Overview

1
1945 -1960
2
Overview

• Economic Recovery
• Election of Eisenhower
• Growth of Suburbs
• Educational Opportunities
• Mass Culture
• Consumerism
• Post-war discontentment

3
Topics for Group Powerpoint Slide

• Create a slide using information from book about
  your assigned topic.
• G.I. Bill
• Baby Boom
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Growth of Suburbs
• Impact of Television in 1950s
• Impact of automobile

4
Economic Recovery after WWII

• Economy improved
• Only developed nation untouched by devastation of
  war
• Instead of spending energy and money on
  rebuilding focused on production of consumer
  goods
• 50 of worlds total output of goods
• Computers and wartime technological advances were
  applied to consumer products

5
G.I. Bill

• Veterans were given 65 a month (90 if they had
  a family)
• Most spent this allowance on higher education -
  51 percent of GIs
• Created a new standard. College education became
  an expectation for the children of the men who
  were able to earn their degree because of the GI
  Bill.
• An important provision of the G.I. Bill was low
  interest, zero down payment home loans for
  servicemen.
• This enabled millions of American families to
  move out of urban apartments and into suburban
  homes.

6
Baby Boom
1957 ? 1 baby born every 7 seconds
7
Baby Boom

• Fertility rate ( of births per 1,000 women)
  peaked at 123 in 1957. An American baby was born
  every 7 seconds.
• Why?
• More men in society due to end of WWII.
• GI bill allows men to start a family. Married at
  a younger age then their parents ( 1 in 3 women
  married by age 19)
• Medical science improved increasing the survival
  rate of babies.
• Prosperous economy encouraged parents to have
  babies sooner.

8
Election of Dwight D. Eisenhower
9
Growth of Suburbs

• 62 of families in 1960 owned home (43 in 1940)
• 1949 ? William Levitt produced 150
  houses per week.
• 7,990 or 60/month with no down payment.

10
http//people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/wu287/152lectu
res2003/1950S.pdf
11
(No Transcript)
12
Music

• Time writer groused in 1956 that rock did for
  music what a motorcycle club at full throttle
  does for a quiet Sunday afternoon,
• Elvis challenged the status quo and set trends
  that shaped youth culture

13
Top Songs of the 1950s

1. Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode 1958
2. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel 1956
3. Ray Charles - What'd I Say 1959
4. Little Richard - Tutti Frutti 1955
5. The Crickets - That'll Be the Day 1957
6. Bill Haley and His Comets (We're Gonna) Rock
   Around the Clock 1954
7. Elvis Presley - Hound Dog 1956
8. Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
   1957
9. Elvis Presley - That's All Right (Mama) 1954
10. Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes 1956

14
Song Analysis

• What is the song about?
• What about the song appealed to so many people?
• What types of things were cool to teenagers in
  the 1950s based on the song?
• Would parents protest the lyrics? Why or why not?
  
• Do you know the artist or do you think it was a
  one-hit wonder? What do you know about the artist?

15
Role of middle class women

• Popular culture glorified marriage and parenthood
  more then any other era.
• Women were told to be helpmates to their
  husbands and full time mothers to their children
• A woman isnt a woman until she is married and
  had children. (The Tender Trap)
• Working women were called a menace (Esquire)
• The ideal wife was married at 16, raised 4
  children, cooked and sewed, headed the PTA and
  exercised to keep her size 12 figure(Life).

16
Womens roles continued

• Education fueled the emerging new gender roles.
• Girls learned typing and cooking while boys took
  carpentry and business courses.
• Guidance counselors cautioned women to not miss
  the boat of marriage by pursuing higher
  education.
• 2/3 of college women failed to get a degree.
  Common joke was that they dropped out to get
  their M.R.S. degree or their Ph. T (Putting
  Hubbie Through)

17
Television
18
(No Transcript)
19
Television

• TV became the dominant mass media
• Portrayed on TV became the norm
• - ideal family, ideal schools, ideal
  neighborhoods