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