Postwar America:The Affluent Society

U.S. History II

The Fair Deal Truman asked Congress for:

national health insurance increased minimum wage full employment guarantee civil rights for African Americans

Republican-controlled Congress blocked his programs, but Truman vetoed their tax cut

Desegregated armed forces by executive order in 1948

The Election of 1948

Population Growth and Shifts 20 million move from

rural to urban areas By 1970, 76 million in

suburbs, 64 million in cities

Gov’t subsidized: FHA insured builders’

loans & buyers’ mortgages

Veterans got additional benefits

Expressways built

Levittown

Levitt Home Styles

Levittowns

Building the New York Thruway

Postwar Economic Boom White-collar workers

outnumber blue-collar workers for first time

Rosie the Riveter went back to being Rosie the Secretary

Television & the Consumer Economy

Postwar marketing used powerful new medium of TV

Business model based on radio Nationwide networks Advertisers sponsors shows to

reach demographic groups Advertisers increasingly

targeted teenagers Increasing disposable income Highly susceptible to emotional

manipulation

Other Postwar Trends Christian revival, but mainline Protestant

churches focus more on soothing middle-class anxieties than preaching the gospel

Consensus & conformity characterize the national mood, but not a return to traditional values

Rev. Norman Vincent Peale

Eisenhower’s Dynamic Conservatism U.S. & Canada agree to jointly develop St.

Lawrence Seaway (1954) 1954 Housing Act supposed to build low-

income housing for those displaced by urban renewal

Atomic Energy Act (1954) allowed private companies to build nuclear power plants

1956 Highway Act spent $31 billion to create 41,000-mile interstate highway system

Automobile America