THE POSTWAR BOOM
Unit 4
Lesson 12
(Chpt 27)
OBJECTIVES
To understand the economic and political changes that occurred in postwar America.
To explore American society of the 1950s.
WARM UP
What is the American Dream? Do you think your dreams are different from
those of your parents?
Post-war Reconversion
Unemployment, Prices, Inflation Rise Wages drop & workers strike
Govt controls until wages catch up and prices level off.– Limit power of unions (Taft-Hartley Act)
New technology spurs product research & dvpt
Readjustment
GI Bill– Education and home loans, ease return
Housing Crisis– Levittown's: mass produced suburban homes
Redefining Family– Divorce rate up, Women want say in home/family
Economic Growth
$135 billion in savings = $$$$ to spend!!!– Auto, home ownership up– Demand = more jobs
New Business Organization– White collar workers: clerical, managerial, professional– Conglomerates (AT&T) and Franchises (McDonald’s-1955)– The Company Man: Conformity & loyalty… automatons
The Suburban Lifestyle
Suburban Living– Baby Boom – Return to Religion– Women Conflicted – Modern Amenities & Automobile Culture
Interstate Highway System (1956) Credit – 1st for gas, later Diner’s Club, American Express & Visa
Growing gap between middle class & poor– “White flight” from cities, influx rural poor…urban poverty & decay
1948 Election
Truman (D) Thomas Dewey (R) Strom Thurmond
(Dixiecrat)
Truman’s Fair Deal
Benefits for workers – ↑min wage, ↑ unemploy coverage– Expand Soc Security
National health insurance Control over atomic energy Increase civil rights
– Desegregates armed forces, ban discrim in fed hiring
Conservative Congress challenges…
1952 Election
Truman not running Adlai Stevenson (D) vs. Dwight Eisenhower (R)
– Nixon’s Checkers Speech
“I Like Ike” and his Modern Republicanism– Conservative w/$, Liberal w/humans– Balanced budget, tax cut, hike min wage, unemploy
benefits, public housing Re-elected ‘56
Different Styles
Both committed to helping ppl & fighting Communist expansion
Pop Culture
Mass Media: TV, Radio & Movies, Comics, Magazines, Advertising
– Portray an idealized white America
Teenager: “Silent Gen”, stay in school, allowance, entertainment, cars, consumers
Rock n Roll: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley… mix electric instruments w/ blues beats
– Condemned by adults (rebellious, immoral)
50’s Subculture
The Beat Movement– “Beats / Beatniks”– Reject conformity and consumerism of society – Open sexuality, drug use– Literature: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Allen
Ginsberg Howl
Activity
Create an acrostic poem for
“A M E R I C A N D R E A M”
Examples
Another Motorcyclist Emerges a Rebel Indicative of Changes in America Now
Dollars Rule Everything Around Me
An invincible feeling that Mass media projects as Eisenhower paints a picture of which
picket fences where Roles are redefined and Ideologues of real happiness are
concealed by Conformity and no American can Negotiate this sea of loose morals
Do rejoice in consumerism and all that new
Religion as well as the Experience of the white collar worker for America will only see times like this until
people open their Minds
Closure
How did the US avoid the historic post-war economic downturn?
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