Post War America

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Post War America
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Three areas of analysis in history

• Economic
• Social
• Political
• These three areas can help you analyze any period
  of history, especially American history.

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Postwar America Economic

• Readjustment necessary after War
• Prices no longer fixed, they skyrocket
• All the men returning home from war along with
  layoffs of defense workers high unemployment
• Housing crisis veterans needed homes for new
  families, birth of suburbs
• Higher prices, lower wages unhappy laborstrikes
• Eventually, the economy balanced itself out

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Postwar America Social

• Civil Rights issues come to forefront
• Truman was all for civil rights, he wanted
• Anti-lynching laws
• Abolition of the poll tax
• Permanent body to prevent racial discrimination
• These were not passed however, Truman used
  executive order to integrate the military. He
  also ended discrimination in hiring government
  employees

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Postwar America Political

• Truman is President and had to deal with unstable
  economy and pushback on social beliefs.
• 1948 election Truman v. Thomas Dewey (from
  Owosso)
• Truman had issues in his party-Dixiecrats were
  Southern Democrats who opposed Trumans stance on
  civil rights.

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Postwar America Political

• Truman was expected to lose the election having a
  divided party and not a great approval ratingthe
  Chicago Tribune even predicted his loss before
  results were in on election night

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Postwar America Political

• However, Truman ended up with a landslide
  electoral victory.
• Truman then attempted
• to implement his new
• Fair Deal policy.

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Fair Deal

• Trumans attempt to extend the New Deal
• Included
• Creation of a national compulsory health
  insurance system
• Crop-subsidy system to ensure steady income for
  farmers
• Republicans and Southern Democrats teamed up to
  defeat the Fair Deal with some support from
  Northern Democrats, Trumans allies in Congress.

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Republicans take back Power

• Truman had successes in civil rights and with the
  economy however, the stalemate in Korea and rise
  of McCarthyism proved detrimental for Truman.
• Gen. Dwight Eisenhower decides to run as a
  middle of the road Republican after the people
  draft him for president.
• Eisenhower wins on his moderate ticket with
  Richard Nixon as his running mate.

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I like Ike
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Eisenhower governs

• Eisenhower took the approach of dynamic
  conservatism
• Conservative on the economy
• Liberal when it comes to people
• Eisenhower had a knack for avoiding controversy,
  however he could not avoid civil rights.
• He took no official stand on civil right but
  disagreed with the decision of Brown v. Board of
  Education believing it was impossible to change
  peoples mind with laws