AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY

Chapter 29

Domestic Policy

Truman and the Fair Deal• Fair Deal attempted to expand

New Deal – Medical Insurance for all

Americans– Revived and strengthened Fair

Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

– Federal aid to education• Spirit of reform waned in

postwar years (Apathetic Public)– Dixiecrats split democratic party

over civil rights reform • Fair Deal failed but set the

agenda for future attempts to expand New Deal

Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism

• Eisenhower left New Deal intact– Raised minimum wage and

expanded Social Security– Created Department of Health,

Education, and Welfare• 1956: Highway Act created

interstate highway system – Stimulated the economy – Shaped metropolitan growth

patterns• Overall Eisenhower years were

politically moderate

Postwar Prosperity• 1945–1960: Rapid economic

growth – Some older industries will

suffer (steel, agriculture, etc…)

– Recession hits by end of 50’s– Increase in Defense Spending

• Stimuli to consumer goods industry– Baby boom – Population shift to suburbia– Increase in capital spending

• Opportunity – GI Bill 1944– Employment Act 1946

Cultural Change• Consumerism the dominant social theme of the 1950s• Suburbia inhabited by middle class

– Most significant social change– Dependence on the automobile– Family togetherness– Created anxiety and dissatisfaction – Women in the workplace stimulates new feminism

• Areas of Greatest Growth– Church membership booms– School attendance (federal aid to focus on math and science/Sputnik)– Television watching

• Critics of the Consumer Society– The “Beat” movement were artists and authors (ex: David Riesman)

criticizing the conformity of suburban corporate culture