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Postwar Years in America (1945-1960)
Chapter 20: Sections 1-3Focus Question:If you had to spend 5 years deprived of modern convenience (technology, etc.) what would be the first thing you would buy after you no longer were limited? Why? How would you feel?
The Postwar Economy
Businesses Reorganize
GNP and Per Capita Income increase 60%
Major corporate expansion—new products
Conglomerate: corporation made up of three or more unrelated businesses
Franchise: business that contracts to offer certain goods and services from a parent company Ray Kroc (McDonalds)
Technology Transforms Life
Television 4 to 5 hours a day Commercials
The Computer Industry Transistor: circuit device
that controls electrical signals
Nuclear Power Nuclear Fission
Advances in Medicine Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine Antibiotics
Changes in the Work Force
Blue-collar jobs to white-collar jobs Easier physically
Blue-collar workers move to the middle class Wages and working
conditions up Unions unite
Moving to the Suburbs
GI Bill of Rights Servicemen’s Readjustment
Act of 1944 Low-interest mortgages to
WWII veterans Educational stipends for
college William J. Levitt built whole
communities The average American
could afford to buy their own house
Cars and Highways
Move to suburbs calls for more dependence on cars
Automakers make new models each year
New businesses Gas Stations, etc.
1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act Money to build
interstate system
The Growth of Consumer Credit
Gasoline companies begin offering credit cards to loyal customers
Consumer credit debt grows from $8 billion to $56 billion in 14 yrs
U.S. becomes an “affluent society”
The Mood of the 1950s
Focus Question:What do you consider to be the “proper” role for men and women today?
Do your views differ from those of your parents/grand-parents?
Reading AssignmentPage 675-679
The Mood of the 1950s
Conformity1.2.3.4.5.
Roles in Society1.2.3.4.5.
Challenges to Conformity
1.2.3.4.5.
Comfort and Security
Youth Culture “Silent Generation” Good economy = in
school longer More free time Advertisement aims them
A Resurgence in Religion Response to “godless
communism” “In God we Trust” on
currency “under god” in Pledge of
Allegiance
Men’s and Women’s Roles
Men: Go to school, get a job,
and support family Earn money and make
political, social, and economic decisions
Women: Supporting role to men Keep house, cooked
meals, and raised the children
Challenges to Conformity
Women at Work Liked their jobs
during WWII Not all left jobs
after marriage Secretaries,
teachers, nurses, and sales clerks
Wanted to purchase the items of the “good life”
Challenges to Conformity
Youth Rebellion Rejected parents values,
felt misunderstood Rebel Without a Cause Alan Freed: disc-jockey
who started playing rock ‘n roll (Moondog Rock ‘n Roll)
Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley
Beatniks: challenged traditional patterns of respectability
Domestic Politics and Policy
Truman’s Domestic Policies
The Peacetime Economy Reconversion from
wartime to peacetime Workers go on strike for
higher wages Taft-Hartley Act
Allowed President to declare 80-day cooling off period during which workers had to return to work, if in an industry that effected national interest.
Truman’s Domestic Policies
Truman’s Fair Deal Extended New Deal’s goals 21-point Program
Promoted a higher minimum wage, greater unemployment compensation, full employment, & housing assistance
Approval rating drops Congress battered Truman
Truman’s Domestic Policies
Truman on Civil Rights Publicly supported civil
rights Met w/ African American
leaders to discuss their goals
Appointed a Biracial Committee on Civil Rights
Congress never took action on these issues
Ended segregation in armed forces
The Election of 1948
Truman seeks 1st term Served FDR’s term
Henry Wallace Progressive Candidate
Thomas E. Dewey Republican Candidate
All polls pick Dewey to win Truman pulls the upset
After the win the 22nd Amendment is ratified President term limits
Eisenhower and the Republican Approach
Adlai Stevenson Democratic Nomination
Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Nomination WWII Hero “K1C2” Approach
Korea, Communism, Corruption
Richard Nixon as running mate Nixon hammered the topic of
corruption
The Checkers Speech
Snag in popularity “Secret Nixon Fund”
Suggested to drop Nixon Eisenhower sticks w/ him
Allowed Nixon to “Save Himself” Televised speech Admitted to Accepting 1 gift
Political Disaster Turns into a Public Relations Bonanza Nixon saved himself and
catapulted Ike to office
Modern Republicanism
“Dynamic Conservatism” Conservative when it comes
to money, liberal when it comes to human beings
Favored Big Business 3 recessions under Ike Meeting the Technology
Challenge Created NASA National Defense Education
Act: improve science and math in schools