Postwar America:
The Affluent Society
U.S. History II
The Fair Deal
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Truman asked Congress for:
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national health insurance
increased minimum wage
full employment guarantee
civil rights for African Americans
Republican-controlled Congress
blocked his programs, but
Truman vetoed their tax cut
Desegregated armed forces by
executive order in 1948
The Election of 1948
Population Growth and Shifts
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20 million move from
rural to urban areas
By 1970, 76 million in
suburbs, 64 million in
cities
Gov’t subsidized:
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FHA insured builders’
loans & buyers’
mortgages
Veterans got
additional benefits
Expressways built
Levittown
Levitt Home Styles
Levittowns
Building the New York Thruway
Postwar Economic Boom
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White-collar workers
outnumber blue-collar
workers for first time
Rosie the Riveter
went back to being
Rosie the Secretary
Television & the
Consumer Economy
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Postwar marketing used
powerful new medium of TV
Business model based on radio
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Nationwide networks
Advertisers sponsors shows to
reach demographic groups
Advertisers increasingly
targeted teenagers
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Increasing disposable income
Highly susceptible to emotional
manipulation
Other Postwar Trends
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Christian revival, but mainline Protestant
churches focus more on soothing middleclass anxieties than preaching the gospel
Consensus & conformity characterize the
national mood, but not a return to
traditional values
Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
Eisenhower’s Dynamic
Conservatism
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U.S. & Canada agree to jointly develop St.
Lawrence Seaway (1954)
1954 Housing Act supposed to build lowincome housing for those displaced by
urban renewal
Atomic Energy Act (1954) allowed
private companies to build nuclear power
plants
1956 Highway Act spent $31 billion to
create 41,000-mile interstate highway
system
Automobile America