The Post War Boom

1
The Post War Boom

• Chapter 19

2
Section 1-Postwar America
3
Readjustment and Recovery

• By 1946-10 million veterans needed a job
• GI Bill (1944)
• Encouraged vets. to get an education
• Paid them a years worth of unemployment while
  they looked for a job
• Low interest loans to be used for housing

4
Readjustment and Recovery

• Housing Crisis
• Vets. came home and with money from GI Bill
• Not enough houses out there
• Levitt and Kaiser solved this problem by making
• Houses using assembly line ideas (Cookie Cutter
  Houses)
• Suburbs began to fill up
• 1st Suburb-Levittown in Long
  Island NY

5
Readjustment and Recovery

• Family
• Divorce rate up, some stress after war
• Women tasted independence, did not want to give
  it up
• How did the US Change Post war Economically?
• Peacetime economy
• Canceled war contracts
• People laid off and unemployment up
• Prices skyrocketed, but not wages
• 25 raise on prices!

6
Recovery

• Not as bad as could be
• People that had been saving money and had gone
  without and now are ready to spend!
• Cold war spurned growth
• Aid to other countries encouraged an increase
  factories

7
Recovery

• How did we meet our challenges?
• Truman had to meet the needs of the people
• Fears of Communism
• Restore economy

8
Social Unrest

• Problems at Home
• Strikes-Higher prices and low wages led to
  strikes
• Truman supported unions, but could not allow
  chaos
• Threatened to draft striking workers, unions cave
• This caused Truman future problems on the labor
  front because they would not support labor

9
Social Unrest

• Truman supports Civil Rights reform
• 1946 Presidents Commission on Civil Rights
• 1948 Executive Order to integrate Armed Forces
• Tried to end discrimination in gov. jobs
• Supreme Court said they could not segregate
  neighborhoods

10
Social Unrest

• 1948 Election-
• Democrats-Truman
• Republicans-Dewey
• South Dems not happy Dixiecrats
• Nominated Thurmond as candidate
• Liberal Progressive party formed too
• Nominated Wallace

11
Social Unrest

• The Fair Deal
• Extension of New Deal
• Compulsory health insurance
• Aid to farmers
• But both ideas defeated
• However
• Minimum wage up
• Social security for more people
• Flood control and irrigation
• Low income housing

12
Republicans Take the Middle Road

• Trumans approval rating low
• Communism, McCarthyism caused problems
• 1952 Election
• Truman not run
• Democrats-Stevenson
• Republicans-Eisenhower

13
Republicans Take the Middle Road

• Republicans
• Pushed conservatism and anti communism
• Pick Ike
• Slogan We Like Ike
• His V.P. Nixon in trouble for illegal slush fund
• Checkers Speech TV helped saved Nixon

14
Republicans Take the Middle Road

• Ike different then Truman
• Dynamic Conservatism
• Conservative towards money, liberal to people
• Tried to stay middle of the road, but civil
  rights was not going to let him
• Did push for a balanced budget and higher minimum
  wage
• Created highways

15
Section 2-The American Dream in the Fifties
16
The Organization and the Organization Man

• As 1950s moved forward, there were more White
  Collar jobs
• Service industry jobs increased, especially in
  advertising

17
The Organization and the Organization Man

• Conglomerates
• Major company that owns smaller ones in unrelated
  fields
• It was a way to help when your company had hard
  times
• Franchising
• Similar products in different locations
• Right sold to an individual to do business
• Ray Kroc
• McDonalds He bought it from the brothers for 2.7
  million
• Added the mythic Golden Arches

18
The Organization and the Organization Man

• Social Conformity
• Standardized what people ate and the way they
  worked
• Loss of individuality
• The Organization Man William H. Whyte
• Company People fitting in to corp. culture
• Rewards for teamwork, cooperation, loyalty

19
The Suburban Lifestyle

• 1950-Job security may have cost individuality but
  provided good things
• Highways and cars led to Suburbs
• Baby Boom
• 1957-1 infant born every 7 seconds
• Created the largest generation in US history
• Cause-Depression, War, Better medicine and
  childcare

20
The Suburban Lifestyle

• Advances in Medicine- New Drugs to help kids
• Dr. Jonas Salk
• Vaccine for Polio
• Dr. Benjamin Spock Books on childcare
• Wanted gov. to pay moms for staying home
• Effects of Baby Boomers-
• Toy Sales boomed!
• New schools had to be built

21
The Suburban Lifestyle

• Womens Roles-
• Glorified womens place in home
• TV, magazines, everything said, women should be
  at home
• Some women started to speak out and say it was
  isolating them
• Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique
• As we neared the 60s women were taking jobs
  outside of home, but sometimes stereotypical
• Women earned less
• Often limited to teaching, nursing, and office
  jobs
• Were not pushed to go to college

22
The Suburban Lifestyle

• Leisure in the Fifties-
• More time then ever before
• More labor saving devices then before
• More time for sports and games
• Readers Do it yourself, comic books, mysteries

23
The Automobile Culture

• Automania-
• After the war the car defined America
• Suburbs made car and highways necessary
• Interstate Highway Act 1956
• Helped some towns, killed others
• New vacation ideas popped up due to car
• Disneyland in CA-1955
• Had negative effects too
• Environment, traffic, noise, flight from cities
• Created a gap between rich and poor
• Increased advertising

24
Consumerism Unbound

• Consumerism
• 1950s Success Hundreds of new products
• TV, tape recorders, HIFI record players
• Clothes just for fun
• Power mowers, BBQ, lawn decorations!

25
Consumerism Unbound

• Planned Obsolescence
• Wear out or become obsolete on purpose to get us
  to buy more
• New models every few months
• We become a throwaway Society

26
Consumerism Unbound

• Credit
• 1950- Very 1st Credit Card Diners Club Card
• 1958-American Express
• Bought large items on installment plans
• Increase in mortgages
• Private debt grew from 73 billion to 179
  billion

27
Consumerism Unbound

• Advertising Age-
• Encouraged more spending
• Billions of dollars a year on advertising
• Used psychology to convince you what you need
• TV commercials became main way to convince you

28
Section 3-Popular Culture
29
Mass Media

• Television
• By 1960-90 of Americans had TV
• Early TVs -small and in black and white
• WWII technology made TV better
• FCC-Founded to keep an eye on communication
• Gave licenses for channels
• New Shows I Love Lucy
• News became a mainstay of TV with Murrow
• TV Commercials
• TV Dinners and TV guide

30
Mass Media

• Critics
• Some say TV is bad
• Might effect kids
• Stereotypes reinforced, and barley any minorities
• No poverty, no struggles
• TV showed the Ideal White America

31
Mass Media

• Radio and Movies
• Radios gave up on shows and played music/news
• Movies faltered at first, used technology to get
• Fans back, better sound and picture
• Smell-o-vision and Aroma Rama, 3D

32
A Subculture Emerges

• Subculture
• Not everyone bought into the new America and
  conforming
• Beat Movement
• Nonconformity of art, poets, and writers
• Wrote and performed differently
• Not accepted by everyone

33
A Subculture Emerges

• African Americans and Rock and Roll
• Blues was electrified and turned into Rock and
  Roll
• African American musicians appealed to the white
  audiences
• Rock and Roll
• Seemed to have a message for teenagers
• Some were worried music would corrupt the youth!

34
A Subculture Emerges

• African Americans and Rock and Roll
• Jazz also hit the mainstream
• Gave a voice and place to African American
  singers
• Created a separate market for African Americans
• Since TV was not reflecting culture, at least
  radio was

35
Section 4-The Other America
36
Urban Poor

• Not everyone found the American Dream
• Poor class starts to rise up
• White Flight- Leaving city for suburb
• Rural poor moved to cities
• Cities were robbed of tax payers

37
Inner Cities

• Suburbanites did not see what was happening
• Minimum income level rose every year
• People were in trouble
• Book The Other America Harrington
• Told the story of poverty in America

38
Inner Cities

• Fixing Poverty-
• Urban Renewal
• National Housing Act of 1949
• Decent home for every family
• Tear down rundown houses
• New Cabinet position -Housing on Urban
  Development
• People displaced
• Black Bottom in Detroit for I-75

39
Poverty Leads to Activism

• Minorities began to speak out on their behalf
• Mexicans
• 1942-U.S. initiated program of braceros (hired
  hands) many stayed and hoped to make a go of U.S.
• The Longoria Incident
• Felix Longoria-WWII hero Mexican
• Killed in war, town would not bury him
• Foundations were started to help fight for rights

40
Poverty Leads to Activism

• Native Americans
• 1924-Got citizenship and right to vote
• 1934-Assimilation stopped and gave Natives
  autonomy
• 1944-National Congress of Native Americans ensure
  civil rights to retain customs on reservations
• Native Americans served with honor in WWII and
  deserved respect

41
Poverty Leads to Activism

• Termination policy
• 1953-The U.S. would no longer financially support
  reservations
• Natives tried to find places for their people
• U.S. government let the Natives down
• Not a proud moment in our history ?