Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____
The Postwar Economy: 1945-1960
In the decade and a half after
World
War
II,
States
in America grew even larger. There had
economic
been earlier waves of mergers in the
growth and consolidated its position as
1890s and in the 1920s; in the 1950s
the
another
experienced
the
United
After 1945 the major corporations
phenomenal
world's
richest
country.
Gross
wave
Franchise
McDonald's
fast-food
national product (GNP), a measure of all
operations
goods and services produced in the
restaurants allowed small entrepreneurs
United
about
to make themselves part of large, efficient
$200,000-million in 1940 to $300,000-
enterprises. Big American corporations
million in 1950 to more than $500,000-
also developed holdings overseas, where
million
labor costs were often lower.
States,
in
jumped
1960.
from
More
and
more
Americans now considered themselves
part of the middle class.
like
occurred.
Workers found their own lives
changing as industrial America changed.
The growth had different sources.
Fewer workers produced goods; more
The economic stimulus provided by large-
provided services. As early as 1956 a
scale public spending for World War II
majority of employees held white-collar
helped get it started. Two basic middle-
jobs, working as managers, teachers,
class needs did much to keep it going. The
salespersons, and office operatives. Some
number
produced
firms granted a guaranteed annual wage,
annually quadrupled between 1946 and
long-term employment contracts, and
1955. A housing boom, stimulated in part
other benefits. With such changes, labor
by
of
easily
returning
automobiles
affordable
servicemen,
mortgages
for
militancy was undermined and some
fueled
the
class distinctions began to fade.
expansion. The rise in defense spending
Farmers – at least those with small
as the Cold War escalated also played a
operations – faced tough times. Gains in
part.
productivity
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led
to
agricultural
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Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____
consolidation, and farming became a big
As
suburbs
into
the
grew,
new
businesses
business. More and more family farmers
moved
areas.
Large
left the land.
shopping centers containing a great
Other Americans moved too. The
variety of stores changed consumer
West and the Southwest grew with
patterns. The number of these centers
increasing rapidity, a trend that would
rose from eight at the end of World War II
continue through the end of the century.
to 3,840 in 1960. With easy parking and
Sun Belt cities like Houston, Texas; Miami,
convenient evening hours, customers
Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and
could avoid city shopping entirely. An
Phoenix, Arizona, expanded rapidly. Los
unfortunate
Angeles, California, moved ahead of
"hollowing-out" of formerly busy urban
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the third
cores.
largest U.S. city and then surpassed
New
by-product
highways
was
created
the
better
Chicago, metropolis of the Midwest. The
access to the suburbs and its shops. The
1970 census showed that California had
Highway Act of 1956 provided $26,000-
displaced New York as the nation's
million,
largest state. By 2000, Texas had moved
expenditure in U.S. history, to build more
ahead of New York into second place.
than 64,000 kilometers of limited access
An even more important form of
movement led Americans out of inner
the
largest
public
works
interstate highways to link the country
together.
cities into new suburbs, where they
Television, too, had a powerful
hoped to find affordable housing for the
impact on social and economic patterns.
larger families spawned by the postwar
Developed in the 1930s, it was not widely
baby boom. Developers like William J.
marketed until after the war. In 1946 the
Levitt built new communities – with
country had fewer than 17,000 television
homes that all looked alike – using the
sets. Three years later consumers were
techniques of mass production. Levitt's
buying 250,000 sets a month, and by
houses were
– partly
1960 three-quarters of all families owned
assembled in a factory rather than on the
at least one set. In the middle of the
final location – and modest, but Levitt's
decade, the average family watched
methods cut costs and allowed new
television four to five hours a day.
owners to possess a part of the American
Popular shows for children included
dream.
Howdy Doody Time and The Mickey
prefabricated
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Mouse Club; older viewers preferred
4. What is the Sun Belt?
situation comedies like I Love Lucy and
____________________________________________
Father Knows Best. Americans of all ages
____________________________________________
became
____________________________________________
exposed
sophisticated
to
increasingly
advertisements
for
____________________________________________
products said to be necessary for the good
life.
5. During the postwar years, many
Americans left the inner cities for new
1. Define the term gross national product
_____.
(GNP).
a. downtowns
____________________________________________
b. farms
____________________________________________
c. nations
____________________________________________
d. suburbs
____________________________________________
6. What was the unfortunate by-product
2. List three reasons why the American
of large shopping centers?
economy grew after World War II.
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
7. What 1956 act was the largest public
works expenditure in U.S. history?
____________________________________________
3. What undermined labor militancy in
____________________________________________
the 1950s?
____________________________________________
8. Name four popular television shows of
____________________________________________
the postwar years.
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
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