Chapter 20 The Postwar Years at Home

1
Chapter 20The Postwar Years at Home

• (1945 1960)

2
Section 1

• The Postwar Economy

3
Setting the Scene

• items were rationed or not produced at all during
  the war
• people were eager to acquire everything the war
  and the Depression had denied them
• began to spend large sums of money on recreation

4
Businesses Reorganize

• per capita income the average annual income per
  person increased
• with research and development funded by the
  government, new products were produced

5

• Ford

• Chrysler

• General Motors

6

• General Electric

• Westinghouse

7

• conglomerate corporation made up of three or
  more unrelated businesses, that is better able to
  defend itself against economic downturns
• International Telephone and Telegraph, Avis
  Rent-a-Car, Sheraton Hotels, Hartford Fire
  Insurance, Continental Baking

8

• franchise business that contracts to offer
  certain goods and services from a larger parent
  company
• use the companys name, suppliers, products, and
  production methods
• McDonalds

9
Technology Transforms Life

• Television
• live broadcasts made shows exciting to watch
• average American family watched 4-5 hours a day
• also became a powerful new medium for advertisers

10
Father Knows Best
American Bandstand
The Mickey Mouse Club
Howdy Doody
I Love Lucy
11

• The Computer Industry
• Grace Hopper pioneered creation of software
  coined term debugging when she removed a moth
  from a relay switch
• transistor tiny circuit device that amplifies,
  controls, and generates electrical signals
• also took up less space and generated less heat

12

• Nuclear Power
• nuclear fission produce heat to generate steam
  and drive electrical turbines
• first nuclear-powered submarine (USS Nautilus)
• first nuclear power plant

13

• Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose, Texas
• approx 87 miles from Gatesville

14

• Advances in Medicine
• Dr. Jonas Salk Dr. Thomas Francis - developed a
  polio vaccine
• introduced on the Tenth Anniversary of FDRs
  death
• antibiotics like penicillin introduced
• new era of surgical advances to correct heart
  defects

15
(No Transcript)
16
Changes in the Work Force

• new machines began to assume many of the jobs
  previously performed by people automation
• demand for more people to keep growing
  organizations running
• growth of the service industry

17

• Advantages
• buildings were clean
• offices were bright
• physically work was less exhausting
• not as dangerous
• could rise into executive positions

• Disadvantages
• less connection with products services company
  was providing
• pressure to dress, think, and act alike

18
Suburbs and Highways

• the baby boom
• Moving to the Suburbs
• retreated from aging cities to the suburbs
• GI Bill of Rights gave soldiers low-interest
  mortgages to purchase new homes and provide them
  with educational stipends for college or graduate
  school

19

• William J. Levitt built houses in just weeks
  instead of months
• some complained that the developments all looked
  too much alike

20

• Little boxes on the hillside
• Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
• Little boxes on the hillside
• Little boxes all the same.
• Theres a green one and a pink one
• And a blue one and a yellow one
• And theyre all made out of ticky-tacky
• And they all look just the same.
• - Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes

21

• Cars and Highways
• stores began to move from cities to shopping
  centers located in the suburbs
• new car designs every year

22

• Interstate Highway Act to build an interstate
  road system more than 40,000 miles long
• theoretically allowed for the evacuation of major
  cities in the event of a nuclear attack

23

• gas stations, repair shops, parts stores
• drive-in movies and restaurants
• vacations at national parks, seaside resorts, and
  amusement parks

24
(No Transcript)
25
The Growth of Consumer Credit

• gas companies began offering credit cards to
  loyal customers
• consumer credit debt rose from more than 8
  billion (1946) to 56 billion (1960)
• used credit to purchase washing machines, vacuum
  cleaners, and television sets

26
Section 2

• The Mood of the 1950s

27
Setting the Scene

• Americans began to value security over adventure
• happy with the apparent harmony between
  individuals and groups

28
Comfort and Security

• Tootle the Engine
• young train engine, who thought it was more fun
  to play in the fields than stay on the tracks
• Always stay on the track no matter what.

29

• Youth Culture
• little interest in the problems and crises of the
  larger world
• more children able to complete secondary school
• expected to stay in school, only part-time jobs
  (baby-sitting)

30

• businesses began selling to the youth market
• bobby socks / poodle skirts / letter sweaters
• teenage girls collected items such as silver and
  linen to prepare for marriage, often just after
  high school

31

• A Resurgence in Religion
• people began to flock back to churches
• found hope in the face of the threat of nuclear
  war
• Dial-a-Prayer
• growth of evangelists

32

• 1954 Congress adds under God to the Pledge of
  Allegiance
• In God We Trust

33
Mens and Womens Roles

• roles defined by social and religious traditions
• men go to school, find a job and support wives
  and children
• women supporting role of keeping house, cooking
  meals, and raising children

34
(No Transcript)
35
Challenges to Conformity

• Women at Work
• norm was for women to leave work after they got
  married (not all did)
• secretaries, teachers, nurses, sales clerks
• Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique

36

• Tupperware Parties
• home-based sales were less intimidating than
  door-to-door

37

• Youthful Rebellions
• some young people rejected the values of their
  parents
• Rebel Without a Cause James Dean
• The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
• struggles to preserve own integrity despite the
  fierce pressure to conform

38

• Alan Freed radio disc jockey who began playing
  black rhythm-and-blues
• Moondog Rock n Roll Party
• Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bill
  Haley and the Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly

39
Chuck Berry
Fats Domino
Bill Haley and the Comets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly
Little Richard
40

• Elvis Presley
• Dont Be Cruel
• Hound Dog
• Heartbreak Hotel

41

• rock-and-roll
• felt that it threatened many who were comfortable
  with racial segregation
• didnt like the idea of black and white teenagers
  going to the same concerts or dancing to the same
  music

42

• Beat Generation beatniks
• promoted spontaneity or acting out at a moments
  notice without planning
• Jack Kerouac On the Road
• Allen Ginsberg Howl

• I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed
  by madness,
• starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves
  through the negro streets at dawn looking for an
  angry fix Angel-headed hipsters burning for the
  ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo
  in the machinery of the night.
• Allen Ginsberg Howl

43
Section 3

• Domestic Politics and Policy

44
Setting the Scene

• 1950s called the conservative years

45
Trumans Domestic Policies

• had a scattershot approach to government
• offered a new set of proposals in every speech

46

• The Peacetime Economy
• reconversion the social and economic transition
  from wartime to peacetime
• wages failed to keep up with prices
• strikes in various prominent industries
• began to limit the power of unions

47

• Taft-Hartley Act allowed the President to
  declare an 80-day cooling off period during which
  strikers had to return to work , if the strikes
  were in industries that affected national
  interest
• required union officials to sign oaths that they
  were not Communists
• vetoed by Truman, but passed by Congress

Senator Robert A. Taft
48
(No Transcript)
49

• Trumans Fair Deal
• 21-point program designed to promote full
  employment, a higher minimum wage, greater
  unemployment compensation, housing assistance,
  national health insurance program, control atomic
  energy

50

• Truman on Civil Rights
• I am not asking for social equality, because no
  such things exist, but I am asking for equality
  of opportunity for all human beings, and, as long
  as I stay here, I am going to continue the fight.

51

• federal anti-lynching law, abolish the poll tax,
  board to prevent discriminatory practices in
  hiring
• biracial committee formed on Civil Rights
• banned the discrimination in the hiring of
  federal employees
• end to segregation and discrimination in the
  armed forces

52
The Election of 1948

• Truman ran against Republican Thomas E. Dewey
• campaigned against the Republican Congress (80th
  Do Nothing Congress)
• almost all experts and pollsters had picked Dewey
  to win
• Truman wins in an astounding upset

53

• 22nd Amendment
• limited presidents to two terms (1951)

54
Eisenhower and the Republican Approach

• Ike - nickname
• K1C2 Korea, Communism, Corruption
• promised to end the Korean War
• Vice-President Richard Nixon

55

• The Checkers Speech
• during the election, Nixon was accused of
  receiving illegal gifts from political friends
• many proposed Eisenhower dump him from the ticket

56

• Nixon gave a televised speech where he admitted
  that he had received one gift, a little cocker
  spaniel they named Checkers
• people demanded Nixon continue

57

• Eisenhower as President
• worked behind the scenes
• won reelection in 1956

58

• Modern Republicanism
• wanted to limit the Presidents power and
  increase the authority of Congress and the courts
• cutting spending, reducing taxes, and balancing
  the budget
• dynamic conservatism

59

• Eisenhowers Cabinet
• favored big business
• successful businessmen, plus one union leader
• eight millionaires and a plumber
• attempt to balance the budget backfired, but
  maintained a mood of stability
• minimum wage increased from 75 to 1.00

60

• Meeting the Technology Challenge
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  (NASA) formed in 1958, as an independent agency
  for space exploration

61

• National Defense Education Act improve science
  and mathematics instruction in schools to meet
  the scientific and technical challenge of the
  Soviet Union
• money to build science and foreign language
  facilities for schools