The Postwar Years at Home

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The Postwar Years at Home

• 1945-1960

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Postwar Changes in the USA

• Economic prosperity in the years after World War
  II brought many changes to American life
• Shift from blue-collar to white-collar
• Credit cards, televisions, fast-food
• Nuclear power for energy, faster automobiles
• Suburbs, rock-n-roll, beatniks, baby boom

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The Postwar Economy

• In the postwar years, the economy prospered the
  GNP and the per capita income the average
  annual income per person, nearly doubled from
  45-60
• Businesses also prospered and a few large
  corporations dominated many industries, forming
  conglomerates corporations of smaller unrelated
  businesses, to protect themselves from economic
  downturns eggs in a basket

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Business Expansion

• Another type of business expansion came in the
  form of the franchise a business that contracts
  to offer certain goods and services from a larger
  parent company McDonalds
• Less risk involved owners sell a product that
  is usually well-known
• Fast-food restaurants, clothing stores, and other
  franchises began popping up

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Technology Transforms Life

• Advances in technology, such as television,
  computers, transistors, and nuclear power also
  spurred industrial growth as businesses met
  demands for new technologies
• All of these new technologies helped Americans
  save time, but also quickened the pace of life

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Impact of Television

• One of the greatest symbols of prosperity during
  the 1950s was the TV
• The Golden Age of Television

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Computers Nuclear Power

• With the development of the transistor in 1947,
  huge computers (developed in the 1940s), could
  fit on desktops
• Transistors are tiny circuit devices that
  amplifies, controls, and generates electrical
  signals
• The use of atomic energy to create energy also
  changed the US also see the creation of
  nuclear-powered subs (USS Nautilus)

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Medicine and Social Ideas

• Medicine also took giant leaps in the 1950s
• Dr. Jonas Salk new vaccine for Polio (FDR??)
  virtually eliminated that dreaded disease (20,000
  dead/year)
• Dr. Benjamin Spock new book detailing raising
  children advocated that women should stay at
  home with the kids NOT work outside the home

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Workplace Shift

• The postwar years also saw changes in the work
  force
• Before 1950s, more Americans worked in
  blue-collar jobs (manual labor), but because of
  machinery, and the purchase of new advanced
  products, more Americans shift to white-collar
  jobs (professional and service-related jobs
  managers, technicians)

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GI Bill of Rights (1944)

• Unlike WWI vets, WWII veterans were able to
  expand their economic opportunities with the help
  of the Servicemens Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI
  Bill of Rights)
• This law gave low-interest mortgages to purchase
  new homes and also provided for vets to go to
  college or graduate school helped push more
  people into white-collar jobs

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BABY BOOM!!!

• A growing economy (more ) and more affluence
  (extra ) also helped increase the birthrate,
  causing a baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s
• From 1945 to 1961, more than 65 million babies
  were born in the US
• This extreme growth of families also pushed
  families away from crowded downtown areas outward
  into the suburbs

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William J. Levitt

• Because most Americans saved their money during
  the war (chose to and rationing), Americans could
  afford to buy their own homes and did
• One developer used mass production techniques for
  the mass building of what he later called
  Levittowns (communities)

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Levittowns and Conformity

• These Levittowns forced the idea of conformity
  on people same houses, same cars, same-ness
  even toward ethnic groups
• The growth of suburbs was also sparked by the
  passing of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956
  created over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
  made traveling easier

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Credit Cards and Debt

• Eager to cash in, gasoline companies began
  offering credit cards
• The Diners Club (1950) picked up on this idea of
  credit and by the end of the decade, American
  Express and later Visa would appear all
  encouraging consumers to buy beyond their means
• Because of this, consumer credit debt rose from
  8 b (1946) to 56 b (1960)

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The Word is CONFORMITY

• During the 1950s many Americans lived comfortable
  lives after the Depression and WWII, people
  valued security and comfort over individuality
  led to ideas of conformity
• The young people, called the silent generation
  were content to enjoy their parents affluence
  rather than become involved in world affairs

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Youth Culture

• Smart businesses seized the opportunity to sell
  products to this new youth culture and more
  teenagers had money to spend (guys part-time
  jobs, gals baby-sitting)
• Magazines and TV shows tried to stress conformity
  (bobby socks, leather jackets) but many of the
  youth began to rebel against conformity

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Resurgence in Religion

• The 1950s comfort and security also sparked a
  resurgence in religion as many flocked back to
  churches (Billy Graham)
• Some of this was in response to the struggle with
  godless communism and some looked to religion
  to find hope during the threat of nuclear war

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Resurgence in Religion

• In God We Trust was required to appear on all
  money
• under God was added to the Pledge of Allegiance
• Common phrases also supported this idea The
  family that prays together stays together
• By 1960, 95 said they felt connected to formal
  religious group

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Traditional Roles

• Conformity to traditional roles was the norm
• Men were supposed to go to school, find jobs and
  wives, and support their families
• Women were expected to play a supporting role in
  their husbands lives keep house, cook meals,
  and raise children

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Dr. Benjamin Spock

• Many parents turned to pediatrician Dr. Benjamin
  Spock for advice advocated that women should
  stay at home with the kids NOT work outside
  the home
• And many women followed this advice and stayed at
  home raising the families and supporting their
  husbands

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The Feminine Mystique

• But there was a major portion of women following
  WW II that did NOT want to give up the
  independence and money there were earning
• Betty Friedan, in 1936, wrote The Feminine
  Mystique, a novel critical of the culture that
  made it difficult for women to choose alternative
  roles

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Youthful Rebellion

• Even with conformity being challenged, most women
  still worked as secretaries, teachers, nurses,
  and sales clerks, NOT professional jobs
• There was also a youthful rebellion of conformity
  as those young people felt confined and looked
  for a style all their own -- James Dean, Elvis
  Presley, and ROCK-N-ROLL

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Rock-and-Roll

• Many of those youths turned to music to express
  their rebellion, becoming fans of rock-and-roll
  music, especially the songs of Elvis Presley, the
  Beatles, and The Rolling Stones
• Most adults though, hated this music, believing
  it would cause immorality, drug use, and that it
  was listened to by both blacks and whites these
  adults were still comfortable with segregation

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Beat Generation -- Beatniks

• Members of the Beat Generation launched a
  different challenge to conformity these
  Beatniks (writers, artists, etc) promoted the
  idea of spontaneity acting at a moments notice
  without planning
• They stressed spirituality release from a world
  of money and property

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Beatniks Jack Kerouac

• These beatniks challenged traditional patterns of
  respectability and shocked most Americans with
  their very open sexuality and their prolific use
  of illegal drugs
• Author Jack Kerouac, considered the leader of
  this movement, wrote books detailing his ideas
  and experiences of a spontaneous life of freedom
  and openness

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The 1950s Mood

• The 1950s saw a major change in the attitudes and
  moods of Americans
• More free time to pursue fun stuff
• Valuing of prosperity and security leads to
  conformity and importance of religion
• Conformity leads to challenges to it
  Rock-and-Roll
• Traditional roles for women/men

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Truman and the Economy

• Becoming President just as WWII was ending, Harry
  S Truman faced the challenges of Americas
  reconversion the transition from a wartime to a
  peacetime economy
• While America was at war, the people had limited
  access to consumer goods, but when the war was
  over, the people wanted the stuff and they wanted
  it quick

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Truman and Labor Strikes

• When Truman removed the price controls, prices
  soared, but wages did NOT the people still
  couldnt afford the stuff and many workers
  strike
• Truman was upset at the demands of unions and
  workers felt would lead prices up more and he
  actually proposed drafting striking railroad
  workers into the Army (1946)

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Taft-Hartley

• Congress rejects that idea, but passes the
  Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 which gave the President
  powers to force the workers back to work (those
  in very important industries)
• It also required union leaders to sign loyalty
  oaths
• Truman vetoed the law, but Congress passed it
  over Trumans veto

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The Fair Deal

• Like FDR, Truman wanted to extend the New Deals
  goals The Fair Deal this govt-sponsored
  program included more benefits for workers,
  national health insurance, and control over
  atomic energy
• The Fair Deal (and Truman) ran into serious
  opposition from Congress (even within his own
  party D) who rejected most of the Fair Deal

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End to Army Segregation

• Truman also moved to increase civil rights for
  A-A by ordering the US armed forces to end
  segregation in 1948 and by banning racial
  discrimination in the hiring of federal employees
• His beliefs on racial issues hurt Trumans
  support with both parties (Democrats/Republicans)

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Discontent of Truman

• The public also picked up on the discontent with
  Harry, with slogans such as To err is Truman
• Trumans support fell from 87 approval in 1945
  to 32 in 1946, and would drop below 25 in
  1948-52
• The result of midterm elections in 1946 (Senate,
  House) was that Truman was not seen as an
  effective leader

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Election of 1948

• Truman decided to run again in 1948
• He had no reason to expect victory, especially
  since his own party split apart with southern
  Democrats forming the Dixiecrat Party and
  nominating Strom Thurmond (S.C.) and liberal Dem
  going to Progressive Party and nominating Henry
  Wallace
• Republicans ran Thomas E. Dewey

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Election of 1948

• Truman began whistle-stop campaign across the
  nation and was seen as the peoples man
  friend of the commoners
• Even with increasing support, no one believed
  Truman could/would win
• But he did, and Dem gained control of Congress as
  well little success

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22nd Amendment

• Republicans, long out of the White House, began
  to argue to term-limits on the Presidency
• Pushed for a constitutional amendment, which
  passed easily
• 22nd Amendment, adopted in 1951, limited a
  President to serving two (2) terms, or ten (10)
  years

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Election of 1952

• Truman could have run again in 1952, but decided
  against it, Dem choose Adlai Stevenson, governor
  of Illinois
• Republicans get Dwight Eisenhower, IKE, along
  with VP choice Richard Nixon to run in 1952

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Dwight D. Eisenhower (IKE)

• This War Hero man of action became the man
  of the people as popular support for IKE was
  helped by the first television political
  commercials
• Eisenhowers candidacy hit a snag in Sept 1952,
  when newspapers found that VP choice, Richard
  Nixon, had a special fund (), set up by rich
  supporters

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• Nixon came under attack for accepting gifts
  from businesspeople totally 18,000
• Nixon went on radio/TV and insisted they were
  legit funds but did say he had kept one gift
  a cocker spaniel puppy named Checkers The
  Checkers speech helped save Nixon!!
• Ike wins by more than 6 million votes

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Ike and Modern Republicanism

• Ike used hidden hand presidency directed the
  action from the side and delegated much power and
  authority Cabinet members held great authority
• Ike began to promote Modern Republicanism that
  included cutting spending, reducing taxes, and
  balancing the budget
• Ike, like other Rep, favored big business

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Modern Republicanism

• Modern Republicanism sought to encourage and
  support corporate America
• Ike was unsuccessful at balancing the budget, and
  his cuts in govt spending caused the economy to
  slump
• This caused revenues (tax ) to drop and
  increased deficit spending, instead of decreasing
  it

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Election of 1956 and Beyond

• Ike was re-elected in 1956, but the economy
  continued to go south, with 3 recessions in 53,
  57, and 60
• Despite economic troubles, Ike helped the country
  maintain a mood of stability and continued to
  support the economic (job) security of Americans
  (New Deal Social Security)

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NASA

• With the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, Ike
  responded by creating the National Aeronautics
  and Space Administration (NASA), as an
  independent agency for space exploration
• Ike and Congress also signed the National Defense
  Education Act

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• The NDEA was designed to improve science and math
  instruction in schools so that the US could meet
  the challenge from the Soviets train the next
  generation of scientists
• Provided millions of to college students
  (low-cost loans) if they would become teachers,
  and for public schools to build science
  facilities