the postwar boom the american dream in the 1950s
TRANSCRIPT
THE POSTWAR BOOM
THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE 1950S
Chapter 19.1 Essential Questions
What economic and social problems faced Americans after World War II?
How did the desire for stability lead to political conservatism?
What were causes and effects of social unrest in the postwar period?
How was Truman’s domestic policy different from Eisenhower’s?
SECTION 1: POSTWAR AMERICA
After WWII, returning vets faced a severe housing shortage
In response to the crisis, developers used assembly-line methods to mass-produce houses
Developer William Levitt bragged that his company could build a home in 16 minutes for $7,000
Suburbs were born
With the help of low-interest loans from the GI Bill, many
veterans moved into suburbs
REDEFINING THE FAMILY
A return to traditional roles after the war was the norm
Men were expected to work, while women were expected to stay home and care for the children
Conflict emerged as many women wanted to stay in the workforce
Divorce rates surged but were highly frowned upon
REMARKABLE ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Experts who predicted a postwar depression were proved wrong as they failed to consider the $135 billion in savings Americans had accumulated from defense work, service pay, and investments in war bonds
Americans were ready to buy consumer goods
DESPITE GROWTH, ISSUES PERSIST
One persistent postwar issue involved labor strikes
In 1946 alone, 4.5 million discontented workers, including Steelworkers, coal miners and railroad workers went on strike
TRUMAN TOUGH ON STRIKERS
Truman refused to let strikes cripple the nation He threatened to draft the striking workers and
then order them as soldiers to return to work The strategy worked as strikers returned to their
jobs
SOCIAL UNREST PERSISTS
African Americans felt they deserved equal rights, especially after hundreds of thousands served in WWII
Truman took action in 1948 by desegregating the armed forces
Additionally, Truman ordered an end to discrimination in the hiring of governmental employees
THE 1948 ELECTION
The Democrats nominated President Truman in 1948
The Republicans nominated New York Governor Thomas Dewey
Polls showed Dewey held a comfortable lead going into election day
Dewey
TRUMAN WINS IN A STUNNING
UPSET
Truman’s “Give ‘em hell, Harry” campaign worked
Truman won a very close race against Dewey
Truman holds a now infamous Chicago Tribune announcing (incorrectly)
Dewey’s victory
To protest Truman’s emphasis on Civil Rights, Southern Democrats, or “Dixiecrats”, opted to run a third
candidate, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond
Truman’s “Fair Deal” Truman proposed an ambitious economic
program- it was supposed to be an extension of FDR’s “New Deal”
He proposed: A nationwide system of compulsory health
insurance (can anyone say Obamacare?) (Def) A crop-subsidy system for farmers (Def) Raising the minimum wage (P) Extending Social Security to more people (P) Initiating flood control and irrigation projects (P) Secured federal funding for low-income housing
REPUBLICANS PLAN FOR 1952 ELECTION
By 1951 Truman’s approval rating sank to an all-time low of just 23%
Why? Korean War, rising tide of McCarthyism, and a general impression of ineffectiveness
Truman decides not to run again
The Republicans (right) were chomping at the bit in the ’52
election
STEVENSON VS. IKE 1952 ELECTION
The Democrats nominated intellectual Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson while the Republicans nominated war hero Dwight David Eisenhower
Stevenson Ike
“I LIKE IKE”
Eisenhower used the slogan, “I Like Ike” for his presidential campaign
Republicans used Ike’s strong military background to emphasize his ability to combat Communism worldwide
IKE’S VP SLIP-UP One potential disaster for
Ike was his running mate’s alleged “slush fund”
Richard Nixon responded by going on T.V. and delivering an emotional speech denying charges but admitting to accepting one gift for his children – a dog named Checkers
The “Checkers speech” saved the ticket; notice again the power of TV!
Nixon and his dog Checkers
IKE WINS 1952 ELECTION
Ike’s Hit’s and Misses… Pressed hard to bring
about a balanced budget and tax cuts
Raised the minimum wage
Extended Social Security and unemployment benefits
Increased funding for public housing
Backed the creation of the Interstate Highway System
Tried to avoid controversy.
Was forced to intervene in the Little Rock (AR) Central HS crisis
Brown v. Board of Education ruling took place in 1954
Rosa Parks/Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955
Ike did not press for an end to segregation
Ike Walks the Middle of the Road… Ike’s approach to politics-
“Dynamic Conservatism” (also known as modern Republicanism)
He wanted government to be “conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings.”
Ch.19.2 Essential Questions
How did changes in business affect workers?
What was the suburban lifestyle like in the 1950s?
What were the causes and effects in the automobile industry boom?
Why was there an increase in consumerism in the 1950s?
SECTION 2: THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE FIFTIES
After WWII ended, Americans turned their attention to their families and jobs
New businesses and technology created opportunities for many
By the end of the 1950s, Americans were enjoying the highest standard of living in the world Ozzie and Harriet reflected
the perfect American family
THE ORGANIZATION AND THE ORGANIZATION MAN
During the 1950s, businesses expanded rapidly
More and more people held “white-collar” jobs - clerical, management, or professional jobs
The fields of sales, advertising, insurance and communications exploded
White Collar jobs expanded greatly in the 1950s
SOCIAL CONFORMITY
American workers found themselves becoming standardized
Called the “Organization Man,” the modern worker struggled with a loss of individualism
Businesses did not want creative thinkers, rebels or anyone that would “rock the boat”
Despite their success, some workers questioned whether pursuing the American dream exacted too high a price, as
conformity replaced individuality
CONGLOMERATES EMERGE
Conglomerates, major corporations that include a number of smaller companies in unrelated fields, emerged in the 1950s
One conglomerate, International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), bought rental car companies and hotel chains
FRANCHISES EMERGE
Another strategy for business expansion was franchising
A franchise is a company that offers similar services in many locations
Fast food restaurants developed the first franchises in America
McDonald’s is one of the leading franchises
in the world
THE SUBURBAN LIFESTYLE
Most Americans worked in cities, but fewer and fewer of them lived there
New highways and the affordability of cars and gasoline made commuting possible
Of the 13 million homes built in the 1950s, 85% were built in suburbs
For many, the suburbs were the American Dream
The American Dream complete with a white picket fence
THE BABY BOOM During the late
1940s and through the early 1960s the birthrate in the U.S. soared
At its height in 1957, a baby was born in America every 7 seconds (over 4.3 million babies in ’57 alone)
Baby boomers represent the largest generation in the nation’s history
What are the official years of the Baby Boom Generation?
1946 - 1964 saw a marked increase in the number of births in North America.
How did the birthrate rise and fall during the baby boom years in the
US?
1940 2,559,000 births per year
1946 3,311,000 births per year
1955 4,097,000 births per year
1957 4,300,000 births per year
1964 4,027,000 births per year
19743,160,000 births per year
WHY SO MANY BABIES?
Why did the baby boom occur when it did?
Husbands returning from war
Decreasing marriage age
Desirability of large families
Confidence in economy Advances in medicine
WHAT IT WILL MEAN TO YOU
Your generation will be supporting an increasingly aging American population
ADVANCES IN MEDICINE AND CHILDCARE
Advances in the treatment of childhood diseases included drugs to combat typhoid fever and polio (Jonas Salk)
Dr. Salk was instrumental in the eradication of polio
DR. SPOCK ADVISES PARENTS
Many parents raised their children according to the guidelines of pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock
He thought children should be allowed to express themselves and parents should never physically punish their kids
Dr. Spock’s book sold 10 million copies in the 1950s
IMPACT OF BABY BOOM
As a result of the baby boom 10 million students entered elementary schools in the 1950s
California built a new school every 7 days in the late ’50s
Toy sales reached an all-time high in 1958 when $1.25 billion in toys were sold
Symbols of the Baby Boom in Suburbia
1950 1960
Hot Dog Production (millions of lbs) 750 1050
Potato Chip Production (millions of lbs) 320 532
Sales of lawn and porch furniture (millions of dollars)
53.6 145.2
Sales of power mowers (millions of dollars) 1.0 3.8
Sales of floor polishers (millions of dollars) 0.24 1.0
Sales of Encyclopaedia (millions of dollars) 72 300
Number of Children age 5-14 24.3 35.5
Number of baseball Little Leagues 776 5,700
Fads of the Baby Boomers
Hula Hoops
Frozen Foods
Poodle Skirts and Saddle Shoes
Panty Raids
Barbie and GI Joe Dolls
Bikinis
Frisbees
Yo-yos
Ouija Boards
Dune Buggies
What celebrity deaths have most affected the Baby Boomers?
John F. Kennedy
Marilyn Monroe
Martin Luther King
John Lennon
WOMEN’S ROLES IN THE 1950S
During the 1950s, the role of homemaker and mother was glorified in popular magazines, movies and television
WOMEN AT WORK
Those women who did work were finding job opportunities limited to fields such as nursing, teaching and office support
Women earned far less than man for comparable jobs
LEISURE IN THE 1950s
Americans experienced shorter work weeks and more vacation time than ever before
Leisure time activities became a multi-billion dollar industry
Labor-saving devices added more spare time
Labor-saving devices provided more leisure time for Americans
POPULAR LEISURE
ACTIVITES In 1953 alone
Americans spent $30 billion on leisure
Popular activities included fishing, bowling, hunting and golf
Americans attended, or watched on T.V., football, baseball and basketball games
Bowling remains one of the top leisure activities in the U.S.
THE AUTOMOBILE CULTURE
After the rationing of WWII, inexpensive and plentiful fuel and easy credit led many to buy cars
By 1960, over 60 million Americans owned autos
INTERSTATE HIGHWAY ACT 1956
In 1956 Ike authorized a nationwide highway network – 41,000 miles of road linking America
THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM
“Automania” spurred the construction of roads linking major cities while connecting schools, shopping centers and workplaces to residential suburbs
IMPACT OF THE HIGHWAY
The Interstate Highway system resulted in:
More trucking Less railroad More suburbs,
further away Trucking is the #1 means of moving cargo in the United
States today
HIGHWAYS “HOMOGENIZE”
AMERICA
Another effect of the highway system was that the scenery of America began to look the same
Restaurants, motels, highway billboards, gas stations, etc. all began to look similar
The nation had become “homogenized”
Anytown, USA
“Our new roads, with their ancillaries, the motels, filling
stations, and restaurants advertising eats, have made it possible for you to drive from
Brooklyn to Los Angeles without a change of diet, scenery, or culture.”
John Keats, The Insolent Chariots
1958
DOWNSIDE TO MOBILITY
While the car industry boom stimulated production, jobs, shopping centers, and the restaurant industry, it also had negative effects
Noise Pollution Accidents Traffic Jams Stress Decline of public
transportation
RISE OF CONSUMERISM
By the mid-1950s, nearly 60% of Americans were members of the middle class
Consumerism (buying material goods) came to be equated with success and status
“Keeping up with the Jones’s”
NEW PRODUCTS One new product
after another appeared in the marketplace
Appliances, electronics, and other household goods were especially popular
The first credit card (Diner’s Club) appeared in 1950 and American Express was introduced in 1958
Personal debt increased nearly 3x in the 1950s
THE ADVERTISING AGE
The advertising industry capitalized on runaway consumerism by encouraging more spending
Ads were everywhere Ad agencies
increased their spending 50% during the 1950s
Advertising is everywhere today in America
Ch.19.3 Essential Questions:
How did television programs in the 1950s reflect middle-class values?
How did the beat movement and rock ‘n’ roll music clash with middle-class values?
How did African-American entertainers help to integrate the media in the 1950s?
SECTION 3: POPULAR CULTURE
A new era of mass media led by television emerged in the 1950s
In 1948, only 9% of homes had T.V
In 1950, 55% of homes had T.V.
By 1960, 90% of American homes had T.V.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION
Mass media- the means of communication that reach large audiences
The 1950s was known as the “Golden Age of Television”
Comedies were the main attraction as Milton Berle, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were very popular Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball
starred in I Love Lucy
TELEVISION EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS FORMATS
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) did its best to regulate television and radio
Television innovations like on-the-scene-news reporting, interviews, westerns and sporting events offered the viewer a variety of shows
Kids’ shows like The Howdy Doody Show and The Mickey Mouse Club were extremely popular
TV ADS, TV GUIDES AND TV DINNERS EXPAND
TV advertising soared from $170 million in 1950 to nearly $2 billion in 1960
TV Guide magazine quickly became the best selling magazine
Frozen TV dinners were introduced in 1954 – these complete ready-to-heat meals on disposable aluminum trays made it easy for people to eat without missing their favorite shows
A Downside to TV??? Critics objected to its effects on
children (exposure to violence) Women appeared in
stereotypical roles Male characters outnumbered
female by 3 to 1 African-Americans and Latinos
rarely appeared in television programs at all
1950s television portrayed an idealized white America, with no references to poverty, diversity or contemporary conflicts
Would the Birth of Television Lead Would the Birth of Television Lead to the Death of Radio and the to the Death of Radio and the Movies?Movies? Radio and movies
survived because they adapted and evolved.
Radio stations now offered news, weather, and more importantly- rock ‘n’ roll
Movie theatres also had some advantages over TV- size, color, and sound
James Dean, a teenage idol, died at the age of 24 in a car accident.
A SUBCULTURE EMERGES
Although mass media and television were wildly popular in the 1950s, dissenting voices emerged
The “Beat Movement” in literature, art and poetry celebrated a nonconformist lifestyle and attitude
Rock n’ roll clashed with tidy suburban views of life and was originally called “race music”.
BEATNIKS FOLLOW OWN PATH
Centered in San Francisco, L.A. and New York’s Greenwich Village, the Beat Movement expressed social nonconformity
Followers, called “beatniks”, tended to shun work and sought understanding through Zen Buddhism, music, and sometimes drugsBeatniks often performed
poetry or music in coffeehouses or bars
MUSIC IN THE 1950s Musicians in the 1950s
added electronic instruments to traditional blues music, creating rhythm and blues
Cleveland DJ Alan Freed was the first to play this music in 1951– he called it “rock and roll”
First called “race music”- the early performers were mostly black, but the audience was mostly white
FREED
ROCK N’ ROLL In the early and mid-fifties, Richard Penniman, Chuck
Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, and especially Elvis Presley brought rock and roll to the forefront
The driving rhythm and lyrics featuring love, cars, and problems of being young --- captivated teenagers across the country
THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL
Presley’s rebellious style captured young audiences
Girls screamed and fainted, and boys tried to imitate him
SECTION 4: THE OTHER AMERICA
In 1962, nearly one out of every four Americans was living below the poverty level
Most of these poor were the elderly, single women and their children, and/or minorities
WHITE FLIGHT In the 1950s, millions
of middle-class white Americans left the cities for the suburbs
At the same time millions of African American rural poor migrated to the cities
The so-called “White Flight” drained cities of valuable resources, money and taxes
Urban Renewal Most African Americans, Native
Americans and Latinos in the cities had to live in dirty, crowded slums.
One proposed solution was “urban renewal”. The National Housing Act of 1949 called for the tearing down of rundown neighborhoods and constructing low-income housing
Although the tearing down did occur, parking lots, shopping centers, highways, parks and factories were constructed on much of the cleared land
Urban renewal simply became “urban removal” as many people simply had to move from one ghetto to another.
Dodger Stadium- An example of urban renewal
Poverty Leads to Activism…
When the United States entered WWII, a shortage of agricultural workers spurred the government to initiate a program in which Mexican braceros, or hired hands, were allowed into the U.S. to harvest crops from 1942-1947
They were expected to return to Mexico once their employment ended; but many remained in the U.S. illegally to escape the poor economic conditions in Mexico.
As a result, prejudice against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans rose dramatically
The Longoria Incident Felix Longoria was a Mexican-
American WWII hero who had been killed in the Philippines.
The only undertaker in his Texas hometown refused to provide his family with funeral services
Outraged Mexican Americans stepped up their efforts to stamp out discrimination by creating the G.I. Forum and the Unity League of California
Both were designed to register Mexican American voters and to promote candidates who would represent their interests.
Native Americans Continue Their Struggle…
From 1887 to 1934, the government policy towards Native Americans was one of “Americanization” and assimilation.
In 1953 the federal government announced it would give up its responsibility for Native American tribes.
The new approach, known as the “termination policy” eliminated federal economic support, discontinued the reservation system, and redistributed tribal lands to individual Native Americans.
Native Americans were encouraged to resettle in cities. The policy was a dismal failure. Most couldn’t find jobs because of poor training and
racial prejudice. In 1963, the termination policy was abandoned The National Congress of American Indians was formed to 1) Ensure civil rights for
Native Americans and 2) enable Indians on reservations to retain their own customs