SOCIETY AFTER WWII 19451960

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SOCIETY AFTER WWII (1945-1960)

• Chapter 20 THE CHALLENGES OF PEACE

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VETERANS

• Problems What do we do with the 9 million
  veterans who are weary from war? Will there be
  another depression trying to find jobs for all of
  them?
• Solutions
• GI Bill of Rights (1944) secured pensions and
  govt. loans to help veterans start businesses,
  buy homes, and attend college. Between
  1944-1956, 8 million veterans attend college or
  tech school.
• Employment Act (1946) created the Council of
  Economic Advisors to help the president with
  economic policy.
• No postwar depression businesses go from
  wartime to consumer economy, and consumers were
  eager to spend the money they had saved during
  the war.

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LABOR

• Problem How should the govt. transition to a
  consumer economy again?
• Solutions
• Congress gets rid of the Fair Employment
  Practices Cmte. (fought workplace
  discrimination).
• No more Rosie the Riveter women are encouraged
  to quit and become full-time homemakers.
• No more wartime price controls (leads to
  inflation, which lowers a persons purchasing
  power).
• No more wartime strike prohibitions (leads to
  many strikes for higher wages to counter
  inflation).
• Taft-Hartley Act (1947) allows judges to end
  many strikes, outlawed closed shops, and
  restricted union political contributions.
• Unlike during the New Deal, the govt. is no
  longer labors ally.

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AFRICAN-AMERICANS

• Problem How should we treat African-Americans
  given their heroic service in WWII?
• Solutions
• Truman signs an executive order in 1948 banning
  racial discrimination in the military, which
  causes Southern Democrats to break away from the
  Democratic Party in the 1948 presidential
  election (they form the States Rights Party, or
  Dixiecrats.)
• Truman is elected president in 1948 and creates
  the Fair Deal, which is an extension of the New
  Deal (minimum wage is raised, slums are rebuilt,
  etc.).
• BUT an increasingly conservative postwar
  society just wants peace, stability, and gradual
  prosperity (enough reform, lets just live our
  lives!).