Name __________________________ Date _____ Period _____
The 1950’s Notes
Truman’s FAIR DEAL
 Fair Deal- Truman’s package of reforms after WWII
 _________________________________________________
 _________________________________________________
 _________________________________________________
 War ends, labor demanded _____________, unemployment _________________
 Price controls ________, prices ______________, inflation ___________, workers demand higher wages, ___________
occur
Republican Congress
 22nd amendment- ____________________ of president
 _______________________- limited the power of labor unions and outlawed closed shop (workplace in which the employer
agrees to hire only members of a certain union)
 Congress refused to act on ____________ but Truman issued an executive order of desegregated troops.
Truman to Eisenhower
 Truman wins 1948 election although newspapers predict _____________ to defeat him.
 For the next 4 years Truman battled with _________________ over Fair Deal legislation.
 1952 Republican ____________________ defeats Stevenson
 “________________” popular campaign slogan
 Took a middle of the road approach “_______________________”
Economic Growth
 Emergence of _______________ 1940’s- two brothers Dick and Mac opened the first “fast food” restaurant
 ____________ grew after WWII. People in the 1950’s had ______ as much money as people in the 1920’s.
 People were SPENDING MONEY and ____________________ grew
 Business Methods grew to encourage growth in 3 ways
 _________________________
 _________________________
 _________________________ (buying goods that go out of date)
Shifting Economy
 __________________- 1st corporation to earn 1 billion dollars a year
 Cost of living Index- measures differences in wages and goods over time (GM had a agreement with workers, as Cost of
living Index _______, so did their ___________)
 Blue-Collar workers to _______________ workers- workforce changed from factory or skill trade jobs to professionals such
as lawyers, doctors, engineers, sales, and managers.
Marriage, families, & a BABY BOOM
 Marriages increased in 1946 (_________________________________________) which led to….
 BABY BOOM- large increase in the number of babies born from _____________. This led to an increase in…
 ___________________
 ___________________
 ___________________
 ___________________
 ___________________
 Family Roles: Stay-at-home _________ and working ___________
 Many books published and tv shows encouraged women to stay at home including
“______________________________”
 Women forwent _________________ and stayed at home
Population Shifts
 Suburbs grew
 Levittown- _____________________________ in nation in Long Island, New York
 Migration to the Sunbelt
 Shift of manufacturing and other businesses to warm-weather states including, ______________
_______________________, and 10 other states.
 Shift made available due to _______________ in the arid SW and development of _____ _________________
The Automobile
 Middle Class dream to have _____________ in every garage
 Fathers commented to jobs in nearby cities
 Mothers could run to the __________________ and ___________________
 Status Symbol
 Cars were a sign of consumer culture _______________________________________

Interstate Highway System
 1956 construction started and completed _____________ miles of highway by 1960 (today we have over
________________ miles)
Technological Advances
 Polio Vaccine- ____________________ – made up of small parts of the polio virus so people could develop
________________ to protect them from the actual virus.
 1954- 2 million school children took part in __________ and was deemed successful
 Surgical techniques advanced
 __________________________
 __________________________
 Life Expectancy increased from _____ in 1950 to ________ by 1960
 Nuclear Energy- ____________________________________________________________
 Computers enter the workplace
 1946- ENIAC (_____________________________________________), 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 square feet of
floor space (a Levittown home), and could perform 300 multiplications per second.
 1952- UNIVAC- same as above but could handle _____________________________
Critics of Suburbia
 Suburbia- critics saw suburbia as a _______________ of conformity and materialism (needed wealth)
 _______________________________________- book by William Whyte- saw the suburbs as packaged villages that have
become the dormitory of a new generation of organization men.
 Defense of Suburbia- although no African Americans there were many different _____________________________ groups
present in Suburbs
Nonconformity
 Beat Movement- writers and poets who were either ________________ or _________( blissfully happy)- Beatniks
 Started __________________________
 Rejected all forms of convention or ways of living
 Obscene writing- ________________________________
 Youth Culture rebelled against the world of their __________ through _____________________________________
 ___________________- disc Jockey _______________ Ohio played black rhythm and blues (Rock’n’roll)
_______________________________ “Elvis the Pelvis”
 James Dean- ___________________________
 “Big Daddies” (_______________), “Boss” (____________), “Threads” (_____________), “radioactive”
(_______________), “Don’t have a ______”, “Cool it”
Art and Comics
 The American Way- comics broke from convention “________________________________”
 Parents were horrified by new comics
 Taught the youth how to _____________________________________________________
 Abstract Expressionism- new form of _______________________________________
 Vivid and unstructured
 ___________________________ “The source of my painting is the unconscious”
Poverty in Society
 People felt poverty was a _____________________ and an ________________________________
 Pauperism- people depending on ____________________________ or public assistance
 ___________________- more respected than paupers but little difference
 Poverty line-minimum amount of income one would need to meet basic needs. 1949______ families
2008__________ family of four
 An Invisible Class “____________________________” by Harrington
 ¼ of society lived in poverty
 ___________________________________________________
Landscape of Poverty
 Inner Cities- 1945-1960 __________________ moved from the south into northern cities as ________ moved to the suburbs
 Housing Act of 1949-________________, replacing slums with high rise apartments in cities became “__________”
 American Farmers- __________________________
 Agribusiness- food production by corporate farms put small farmers out of business
 Mexican braceros- worked for low wages on _________________________
 _______________________- mountainous poor region in the South
 Poorest Citizens- _____________________
 Termination Policy- _____________________________________
 ______________________________________- encouraged Indians to move to cities
 ________ tribes were terminated, land was ________, and ____________ grew worse
 By 1963, _____________________________________________