Ch. 14,
Postwar America
(1945-1960).
I. Truman & Eisenhower.
A. Peacetime Economy.
1. Taft-Hartley Act – passed by
conservative Congress (1947).
a) Outlawed ‘Union
Shops’ (which
required union
membership).
 The Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA),
informally the Wagner Act), which Congress passed in 1935.
 GI Bill – Loans to veterans for business, home, or college.
Jackie Robinson
“Breaking the Color Line”
 The first African-American
Major League Baseball player of
the modern era.
 Robinson's 1947 Major League
debut with the Brooklyn
Dodgers ended approximately
60 years of baseball
segregation, breaking the
baseball color line, or color
barrier.
 At that time in the United
States, many white people
believed that blacks and whites
should be kept apart in many
aspects of life, including sports.
 Some pitchers threw at his
head and legs; one national
League team threatened to
strike to drive him out.
B. Truman’s Domestic Programs.
1. Expansion of Social Security.
2. ↑ min. wage from .45 to .75 an hour.
 Truman proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1948 which would have
protected African American voting rights and abolished poll
taxes, and made lynching a federal crime – but it met resistance
from Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats like
Senator Strom Thurman from South Carolina.
 Sen. Strom Thurman (R) conducted the longest filibuster in
Congressional history to defeat the Civil Rights Act.
 Had uneasy relationship with Congress; Not able to pass many bills.
3. Election of 1948.
a) “Do Nothing Congress” (not
counting Truman & Marshall Plans).
b) Newspaper incorrectly predicts
“Dewey Defeats
Truman.”
 Southern Democrats left the party and formed the States’ Rights,
or Dixiecrat Party, over objections to Truman’s support for
civil rights; nominated Strom Thurman as Presidential candidate.
 Liberal Democrats left over Truman’s anti-Soviet foreign policy, forming
the Progressive Party; nominated Henry Wallace as pres. candidate.
 The Korean War starts in 1950.
4. Truman’s “Fair Deal”
a) National Housing Act of 1949 –
low-income housing for 800K
people.
Sprawling public
housing projects
like Chicago's
Cabrini-Green
were one result
of the Housing
Act of 1949.
 Apart from the New Deal, Truman said “everyone has a right to expect
a Fair Deal from the gov’t.”
The conservative Congress refused to pass national health insurance,
subsidies for farmers, or federal aid for schools.
 Congress refused to enact Truman’s civil rights legislation.
C.
Eisenhower Years.
1. “Dynamic Conservatism” & middle of
the road – balancing economic
conservatism w/ some activism.
Eisenhower continued all the major New
Deal programs still in operation,
especially Social Security. He
expanded its programs and rolled
them into a new cabinet-level agency,
the Dept of Health, Education and
Welfare, while extending benefits to an
additional ten million workers.
1969
 Considered himself as middle of the road, balancing activism and
economic conservatism.
 “I Like Ike” campaign slogan.
 Ike’s running mate was CA Senator Richard Nixon.
Eisenhower’s Policies: advocated a
policy of massive strength to
combat Communism.
► Massive Retaliation – Threaten nuclear war if
Communists tried to seize territory by force.
► Brinkmanship – Willingness to go to the brink of
war to force the other to back down.
► Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – Used covert
operations to fight Communism.
► Developing Nations – Countries with primary
agricultural economies (many covert ops).
 Financial aid to Egypt.
 Covert ops in Iran and Guatemala (1951 and 1953).
 Stalin died in 1952, Khrushchev new leader in 1956.
 Revolt in Hungary – June, 1956, Soviet tanks in Budapest to put down
uprising.
 Eisenhower warned of the Military-Industrial Complex as he left the
presidency.
 Berlin Wall, aka Iron Curtain (1961 by Khrushchev until 1989).
 Uprisings against USSR: Poland in 1952; Hungary in 1956;
Czechoslovakia in 1968.
2. Federal Highway Act (1956) – largest
public works program in history.
States admitted to the Union
Alaska – January 3, 1959 = 49th state
Hawaii – August 21, 1959 = 50th state
Dollar coin
issued by
the U.S.
Mint from
1971-78
honoring
Ike.
 $25 Billion over 10 years for 40,000 miles of highway; St. Lawrence
Seaway (connect Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean through the
St. Lawrence River, completed with Canada).
 Ike expanded the New Deal, extended Social Security to an additional
10 million people; extended unemployment compensation to an
additional 4 million; raised min. wage to $1. an hour; some gov’t
aid to farmers.
 Complete transition to peacetime economy (1956) by Ike’s second
term.
 Prosperous times.
Federal Highway Act of 1956:
Creating the Interstate System
The Cold War has left a large
footprint on the U.S. landscape
with the Interstate Highway System:
► Interstates helped make
suburbs possible,
trumpeted the power of
capitalism.
► Helped build the trucking industry,
carrying the country's freight.
► Aid in the movement of troops and
material and speed the
evacuation of cities if attacked.
► All 45,012.52 miles of the interstate
system are built to uniform
design standards.
► Quarter mile section that’s straight for
military planes to land.
12-foot-wide lanes, designed for 50-70
mph travel, at least two lanes in each
direction & no traffic lights/intersections.
II.
The Affluent Society.
 An increase in service sector and professional jobs led to a great increase
in American income from 1940 to 1955.
A.
John Kenneth Galbraith – Economist
published The Affluent Society (1958):
postwar prosperity was a new
phenomenon.
The Affluent Society by Harvard economist John
Kenneth Galbraith sought to clearly outline the
manner in which the post-WWII America was
becoming wealthy in the private sector but
remained poor in the public sector, lacking social
and physical infrastructure, and perpetuating income
disparities. The book sparked much public
discussion at the time, and it is widely remembered
for Galbraith's popularizing of the term
"conventional wisdom".
 “Economy of abundance” – abundance of goods and services that allowed
people to enjoy a standard of living they never thought possible.
B.
Spread of Wealth.
1. White-collar jobs – sales &
management; ↑.
2. Blue-collar jobs – physical labor in
industry; ↓.
Origin of the term:
The term 'white-collar' possibly derives from the
clerical collar of a priest's clothing who used to
not only performed ecclesiastical duties, but also
served as physicians, lawyers, scribes, and
accountants. A more popular theory is that the
during most of the twentieth century (male) office
workers almost always had to wear dress shirts,
which had a white collar.
C.
Multinationals and Franchises.
1. Multinational Corporations –
Located near raw materials &
use cheap labor.
2. Franchises – A person owns/runs a
store in a chain.
A corporation or enterprise manages production or
delivers services in at least two countries. Very large
multinationals have budgets that exceed those of many
countries and have a powerful influence in international
relations and local economies. They also play an
important role in globalization.
One of many
Franchise businesses
 Multinational Corps created mostly white-collar jobs.
 Franchise = McDonalds, El Pollo Loco, Snap on Tools, etc.
Some of the worst ‘Multinational
Corporations’ since 2001
Paint sludge in NJ
The ‘General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade’ (GATT) in 1947
expanded international trade by
mutual reduction of tariffs.
Current WTO members
in green
Protesting the WTO
In Hong Kong, 2005.
GATT created the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995.
D.
The Growth of Suburbia.
1. Levittown – Outside NYC; 1st planned
suburb.
$7,990
or
$60 a
month
 1949, Levittown was a planned residential community by Bill Levitt; mass
produced (like cars) hundreds of simple & similar looking homes in a
potato field 10 miles east of NYC (Long Island).
 Between 1947-1951, thousands of GIs & families rushed to buy the
inexpensive homes; other suburbs sprang up across America.
E.
The 1950’s Family.
1. ‘Baby Boom’ – U.S. birthrate
exploded after WWII.
2. From 1945-1961, 65 million children.
1950
 At its height, a child was born every 7 seconds.
F.Women in the 1950’s – Emphasis on
making a “happy home,” but women
working outside of the home ↑.
 By 1960, nearly 1/3 of all married women worked outside the home.
 The 50’s set the stage for rebelling against traditional female roles
and the feminist movement in 1960’s.
“Leave it to Beaver”
tv show
G.
Technological Breakthroughs –
Electronics, computers, medicine, &
space.
1. Jonas Salk – Vaccine for polio.
Polio epidemics
in 1916 left
about 6K dead
& 27K paralyzed
in the U.S.
After the
vaccine was
available, polio
cases dropped
by 85-90% in
only two years.
Jonas
Salk on
cover
of Time
Magazine,
1954.
 Jan 31, 1958, (4 months after Sputnik) US launches its own satellite.
III. Popular Culture of the 1950’s.
A. New Mass Media.
1. Rise of T.V. Popularity.
“I Love Lucy”
Edward R. Murrow
& Transcontinental
TV in 1951.
“The Lone Ranger”
 Only 7-8K t.v. sets in 1946; About 40 million sets in 1957.
 I Love Lucy, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, and Dragnet.
 “The only thing ‘Red’ about Lucy is her hair.”
Ed Sullivan
Twenty One host
Jack Barry (center),
with contestants
Vivienne Nearing &
Charles Van Doren.
 Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town – mix of comedy, song, and dance.
 Twenty-One – 1956 scandal, contestant Charles Van Doren and
others received answers.
 After TV copied the radio’s concepts, radio ratings fell, but then
specialized in playing recorded music and flourished (doubled
from 1948 to 1957).
B. New Youth Culture.
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Cover of
“The King’s”
debut RCA
Victor album.
Photo taken
on January 31,
1955.
1955
 Radio disk jockey Alan Freed, in Cleveland on July 11, 1951, noticed
white teenagers buying African American rhythm & blues records
and dancing to the music; Put on a “rock ‘n’ roll party” after his
classical program, called himself “Moondog” ; Extremely popular!
 Soon after, white artists began making music that stemmed from
African American rhythms and sounds, creating a new form of
music called rock ‘n’ roll.
 Elvis Presley.
Toward the end of the 1950's Rock and Roll lost many of its great artists.
Elvis Presley was drafted into the Army (died in ’77); Little Richard quit
Rock and Roll; Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, & the Big Bopper were killed in
a plane crash. Rock and Roll lost its edge and became bland and safe
Little
Richard
Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Presley's "gyrations" created a storm
of controversy — even eclipsing the
'communist threat' headlines prevalent
at the time. The press described his
performance as "vulgar" and "obscene".
2. Generation Gap – Cultural separation
between children &
parents.
Jack Kerouac,
"About the Beat
Generation,"
(1957).
 The Beats – sought to live unconventional lives as fugitives from a culture
they despised; Hated the sterilization and conformity of American
society in the 1950’s.
 Jack Kerouac – (a Beat) published On the Road (1957) – Adventures
about a car thief and con artist.
 James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (mid-1950’s) – Popular actor who
died in car crash at age 24.
C.
African American Entertainers.
Chuck Berry
 Although few performed on t.v., many had an impact on early rock ‘n’ roll.
 Nat King Cole – 1956, Had his own 15-minute musical variety show,
cancelled after 64 shows in 1957 due to no national sponsor.
 Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, and the Drifters.
 Little Richard and Chuck Berry influenced the Beatles (1960’s).
 The late 1950’s saw several women’s groups: Crystals, Chiffons,
Shirelles, and Ronettes.
 The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas (1960’s).
 Despite innovations in music and economic boom of the 1950’s, for
many American poor and minorities the American dream was well
out of reach.
IV. The Other Side of American Life.
A. Poverty Amidst Prosperity.
1. Poverty Line – Gov’t sets minimum
income required to support a family.
In 2006, in the U.S.,
the poverty threshold
for a single person
under 65 was $10,488;
The threshold for a
family group of four,
including two children,
was $20,444.
2. Michael Harrington – The Other America
(1962); hidden U.S. poverty.
3. Urban Renewal – 1950’s, programs to
eliminate poverty by tearing down slums
& erect new buildings.
Urban Renewal
4. Termination policy – Federal gov’t
withdrew recognition of Native American
groups as legal entities.
 Encouraged off the reservations and into cities (Minneapolis, MN);
Developers wanted their land.
5. Juvenile Delinquency – Anti-social or
criminal behavior of young people.
 Between 1948 and 1953, U.S. had a 45% increase in delinquency
crime rates (vehicle theft).
 Education worries increased after the 1957 Sputnik launch.