.

• Native Americans: in 1934 the Indian Reorganization Act moved official policy away from assimilation and toward Native American autonomy. There was a changed in federal policy. The gov’t wanted to stop subsidizing – financial government assistance – Nat/Am took the initiative to improve their lives. They established the National Congress of American Indians. It had 2 main goals:

1. To ensure for Nat/Am the same civil rights that white Americans had2. To enable Nat/Am on reservations to retain their own customs. • Termination policy: in 1953 the US gov’t. gave up its responsibility of Nat/Am

tribes. This eliminated federal economic support, discontinued the reservation system and distributed tribal lands among individual Nat/Am. It was a failure. Many were unable to find jobs, had poor training/education, no access to medical care, and dealt with prejudices. It was abolished in 1963. This relocation displaced an entire group of people.