Ch. 14 , Postwar America (1945-1960).

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Postwar America 1945-1960 CHAPTER 14
Ch. 14 Postwar America(1945-1960)
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Demobilization

• It refers to the process of ending military
  operations, halting wartime production, and
  retiring troops from active service

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• I. Truman Eisenhower.
• A. Peacetime Economy.
• 1. Taft-Hartley Act passed by
  conservative Congress (1947).
• a) Outlawed Union
• Shops (which
• required union
• membership).

• The Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor
  Relations Act (NLRA),
• informally the Wagner Act), which Congress
  passed in 1935.
• ? GI Bill Loans to veterans for business, home,
  or college.

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Jackie RobinsonBreaking the Color Line

• The first African-American Major League Baseball
  player of the modern era.
• Robinson's 1947 Major League debut with the
  Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 60 years of
  baseball segregation, breaking the baseball color
  line, or color barrier.
• It was Branch Rickey, whose team, the Brooklyn
  Dodgers convinces Robinson to take a risk to
  join the major league.

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• B. Trumans Domestic Programs.
• 1. Expansion of Social Security.
• 2. ? min. wage from .45 to .75 an hour.

? Truman proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1948
which would have protected African American
voting rights and abolished poll taxes, and
made lynching a federal crime but it met
resistance from Republicans and conservative
Southern Democrats like Senator Strom Thurman
from South Carolina. ? Sen. Strom Thurman (R)
conducted the longest filibuster in
Congressional history to defeat the Civil
Rights Act. ? Had uneasy relationship with
Congress Not able to pass many bills.
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• 3. Election of 1948.
• a) Do Nothing Congress (not counting
  Truman Marshall Plans).
• b) Newspaper incorrectly predicts Dewey
  Defeats Truman.

? Southern Democrats left the party and formed
the States Rights, or Dixiecrat Party, over
objections to Trumans support for civil rights
nominated Strom Thurman as Presidential
candidate. ? Liberal Democrats left over Trumans
anti-Soviet foreign policy, forming the
Progressive Party nominated Henry Wallace as
pres. candidate. ? The Korean War starts in 1950.
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• 4. Trumans Fair Deal
• a) National Housing Act of 1949 low-income
  housing for 800K people.

Sprawling public housing projects like Chicago's
Cabrini-Green were one result of the Housing
Act of 1949.

• ? Apart from the New Deal, Truman said everyone
  has a right to expect
• a Fair Deal from the govt.
• The conservative Congress refused to pass
  national health insurance,
• subsidies for farmers, or federal aid for
  schools.
• ? Congress refused to enact Trumans civil rights
  legislation.

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• C. Eisenhower Years.
• 1. Dynamic Conservatism middle of the road
  balancing economic conservatism w/ some
  activism.

Eisenhower continued all the major New Deal
programs still in operation, especially Social
Security. He expanded its programs and
rolled them into a new cabinet-level agency, the
Dept of Health, Education and Welfare, while
extending benefits to an additional ten million
workers.
1969

• Considered himself as middle of the road,
  balancing activism and
• economic conservatism.
• ? I Like Ike campaign slogan.
• ? Ikes running mate was CA Senator Richard Nixon.

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Eisenhowers Policies advocated a policy of
massive strength to combat Communism.
? Massive Retaliation Threaten nuclear war if
Communists tried to seize territory by force. ?
Brinkmanship Willingness to go to the brink
of war to force the other to back down. ?
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Used covert
operations to fight Communism. ? Developing
Nations Countries with primary agricultural
economies (many covert ops).

• ? Financial aid to Egypt.
• ? Covert ops in Iran and Guatemala (1951 and
  1953).
• ? Stalin died in 1952, Khrushchev new leader in
  1956.
• ? Revolt in Hungary June, 1956, Soviet tanks in
  Budapest to put down uprising.
• ? Eisenhower warned of the Military-Industrial
  Complex as he left the presidency.
• ? Berlin Wall, aka Iron Curtain (1961 by
  Khrushchev until 1989).
• ? Uprisings against USSR Poland in 1952 Hungary
  in 1956 Czechoslovakia in 1968.

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Inspired by Germanys Autobahn

• 2. Federal Highway Act (1956) largest public
  works program in history.

Dollar coin issued by the U.S. Mint from
1971-78 honoring Ike.
States admitted to the Union Alaska January 3,
1959 49th state Hawaii August 21, 1959
50th state

• 25 Billion over 10 years for 40,000 miles of
  highway St. Lawrence
• Seaway (connect Great Lakes to the Atlantic
  Ocean through the
• St. Lawrence River, completed with Canada).
• Ike expanded the New Deal, extended Social
  Security to an additional
• 10 million people extended unemployment
  compensation to an
• additional 4 million raised min. wage to 1. an
  hour some govt
• aid to farmers.
• Complete transition to peacetime economy (1956)
  by Ikes second
• term.
• ? Prosperous times.

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Federal Highway Act of 1956 Creating the
Interstate System
The Cold War has left a large footprint on the
U.S. landscape with the Interstate Highway
System ? Interstates helped make suburbs
possible, trumpeted the power of capitalism.
? Helped build the trucking industry, carrying
the country's freight. ? Aid in the movement of
troops and material and speed the evacuation
of cities if attacked. ? All 45,012.52 miles of
the interstate system are built to uniform
design standards. ? Quarter mile section thats
straight for military planes to land.
12-foot-wide lanes, designed for 50-70 mph
travel, at least two lanes in each direction
no traffic lights/intersections.
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End of Section 1
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• II. The Affluent Society.

• An increase in service sector and professional
  jobs led to a great increase
• in American income from 1940 to 1955.

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• A. John Kenneth Galbraith Economist published
  The Affluent Society (1958) postwar prosperity
  was a new phenomenon.

The Affluent Society by Harvard economist John
Kenneth Galbraith sought to clearly outline the
manner in which the post-WWII America was
becoming wealthy in the private sector but
remained poor in the public sector, lacking
social and physical infrastructure, and
perpetuating income disparities. The book
sparked much public discussion at the time, and
it is widely remembered for Galbraith's
popularizing of the term "conventional wisdom".

• Economy of abundance abundance of goods and
  services that allowed
• people to enjoy a standard of living they never
  thought possible.

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• B. Spread of Wealth.
• 1. White-collar jobs sales management
  ?.
• 2. Blue-collar jobs physical labor in
  industry ?.

Origin of the term The term 'white-collar'
possibly derives from the clerical collar of a
priest's clothing who used to not only performed
ecclesiastical duties, but also served as
physicians, lawyers, scribes, and accountants.
A more popular theory is that the during most of
the twentieth century (male) office workers
almost always had to wear dress shirts, which
had a white collar.
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• C. Multinationals and Franchises.
• 1. Multinational Corporations Located
  near raw materials use cheap labor.
• 2. Franchises A person owns/runs a store in
  a chain.

A corporation or enterprise manages production or
delivers services in at least two countries.
Very large multinationals have budgets that
exceed those of many countries and have a
powerful influence in international relations
and local economies. They also play an important
role in globalization.
One of many Franchise businesses
? Multinational Corps created mostly white-collar
jobs. ? Franchise McDonalds, El Pollo Loco,
Snap on Tools, etc.
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Some of the worst Multinational Corporations
since 2001
Paint sludge in NJ
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ENIAC

• ENIAC was conceived and designed by John Mauchly
  and J. Presper Eckert of the University of
  Pennsylvania

• ENIAC was initially designed to calculate
  artillery firing tables for the United States
  Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. When ENIAC
  was announced in 1946 it was heralded in the
  press as a "Giant Brain".

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The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) in 1947 expanded international trade by
mutual reduction of tariffs.
Current WTO members in green
Protesting the WTO In Hong Kong, 2005.

• GATT created the World Trade Organization (WTO)
  on January 1, 1995.

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• D. The Growth of Suburbia.
• 1. Levittown Outside NYC 1st planned
  suburb.

7,990 or 60 a month

• 1949, Levittown was a planned residential
  community by Bill Levitt mass
• produced (like cars) hundreds of simple
  similar looking homes in a
• potato field 10 miles east of NYC (Long Island).
• Between 1947-1951, thousands of GIs families
  rushed to buy the
• inexpensive homes other suburbs sprang up
  across America.

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• E. The 1950s Family.
• 1. Baby Boom U.S. birthrate surged
  (exploded) after WWII.
• 2. From 1945-1961, 65 million children.

1950
? At its height, a child was born every 7 seconds.
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• F. Women in the 1950s Emphasis on making a
  happy home, but women working outside of the
  home ?.

• ? By 1960, nearly 1/3 of all married women worked
  outside the home.
• The 50s set the stage for rebelling against
  traditional female roles
• and the feminist movement in 1960s.

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Leave it to Beaver tv show
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• G. Technological Breakthroughs Electronics,
  computers, medicine, space.
• 1. Jonas Salk Vaccine for polio.

Polio epidemics in 1916 left about 6K dead
27K paralyzed in the U.S. After the vaccine
was available, polio cases dropped by 85-90 in
only two years.
Jonas Salk on cover of Time Magazine, 1954.
? Jan 31, 1958, (4 months after Sputnik) US
launches its own satellite.
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End of Section 2
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• III. Popular Culture of the 1950s.
• A. New Mass Media.
• 1. Rise of T.V. Popularity.

Edward R. Murrow Transcontinental TV in 1951.
I Love Lucy
The Lone Ranger

• ? Only 7-8K t.v. sets in 1946 About 40 million
  sets in 1957.
• I Love Lucy, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, and
  Dragnet.
• The only thing Red about Lucy is her hair.

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Just the Beginning

• The early shows of the 1950s will give rise to
  the 1960s, one example was The Patty Duke Show
  
• The Patty Duke Show was an American sitcom which
  ran on ABC from September 18, 1963 to April 27,
  1966, with reruns airing through August 31, 1966.
  
• The show was created as a vehicle for rising star
  Patty Duke

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Twenty One host Jack Barry (center), with
contestants Vivienne Nearing Charles Van
Doren.
Ed Sullivan

• ? Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town mix of
  comedy, song, and dance.
• ? Twenty-One 1956 scandal, contestant Charles
  Van Doren and others received answers.
• ? After TV copied the radios concepts, radio
  ratings fell, but then specialized in playing
  recorded music and flourished (doubled from 1948
  to 1957).

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• B. New Youth Culture.
• 1. Rock n Roll.

Cover of The Kings debut RCA Victor album.
Photo taken on January 31, 1955.
1955

• Radio disk jockey Alan Freed, in Cleveland on
  July 11, 1951, noticed
• white teenagers buying African American rhythm
  blues records
• and dancing to the music Put on a rock n
  roll party after his
• classical program, called himself Moondog
  Extremely popular!
• Soon after, white artists began making music
  that stemmed from
• African American rhythms and sounds, creating a
  new form of
• music called rock n roll.
• ? Elvis Presley, the King of Rock n Roll .

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Toward the end of the 1950's Rock and Roll lost
many of its great artists.  Elvis Presley was
drafted into the Army (died in 77) Little
Richard quit Rock and Roll Ritchie Valens,
Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper were killed in a
plane crash. Rock and Roll lost its edge and
became bland and safe
Little Richard
Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Presley's "gyrations" created a storm of
controversy even eclipsing the 'communist
threat' headlines prevalent at the time. The
press described his performance as "vulgar" and
"obscene".
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• 2. Generation Gap Cultural separation between
  children parents.

Jack Kerouac, "About the Beat Generation,"
(1957).

• The Beats sought to live unconventional lives
  as fugitives from a culture
• they despised Hated the sterilization and
  conformity of American
• society in the 1950s.
• Jack Kerouac (a Beat) published On the Road
  (1957) Adventures
• about a car thief and con artist.
• James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (mid-1950s)
  Popular actor who
• died in car crash at age 24.

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• C. African American Entertainers.

Chuck Berry

• ? Although few performed on t.v., many had an
  impact on early rock n roll.
• Nat King Cole 1956, Had his own 15-minute
  musical variety show,
• cancelled after 64 shows in 1957 due to no
  national sponsor.
• ? Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, and
  the Drifters.
• ? Little Richard and Chuck Berry influenced the
  Beatles (1960s).

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• ? The late 1950s saw several womens groups
  Crystals, Chiffons, Shirelles, and Ronettes.
• ? The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas
  (1960s).
• ? Despite innovations in music and economic boom
  of the 1950s, for many American poor and
  minorities the American dream was well out of
  reach.

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• IV. The Other Side of American Life.
• A. Poverty Amidst Prosperity.
• 1. Poverty Line Govt sets minimum income
  required to support a family.

In 2006, in the U.S., the poverty threshold for
a single person under 65 was 10,488 The
threshold for a family group of four, including
two children, was 20,444.
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• 2. Michael Harrington The Other America
  (1962) hidden U.S. poverty.
• 3. Urban Renewal 1950s, programs to
  eliminate poverty by tearing down slums erect
  new buildings.

Urban Renewal
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C.O.R.E

• The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE is a U.S.
  civil rights organization that played a pivotal
  role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights
  Movement. Founded in 1942, CORE was one of the
  "Big Four" civil rights organizations, along with
  the NAACP

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• 4. Termination policy Federal govt withdrew
  recognition of Native American groups as legal
  entities.

? Encouraged off the reservations and into cities
(Minneapolis, MN) Developers wanted their land.
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James Langston Hughes

• James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American
  poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and
  columnist.
• What Happens to a Dream Deferred?
• He was one of the earliest innovators of the
  then-new literary art form called jazz poetry
• Hughes was an example of those who tried to
  escape racism and poverty in the South to head to
  the northern cities during the Great Migration

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Charles Hamilton Houston

• Charles Hamilton Houston was a prominent
  African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard
  University Law School, and NAACP Litigation
  Director who played a significant role in
  dismantling the Jim Crow laws

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Martin Luther King Jr.

• James Farmer helped form CORE
• Peaceful, non-violent protest was learned by
  Martin Luther King Jr.s role model
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Gandhi utilized peaceful methods to gain
  independence from Great Britain of India

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Rosa Parks

• Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an
  African-American civil rights activist, whom the
  United States Congress called "the first lady of
  civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom
  movement".
• Montgomery Bus Boycott will follow and
  integration of the citys buses will emerge

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Brown v. Board of Education 1954
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• 5. Juvenile Delinquency Anti-social or
  criminal behavior of young people.

• Between 1948 and 1953, U.S. had a 45 increase
  in delinquency
• crime rates (vehicle theft).
• ? Education worries increased after the 1957
  Sputnik launch.

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