THE POSTWAR BOOM

Unit 5

Lesson 1

OBJECTIVES

To understand the economic and political changes that occurred in postwar America.

To explore American society of the 1950s.

WARM UP

What is the American Dream? Do you think your dreams are different from

those of your parents?

Post-war Reconversion

Unemployment , Prices , Inflation Rise Wages drop & workers strike

Gov’t controls until wages catch up and prices level off.– Limit power of unions (Taft-Hartley Act)

New technology spurs product research & development

Readjustment

GI Bill– Education and home loans, ease return

Housing Crisis– Levittown's: mass produced suburban homes– Reading Activities

Redefining Family– Divorce rate up, Women want say in home/family

Economic Growth

$135 billion in savings = $$$$ to spend!!!– Auto, home ownership up– Demand = more jobs

New Business Organization– White collar workers: clerical, managerial, professional– Conglomerates (AT&T) and Franchises (

McDonald’s-1955)– The Company Man: Conformity & loyalty… automatons

The Suburban Lifestyle

Suburban Living– Baby Boom – Return to Religion– Women Conflicted – Modern Amenities & Automobile Culture

Interstate Highway System (1956)Credit – 1st for gas, later Diner’s Club, American

Express & Visa

Growing gap between middle class & poor– “White flight” from cities, influx rural poor…urban poverty &

decay

T-P-S

Was the 1950s a “step back” in women’s rights/equality? Why or why not?

1948 Election

Truman (D) Thomas Dewey (R) Strom Thurmond

(Dixiecrat)

Truman’s Fair Deal

Benefits for workers – ↑min wage, ↑ unemploy coverage– Expand Soc Security

National health insurance Control over atomic energy Increase civil rights

– Desegregates armed forces, ban discrim in fed hiring

Conservative Congress challenges…

1952 Election

Truman not running Adlai Stevenson (D) vs. Dwight Eisenhower (R)

– Nixon’s Checkers Speech

“I Like Ike” and his Modern Republicanism– Conservative w/$, Liberal w/humans– Balanced budget, tax cut, hike min wage, unemploy

benefits, public housing Re-elected ‘56

Different Styles

Both committed to helping ppl & fighting Communist expansion

Pop Culture

Mass Media: TV, Radio & Movies, Comics, Magazines, Advertising

– Portray an idealized white America

Teenager: “Silent Gen”, stay in school, allowance, entertainment, cars, consumers

Rock n Roll: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley… mix electric instruments w/ blues beats

– Condemned by adults (rebellious, immoral)

50’s Subculture

The Beat Movement– “Beats / Beatniks”– Reject conformity and consumerism of society – Open sexuality, drug use– Literature: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Allen

Ginsberg Howl

Homework Activity

Create an acrostic poem for

“A M E R I C A N D R E A M”

Examples

Another Motorcyclist Emerges a Rebel Indicative of Changes in America Now

Dollars Rule Everything Around Me

An invincible feeling that Mass media projects as Eisenhower paints a picture of which

picket fences where Roles are redefined and Ideologues of real happiness are

concealed by Conformity and no American can Negotiate this sea of loose morals

Do rejoice in consumerism and all that new

Religion as well as the Experience of the white collar worker for America will only see times like this until

people open their Minds

Closure

How did the US avoid the historic post-war economic downturn?