America
at
Mid-Century
1952-1963
FACTS about the 1950s…
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US Population: 151,684,000
Life expectancy: W 71.1 - M 65.6
Average $: $2,992
Labor force male/female: 5/2
Gallon of gasoline: $0.18 - $0.25
Bomb shelter plans….government
pamphlet You Can Survive
AMERICAN SOCIETY
AT MID-CENTURY
Objective…
Discuss the status of
American society at
mid-century and its
major themes.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The
Affluent
Society…
John Kenneth
Galbraith
Galbraith’s criticism of American
society…
“spend less on personal consumption and
more to schools, medical care, cultural
activities, and social services.”
The
Eisenhower Presidency
Objective…
Describe Eisenhower’s
leadership style and
political philosophy on
the role of government.
Dwight
David
Eisenhower
Birth: October 14, 1890
Death: March 28, 1969
Term of Office: January 20,
1953 - January 20, 1961
DDE’s background…
• Born 1890 into a poor Texas
family
• Public education
• 1915 - Graduated West Point
• 1917 - WW I veteran
• Advisor to MacArthur
• 1943 - N. African campaign
- D-Day
DDE’s background…
• 1945 – Allied Commander
• 1945 - President Columbia U.
• 1950 - Leader of NATO
• 1952 – Elected US President
• Retired in Gettysburg, PA
• Died in Washington DC 1969
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dynamic Conservatism
or
Modern Republicanism
“Conservative when it comes to
money and liberal when it comes
to human beings” - DDE
What was Eisenhower’s leadership
style?
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Moderate – middle of the road
Slow the growth of the federal government
Limit the President’s power
Cut spending/reduce taxes/balance the
budget
• Worked behind the scenes – “hidden
hand”
• Critics interpreted his style as doing
nothing
Ike’s view of the corporate
commonwealth?
• Wanted to encourage and support
corporate America
• Pro-big business
• Appointed to FTC, FCC, and the FPC
men who were friendly to the
corporate interests they were charged
with regulating
Ike’s cabinet?
• Put successful businessmen in
his cabinet – “eight millionaires
and a plumber”
• Charles Wilson (Sec. of Defense)
“What’s good for General Motors
business is good for America.”
Submerged Lands Act of 1953?
• Transferred $40 billion worth of
offshore oil lands from the federal
government to the states so that
the states could lease oil rights to
corporations
Consequences of Ike’s
environmental policy?
• Lax approach to government regulation
• Accelerated a trend toward the destruction
of the natural environment
• Louisiana – massive degradation of
wetlands
• Florida – tropical forest damaged
• Warehousing of dangerous chemicals
• Use of DDT poisoned birds
Ike and the New Deal?
• Accepted legacy of greater federal
responsibility for social welfare
• Expanded Social Security
• Added 4 million workers to those eligible
for unemployment
• Small increases in minimum wage
• Created Department of Health, Education
and Welfare
Ike’s views on the economy…
• Hesitant to pump up the economy during
recessions
• Would not cut taxes and increase
spending to stimulate growth
• End of term:
– Real wages up 20%
– Low inflation
– Modest growth
FHA?
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Federal Housing Administration
Insured long-term mortgages
Spurred housing industry
Money went to suburbs
Contributed to the decline of cities
Discriminated against racially mixed
communities
Levittown, NY - PA
Levittown…
Federal Highway Act of 1956
• $32 billion for the construction
of a national interstate
highway system
• By 1972 single largest public
works program in Am. history
• 41,000 miles of highway at $76
billion
• Stimulated auto industry and
suburbia
• Accelerated decline of mass
transit and older cities
National Defense Education Act…
• Oct. 4, 1957 Soviet Union
launched Sputnik
• Am. Officials worried that U.S.
lagging behind in training
scientists and engineers
• Strengthen support for math,
science, and technology
education
• 1958 - $280 million grants to
upgrade university facilities
• $300 million for low-interest
student loans
• Concede importance of
education
Sputnik
October 4, 1957
Size of a beach ball
183 lbs.
98 minutes to orbit earth
Sputnik II
November 3
Dog named Laika
Suburban Life
How did the following typify
the ideal suburban life …
• Nuclear family & the
suburban housewife….
• Role of religion…
• California…
Housewife
Religion
• ¾ of Americans are church members
• Finding individual solutions to problems…
not activism
• Importance of fitting in
California
• Cars!
• 500 miles of highway
around LA
• The “centerless city”
Betty Freidan…
Her alternative view?...
Lonely Crowds &
Organization Men
According to critics what
motivates Americans in
the 1950s…
What is their primary
criticism?
Riesman’s “Other-directed” man
• Desire to conform
• Peer-oriented
• Fewer risks
• Thinking and habits cued from mass media
Whyte’s Organization man
• “Belongingness” is ultimate need
• Obsession to fit-in
• Comfort & security
Wilson’s Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
• The hero rejects a top-promotion to be
with his family
Mills said, “When white-collar people get
jobs, they sell not only their time and energy,
but their personalities as well” (White Collar,
1951).
The Expansion of
Higher Education
The rapid expansion in
college enrollment in the
1950s…
Reinforcing corporate
culture on the college
campus…
Rapid growth of higher
education….
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1950 – 2.6 million attended college
1960 3.2 million
1970 7.5 million
Helped by
– GI Bill
– National Defense Education Act
– Gov’t spending on research and
development
Changes in higher education?
• Values of the postwar corporate culture
• Most popular majors: business or other
commercial fields
• Grad educ. & fac. research become main
focus versus undergrad teaching
• Gateway to the middle class
• Requirement for white – collar occupations
Health & Medicine
Improvements in heath
& medicine after
WWII…
New improvements in medical care?
• Longer and healthier lives
• War = gov’t funded medical
research
Nat’l Institutes of Health
• Penicillin
• Tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping
cough and measles nearly
eradicated by 1960
• Salk vaccine – eliminated polio by
1960
Dr. Jonas Salk
Limitations to new health care?
• Increased cost of medical care
• Many poor Americans could not
afford health care
• Doctors not available in rural
communities
Limitations to new health care?
• Decline in general practitioner = focus
on specialized medicine in large
medical centers
• Proliferation of iatrogenic ailments –
illness caused by medical treatment
–Thalidomide
• Increase of foreign trained
doctors
Limitations to new health care?
• AMA blocked gov’t intervention
into public health – blocked
“socialized medicine”
–Truman’s nat’l health care policy
–Ike’s plan to aid private health
insurance companies