POSTWAR AMERICA

GI BILL OF RIGHTS 1944

Provided financial and educational benefits for WWII veterans

Encouraged veterans to get an education instead of coming home and flooding the workforce

Guaranteed them a year of unemployment benefits

Offered low-interest home loans

HOUSING CRISIS

Housing shortage for returning veterans and their families

William Levitt used the assembly line to mass produce houses His homes cost $8,000 in the suburbs Levittown (Long Island), NY

Many veterans could afford these new homes due to the GI Bill

REDEFINING THE FAMILY

Change of gender roles during WWII 6 million women had a war job; 75%

of married women worked in WWII Refusal to give up independence post

WWII 1950: more than a million “war

marriages” ended in divorce

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

$35 billion in war contracts cancelled = 1 million defense workers unemployed

OPA price controls end = massive inflation Ex.: pork chops rose from .48c per lb

to .72c per lb Product shortages = long lines at

grocery stores Post war wages cut

ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS

The Depression and wartime shortages taught Americans to save their war wages

Americans had money to spend on new cars, appliances, homes

Booming economy created consumer jobs “the affluent society”

Marshall Plan created foreign markets for American products

TRUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS

Federal anti-lynching law; abolition of poll tax; committee to prevent racial discrimination in hiring

Congress would not pass these measures 1948: Truman issued an Executive Order

de-segregating the military He also ordered an end to discrimination

in hiring government employees

1948 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Dixiecrats opposed civil rights and formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party

Truman led a “whistlestop campaign” traveling across the country criticizing Congress

“Give ‘em hell, Harry” campaign Truman defeat Thomas Dewey in a

close popular vote election

FAIR DEAL

increased the minimum wage From .40c to .75c

extended social security coverage provide housing for low income

families Slums were cleared to build 810,000

housing units in major cities

I LIKE IKE!

Why Truman didn’t run in 1952: stalemate in Korea, McCarthyism

Ike’s campaign: fear of communism and the growing power of the federal gov.

VP candidate Nixon was accused of profiting from a secret fund: the “Checkers Speech” helped Ike to win the election