Essential Question

What were the characteristics of the 1950s?

1950s: The Age of Affluence

Product Demand

Rationing ended from wartime mobilization

Americans were eager to spend

G.I. Bill

Loans to veterans to help them start businesses, buy homes, and attend college

Plastics and Synthetics

Developed for military purposes

Now used for consumer goods

Military Spending

Defense-related industries became a part of national defense

Science, industry, and the federal govt intertwined

White Collar Workers

Rise in management position openings

Corporations offered lifetime employment for college graduates

Election of 1952

Eisenhower
(Republican)

Adlai Stevenson
(Democrat)

An Affluent
Society

The Suburbs

Farmland on the outskirts of cities converted to tract housing and shopping malls

Levitt Houses

William Levitt applied massproduction techniques to quickly build houses

Created subdivisions

The Sun Belt

Low taxes, mild climates

Open space for sprawling subdivision

Growing Highway System

15 cents for a gallon of gas

Subdivisions existed on the assumption of people driving

Interstate System

Created while
Eisenhower was president

Federal Highway Act of 1965

Ground support for military deployment and troop support

The Baby Boom

More babies born between 1948 and
1953 than in the thirty years previous

Drop in the marriage age

Dr. Jonas Salk

Perfected the polio vaccine in 1954

Free distribution in public schools

Miracle Drugs

Penicillin

Cortisone

Streptomycin

Television

1947 – 7000 sets

1950 – 5.3 million sets

1960 – 87 percent of American homes had one set

1950s Television

Growth in advertising

Source for popular culture

Father Knows
Best

I Love Lucy

Gunsmoke

Bonanza

Mickey Mouse Club

Howdy Doody

Captain Kangaroo

The Generation Gap

Cultural separation between children and parents

Youth Culture

Rise of Rock n’ Roll

Elvis Presley

Chuck Barry

Ray Charles

Little Richard