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Post-War America

How did Americans adjust to the post-war period?

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GI Bill

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GI Bill

  • The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. Benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation.

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Baby Boom

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The Baby Boom

  • Earlier marriages and rising income fuel increase in birthrate
  • Large families reinforce domestic focus of women
  • Lasted from 1946-1964 – defined a generation
  • Over 75 million born

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The Baby Boom

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  • 78.2 million �Estimated number of baby boomers, as of July 1, 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/
  • 7,918�Number of people turning 60 each day in 2006, according to projections. That amounts to 330 every hour. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/
  • James & Mary �The most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 1946. Today, the names Jacob and Emily lead the list; James ranks 17th among boys and Mary is 63rd among girls. (Source: Social Security Administration, at <http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html>)

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The Post-War Economy

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  • Post-War inflation
  • Jobs initially scarce as economy transforms back to peace time economy
  • Women forced to return to domestic sphere
  • Military-Industrial economy helps grow the economy
  • GI Bill provided a comprehensive social benefit package
    • Low cost mortgages, creates VA, education

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The 1948 Election

  • Henry Wallace (Progressive) challenged Truman
    • campaign effectively quashed by red-baiting
  • The Democrats split again over civil rights when segregationists ran Strom Thurmond for president.
  • Truman managed to hold on to the New Deal coalition and won re-election.

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Challenging “Creeping Socialism”

  • Fair Deal – Truman’s proposals for national health care, public housing, education, and works projects In 1946, Republicans gained control of Congress and started to undo the New Deal.
    • Over Truman’s veto, Republicans passed the Taft-Hartley bill that curtailed the power of labor.

Taft-Hartley Act (1947) – Law that abolished the closed shop, banned so-called sympathy boycotts, and required that all union officers sign affidavits certifying that they were not members of the Communist Party

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9 Visions of America, A History of the United States

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Fear of Communist Influence

  • In climate of Cold War, Americans feared that members of the Communist party would be loyal to the Soviets
  • Smith Act (1940) - made it a criminal offense to advocate violent overthrow of the government or to organize or be a member of any group or society devoted to such advocacy
  • Truman established the Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program
  • House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) – Congressional committee that investigated possible Communist influence
      • Targeted Hollywood, fearing movies would spread Communist propaganda
      • Actors suspected of being Communist were blacklisted
  • McCarran Act – required the registration of Communist organizations with the United States; investigated persons suspected of engaging in subversive activities or otherwise promoting the establishment of a "totalitarian dictatorship," fascist or communist.
  • Famous spy cases:
    • Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs (the latter were convicted and executed for selling atomic secrets to the Soviets)

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Senator Joseph McCarthy Launches “Witch Hunt”

  • “He may be a Communist…”
    • Needed a popular issue to help him win 1952 re-election – took advantage of people’s concerns about Communism
    • Made accusations that there were hundreds of Communists in the State Department – he never produced a single name or any evidence
    • Techniques became known as McCarthyism
    • When challenged, he would respond with another accusation
    • McCarthy’s 1954 downfall:
      • Made accusations against U.S. Army, resulting in televised hearings
      • His bullying of witnesses caused Senate to condemn him for improper conduct
      • Became an alcoholic and died three years later
  • McCarthy Interview

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Rise of the Middle Class

  • Per capita consumption rose 50%
  • Wages increased 1/3
  • Unemployment averaged 4.6%
  • By 1960, 60% classified as middle class
  • Capitalism over communism or conspicuous consumption?

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The Move to the Suburbs

Levittowns – Planned suburban communities where developers standardized every part of the construction process

Baby Boom Generation – The 76.4 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964

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13 Visions of America, A History of the United States

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The Growth of the Suburbs

  • By 1960, more people lived in suburbs than cities
  • William J. Levitt applies mass-production techniques
  • Changing payment structure
  • Restrictive Covenants
  • Relied on automobile
  • Population shifts to “sun belt” (south and west)

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Suburbia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8StRAJCork

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Study Calls L.I. Most Segregated Suburb

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http://www.longislandindexmaps.org/

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The Organization Man

  • Conglomerates, multinational corporations
  • Lifetime employment, lifetime loyalty
  • Critics claimed it stifled creativity
    • “When white–collar people get jobs, they sell not only their time and energy but their personalities as well- C. Wright Mills”

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A crowded commuter train

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Lonely Crowds and Organizational Men

  • Critics found the suburbs as dull and conformist—obscuring the real class and ethnic differences
    • David Reisman (The Lonely Crowd, 1950)
      • Americans had become overly conforming, less individualistic, more peer-oriented
    • William Whyte (Organization Man, 1956)
      • culture of conformity
    • C. Wright Mills
      • argued that a small, interconnected power elite was emerging

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The Automobile

  • American car ownership triples from 25 mil – 75 mil between 1945 and 1965
  • Eisenhower advocates for new interstate highway system
  • Reroutes traffic away from small towns

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The Birth of Television

  • 7,000 tv sets in 1947
  • By 1960, 87% of homes had a tv
  • Content emphasized nuclear families, suburbs, middle class and Anglo-Saxon America
  • Growth of advertising
  • FCC Commissioner – “TV a vast wasteland” A growing chorus of critics
    • Intellectual critics bemoaned the great “Middlebrow Culture” that was driving out high culture.

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Television: Tube of Plenty

  • By the late 1950s, situation comedies featured idealized, white suburban families.
  • Television also created overnight fads and sensations.
  • Fess Parker and Disney’s Davy Crocket show capitalized on the power of television, selling $300 million in shirts, dolls, toys and coon-skin caps.
  • Prime-time shows made no references to contemporary political issues and avoided being tainted with communist influence.

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Culture Critics

  • A growing chorus of critics
    • The Beats articulated some of the sharpest dissents from conformity, celebrating spontaneity, jazz, open sexuality, drug use, and American outcasts.
      • Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”
      • The Beats foreshadowed the mass youth rebellion of the 1960s.

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The Beat Poets

  • Group of writers and poets
  • Disdained middle class conformity
  • Glorified spontaneity, sexual adventure, and drug use
  • Allen Ginsberg poem, “Howl”
  • Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” – quest for meaningful life away from conformity

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Rock and Roll

  • Part of the larger “youth culture”
  • Elvis Presley personified the era
  • Inspired in large part by black rhythm and blues
  • “American Bandstand”
  • Rock ‘n’ roll united teenagers and gave them the feeling that it was their music (and misunderstood by adults).

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Signs designating “White” and “Colored” rest rooms

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An Age of Conformity?

  • “Keeping up w/ the Jones”
    • Suburbs
    • Cookie-Cutter Houses
    • Baby Boom
    • Automobile
    • Television
    • Business – Organization Man
    • McCarthyism

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  • Pre-cursor to the counterculture
    • Beat Poets
    • Rock and Roll
    • Growth of Feminism
    • Civil Rights Movement

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1950s Culture: �Conformity and Rebellion

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