The Postwar Boom

Chapter 27

POSTWAR AMERICA

Section 1

Readjustment and Recovery

• GI Bill – Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944)
• Paid part of veterans’ tuition
• One year’s worth of unemployment benefits
• Loans for farms, homes, businesses
• Housing shortage
• Divorce rate increased
• Clashing views of marital roles
• Economic readjustment
• Mass layoffs
• Inflation
• Depression was feared, but rationing ended and the Cold War kept defense spending up

Housing Shortage

• Suburbs
• Levittown (William Levitt)

Civil Rights

• Supported by President Truman
• President’s Commission on Civil Rights (1946)
• Executive order for integration of the armed forces

1948 Election

Truman’s “Fair Deal”

• Extension of FDR’s New Deal
• Proposed national compulsory health insurance and crop subsidies, though Congress didn’t pass these measures
• What did the Fair Deal do?
1. Minimum wage raised from 40 cents to 75 cents an hour
2. Extended Social Security coverage
3. Flood control and irrigation projects
4. Financial support to build low-income housing in cities

Truman’s Dismal Approval Rating

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• Though his Fair Deal was successful, Truman’s approval rating dropped to 23%
• Why?
1. Unprepared to fight WWII (kept out of the loop)
2. Dropping the atomic bombs on Japan
3. Stalemate in the Korean War
4. McCarthyism (distrust in the government as a whole)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

• “I like Ike”
• Running mate = Richard Nixon

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• Dynamic conservatism, AKA Modern Republicanism
• “conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings”
• Stayed middle of the road and avoided controversy

THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE FIFTIES

Section 2

White-Collar Workers

• The majority of Americans now held white-collar jobs (sales, advertising, insurance, communications)
• Conglomerates – major corporation that includes a number of smaller companies in unrelated industries
• Diversification – invest in different industries
• Franchises – company that offers similar products or services in many locations
• Social conformity
• Organizations wanted “company people”
• Personality tests to be hired
• Consumerism – buying increasingly more goods and putting value on material goods

Baby Boom

• Largest generation in U.S. history
• What factors contributed to the baby boom?
1. Reunion of husbands and wives after the war
2. Decreasing marriage age
3. Desirability of large families
4. Confidence in economic prosperity
5. Advances in medicine
• Dr. Jonas Salk – polio vaccine

Role of Women

• Role of homemaker and mother was glorified
• 1/5 of women were unhappy with their role as housewife
• Number of women working outside the home increased

Leisure

• More leisure time than ever before
• Shorter workweeks and household appliances freed up time
• Sports, television, novels, magazines, comic books

Automobile Culture

• Abundance of gasoline after war rationing ended
• Suburban living led to increased car sales
• Interstate Highway Act (1956, Eisenhower)
• Downside…
• Pollution
• Accidents
• Traffic jams

Consumerism

• Buying increasingly more goods and putting value on material goods
• The more you had, the more successful you seemed
• Planned obsolescence – manufacturers purposely designed products to become obsolete (wear out or become outdated) in a short period of time
• Encouraged people to buy new products
• Buy now, pay later (credit)
• Advertising

Advertising Before WWI

Advertising After WWII

POPULAR CULTURE

Section 3

Mass Media

• Means of communication that reach large audiences
• Television (9% of homes in 1948, 55% in 1954, 90% by 1960)
• Shows for everyone… news, dramas, sporting events, children’s shows
• Other industries benefited from television…
• Advertising
• Magazines (TV Guide)
• TV dinners

Entertainment

• Radio programs turned to news, weather, and music
• Television took over stories
• Movies survived by capitalizing on showing films in color and on large screens
• 3D movies
• Smell-O-Vision and �Aroma-Rama

Subculture – The Beat Movement

• Mostly San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City
• Non-conformist movement
• Beats/beatniks – followers
• Poetry readings in coffee houses were the main attraction
• Interested in finding individual values
• Zen Buddhism, music, sometimes drugs

Rock ‘n’ Roll

• Added electronic instruments to blues music
• Mix of rhythm and blues, country, pop
• Both black and white – purely American
• Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley
• Attracted teenage audiences

THE OTHER AMERICA

Section 4

Amidst the prosperity of the 1950s, millions of Americans lived in poverty.

The Urban Poor

• ¼ of Americans were living below the poverty level
• White flight – middle-class white Americans leaving the cities to move to the suburbs
• Rural poor moved to the cities to find jobs
• Cities struggled to fund schools, public transportation, and police and fire departments

Urban Renewal

• Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – new cabinet position in the federal government
• Urban renewal – tearing down rundown neighborhoods and constructing low-income housing
• Not exactly successful

Braceros

• During WWII, the U.S. faced a shortage of agricultural laborers
• Braceros: Mexican workers invited into the U.S. by the government to harvest crops and fix the labor shortage
• After WWII ended and the soldiers came home, many were displaced from their jobs

Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

• Autonomy instead of assimilation
• Termination policy – discontinued the reservation system
• Redistributed tribal lands to Native American individuals
• Unsuccessful and later abandoned