Ch. 27, Section 3“The Nation Prospers”

Baby Boom• It is a significant

increase in the number of babies born

• It took place in the years following World War II

• As people were better off after the war, more got married and started families

←1945

←1960

Sun Belt• the Sun Belt is the

nickname for southern and western states

• Starting in the 1950s many workers and businesses moved there

• They were attracted by the warm weather and low taxes in the region

Highway Act of 1956

• Law passed by Pres. Eisenhower built over 40,000 miles of interstate freeways at $25 billion for defense purposes

• It was the largest public works project of all time

• People traveled more• Shopping malls, gas stations,

restaurants, and other businesses were built along these roads

• People could live further from work

• Suburbs grew

Levittown• William Levitt built one of

the nation’s first preplanned suburbs on Long Island, NY

• Between 1946 and 1951 he built 17,000 low-priced, mass-produced homes

• They were simple and affordable

• Builders across the nation copied this method

• By 1970 more people lived in suburbs than in cities

Life in the Suburbs

• People moving from apartments in the cities liked:– having a home with a

driveway for their car – having a yard for kids to play

in– being near nice schools

• People used their newfound wealth to buy consumer products

Problems in the Cities

• “white flight” – white, middle and upper class people left the cities and moved to suburbs

• Cities were left with less tax income, but still needed to pay for city services like police and fire protection, garbage collection, road repairs, park maintenance, etc.

Popular Culture

in the 1950s• Shopping

malls• Drive-in

theaters• Fast-food

restaurants• Television• Rock’n’Roll

Television• 90% of families owned a TV • On average, Americans

watched 6 hours of TV a day• Popular shows included: Lone

Ranger, Texaco Star Theater, I Love Lucy, Dragnet, Your Show of Shows, Ed Sullivan Show, and Gunsmoke

Bebop • Bebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody

• It was developed in the early and mid-1940s after World War II

• This style of jazz ultimately became synonymous with modern jazz

• The biggest Bebop stars were Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie

Charlie Parker

Dizzy Gillespie

Rock’n’Roll • a genre of popular music that originated and evolved during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music.

• In the earliest rock and roll styles either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument

• These were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s

• The biggest Rock’n’Roll stars were Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard, and Elvis Presley

Women in the 1950s

• Women could only find work in a limited number of fields

• There pay was also lower than that of men

• They were often fired when they became married or pregnant

• Popular culture portrayed the woman’s place in the home raising a family

Culture Wars: Teenagers v. Adults

• Teenagers liked to listen to rock’n’roll, dance, go to drive-in movies and watch a lot of TV

• Adults thought the morals of teenagers were eroding, and were caught up in the conformity and consumerism of the decade