Chapter 22 Notes Postwar America

Section 1 Truman and Eisenhower

Return to a Peacetime Economy

· Economy continues to grow after the war

· – boosted the economy by providing loans to veterans

· Inflation – cost of living rose; higher prices

· Strikes affect the automobile, electrical, steel, and mining industries

· – outlawed the closed shop, or the practice of forcing business owners to hire only union members

· Right-to-work Laws – outlawed union shops and featherbedding

Truman’s Domestic Program

· Fights discrimination and proposed expansion of Social Security benefits

· Election of 1948 – Truman wins election

· – “Every individual has the right to expect from…government a fair deal”

· Congress approves expansion of social security, but turns down many of his ideas

The Eisenhower Years

· Election of 1952 - Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower wins; Nixon is running mate

· – balancing economic conservatism with some activism

· Cut federal spending and worked to limit the government’s role in the nation’s economy

· – appropriated $25 billion foa 10 year effort to construct more than 40,000 miles of interstate highways

· Extended unemployment compensation and extended the Social Security System

· Successfully transitioned the nation from a wartime to peacetime economy

Section 2 The Affluent Society

American Abundance

· The Affluent Society - Nation’s postwar prosperity is a new phenomenon

· New business techniques and technology enabled nations to produce abundance of goods

· Americans begin working in white collar jobs, such as sales and management, because of new technological advances

· Multinational corporations located close to raw materials and benefited from a cheaper labor pool

· 1950s – rise of franchises

· Franchises produce conformity

· New Consumerism – Americans buy more luxury items

· Advertising becomes the fastest growing industry in the U.S.

· Growth of suburbs – accounted for 85% of new home construction

· Levittown, NY – one of the earliest of new suburbs

· – more than 65 million children are born in the U.S.

· Women focus on traditional role as homemaker

Technological Breakthroughs

· 1950s – Beginning of age of computers

· – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer – one of the nation’s earliest computers

· Improvements in communication and transportation allows Americans to work more quickly and efficiently

· New medications developed to fight infection, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease

· – developed an injectable vaccine that prevented polio

· U.S. launches it own satellite

Section 3 Popular Culture of the 1950s

New Mass Media

· 1946 – 7,000-8,000 TV sets in homes; 1957 – 40 million sets in use

· TV programs offer comedy, action and adventure, and variety-style entertainment

· Movie theatre attendance drops from 82 million to 36 million viewers

· Theatres focus on cinemascope to draw in viewers

· Radio focuses on recorded music, news, talk shows, and weather to keep audience

New Youth Culture

· – emerges as a distinctive style of music of the new generation

· – first rock’n’roll hero

· Rock’n’roll contributes to the generation gap

· – lived as fugitives from the culture they despised; criticized the conformity of American life

African American Entertainers

· Singers and groups - Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, the Drifters,

· Women’s groups - the Supremes, the Crystals, the Chiffons, the Shirelles, and the Ronettes

Section 4 The Other Side of American Life

Poverty Amidst Prosperity

· 1950 - 1 in 3 Americans were poor; 1959 – 1 in 5

· 30 million people live below poverty line

· Poor includes single mothers, elderly, immigrants, rural Americans, and inner city residents

· Decline of inner cities – as people move to suburbs, inner cities decline

· New high rise projects created an atmosphere of violence

· African Americans – 3 million move from South to North between 1940 and 1960

· Bracero Programs – bring 5 million Mexican workers to the U.S. to work on farms and ranches in the Southwest

· Native Americans – poorest group in the nation

· – impoverished families abandon farms and houses to look for better opportunities

Juvenile Delinquency

· antisocial or criminal behavior of young people; rising problem during the 1950s

· 45% increase in juvenile crime rates

· Parents concerned about educational system

· School enrollment increases by 13 million; shortage of buildings and teachers