the post-wwii years u.s. post-war boom 1945-the 1950s
TRANSCRIPT
The Post-WWII Years
U.S. Post-War Boom1945-the 1950s
What’s Most Important to You?What’s Most Important to You?
The War just ended—
what’s the first thing you want to do?
Coming Back Home• Getting a Job
• Raising a Family
• Owning a Home
G.I. Bill of Rights (1944)• Provided low-interest loans
to veterans returning from WWII so they could go to college
• Offered low-interest mortgages to veterans in order to purchase a house
• This allowed millions of Americans to achieve the dream their parents couldn’t – higher education and home ownership
Federal Highway Act (1956)
• Authorized $32 billion for the construction of a national interstate highway system
• Financed by taxing gas, oil, tires, buses, and trucks
• Accelerated the decline of mass transit and older cities
Corporate Culture• Major corporations
offered secure white-collar jobs
• Benefits: health care, country club, company car, expense account
• “Company Man”: had to fit in, not stand out
(gray suit, company tie)
Role of Women
• Discouraged from attending college• Government said, “Go back home and give
your job to a vet”• Women only went back to work (many after
age 35) after kids were raised• Single women were clerks and secretaries• Jobs were to help pay for children, not to
advance their careers
Gender Roles
• Dad – work, outside chores (work on car, mow the lawn, etc.)
• Mom – cook, clean, take care of kidsDr. Benjamin Spock – wrote Baby and Child Care
about how women should be nurturing moms which would allow kids to grow into good adults
Raising a Family• Family Values: WWII over,
men back home, women not needed in work force
• Baby Boom:Between 1945-1950, almost 16 million babies born in USA
• Continued into 1960s
• Largest generation in US history
“Baby Boom” Generation
• Baby born every 7 seconds in ’40s/’50s• People married earlier and started families
earlier• Parents catered to kids…Why?• First generation to grow up with TV• More social activities at school• Antibiotics kept children healthier
The Baby Boom
0500,000
1,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,0003,000,0003,500,0004,000,0004,500,0005,000,000
1940 1946 1955 1957
Births Per Year
William Levitt – Father of modern suburbia
Home Sweet Home• Demand for 5 million houses as soon as war ended• Mass Production of homes: “Cookie-Cutter
Houses”—Levittowns in NY, PA, NJ• Planned houses built outside major cities Suburbs
Television portrayed the stereotypical middle-class suburban family
A Levittown Living Room
The Kitchen
The “American Dream”?
Just Like
Every Body Else.