Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Chapter 27 Summary
The Postwar Years at Home
The Economy
Life Styles
Politics
Section 1
Section 1
Section 1
Section 2
Section 2
Section 2
Section 3
Section 3
Section 3
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
The Economy
Section 1
1. How did business change
in the post war years? What
were two new tactics (or
strategies) businesses used?
Conglomerates and Franchises
p.901
2. Explain in your own words
how these new tactics
worked. Include why a
business might use them.
Conglomerates were companies made up of three or more unrelated
businesses. They helped when one industry was doing poorly, they could
rely on the other parts of the business.
Franchises: Companies sold the rights to others to open one of their
businesses. These new owners could take advantage of a business plan
that worked and a name people know. P. 901
3. How did the workforce
change in the postwar
years? Explain how the new
jobs differed from the old.
Many people moved from Blue collar work to White collar work. Blue
collar people work with their hands or do manual labor and white collar
people do not.
P. 903-904
4. What did the GI Bill of
Rights offer to veterans of
WWII? How did it affect the
economy?
The G.I. Bill offered cheap loans to buy a house and free money to go to
collage. This helped produce a more educated workforce who could
make more money. It also caused a boom in home construction.
p. 904-905
5. Define “Consumer Credit”
without using the words
“Consumer” or “Credit”
Borrowing money to buy goods or services.
p. 906
6. What is the connection
between cars and credit
cards?
The first credit cards were offered by gasoline companies for people to
use when they filled up their cars.
P. 906
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
The Economy
Section 2
1. Before WWI most youths
left school in their mid-teens
to help support their families.
How did this change in the
1950’s? What made this
possible?
Teens began to stay in school longer into their teens and many went to
collage. This was because the economy was good enough so that
children did not need to earn money for the family at younger ages.
P. 908
2. What new kinds of jobs did
girls begin to take on for the
first time in the 1950’s?
Baby sitting became a major activity during this time
p. 908
3. From the “Focus on daily
life” insert on page 909: How
did Tupperware Parties
work? Who made money
from these parties?
Women would invite friends and family to their house and presented
the Tupperware to the friends. At the end of the night the friends
would order what they wanted. The women who hosted the party
received a piece of the profit from the Tupperware company who got
the rest.
4. What were typical jobs
women held outside the
home? Are these still seen as
“women’s” jobs today?
Secretaries, teachers, nurses, and sales clerks
p. 909
5.) From the “female Labor
Force, 1900-1960” graph on
909: What years were there
more married women
working in the US than single
women? What group of
women did they leave out?
1950 and 1960 the graph left out widowed and divorced women.
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
The Economy
Section 3
1.) What vocab word best
describes the economic
challenges Truman faced after
WWII? Describe it in your own
words.
2.) Looking at the picture on
page 912: One of the signs reads
“Fought for U.S.A. Now
Discarded.” What complaint is
this man making?
3.) What was Truman’s opinion of
strikes and worker’s rights to
Higher wages?
4.) Truman’s Fair Deal had over
21-points name 5 points that he
proposed.
Reconversion because these were the social and economic
challenges when going from wartime to peacetime.
p. 912
He is upset that he fought for his country in WWII and now that he
is home he can not find a job
He thought that they deserved higher wages but that they would
cause inflation. So Truman took steps to limit the power of labor
unions
913
Full employment, higher wages, greater unemployment
compensation, housing assistance.
p. 913
5.) Are any of the points
proposed in Truman’s Fair Deal
still political issues today? (Do we
still have them or are they still
talked about?) If so how does
your group feel about them?
All of these are still talked about today
6.) From page 915
What reason did Truman have to
attack Congress’ farm policy?
Their policies were very hard on farmers and made them sell their
goods at a very low price
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Life Styles
Section 1
1. What technology had been
developed in the 1920’s and
1930’s but became very
popular after WWII?
2. In 1955 how long did the
average family use this
technology? What were 5
popular programs shown on
it?
3. The transistor was
invented during the war.
What did it do and how was it
better than what they had
before?
4.) The transistor radio was a
success, why? How was it
different from previous music
playing device and why was
this attractive to buyers?
T.V.
p. 901-902
4-5 hours a day watching TV some popular programs were Howdy
Doody, The mickey Mouse Club, American bandstand, I love Lucy, and
Father Knows Best.
P 902
The Transistor was a tiny circuit device that amplifies, controls, and
generates electric signals. It made it possible to make the radio and
other devices smaller.
P 902-903
The new transistor radio was small enough to be portable. It could be
taken anywhere.
903
5.) Looking at the “Average
1960-1970
Household TV viewing Hours,
1950-1990” page 902:
Between what years was
there the biggest increase in
TV viewing?
6.) In 1960 the average
household spent 5 hours, and
6 minutes watching TV. Do
you spend more or less time
than that watching TV and
being on the computer?
Your opinion
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Life Styles
Section 2
1.) What was Tootle the Engine
and what was the moral of the
story?
It was a children’s story and the moral was to “Stay on track”. This
means to conform and to act normal and do what was right.
p. 907
2.) Many youth in America were
not required to work during
school so they had more leisure
time. What sort of new things did
they do to fill the free time?
Many girls began to start baby sitting, others got part time jobs.
Many began to have parties, play pranks, join fraternities and
sororities or other fun activities.
3.) Billy Graham was (still is) a
popular evangelist preacher
during the postwar years. What
were some of the reasons people
began to go back to church?
Many people saw the Communists as “godless” and that it was
more American to go to church. Others saw hope in religion while
being threatened with nuclear war.
908
908
4.) What was the name of the
Disk jockey that played “Black
Rhythm-and-blues” after 1951?
What would this music later be
known as?
Alan Freed played this music on his Cleveland radio program
“moondog rock ‘n’ roll party” it soon became known as Rock and
Roll
910
5.) Why did many adults fear or
dislike this new type of music?
Many adults thought it would cause immoral behavior. Others did
not like that both black and shite musicians played the music.
910-911
6.) What did the “Beat
Generation” or beatniks
promote? Give an example of a
beatnik and what he did.
Jack Kerouac: he wrote “on the road” in ’57.
911
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Life Styles
Section 3
1.) Reconversion is the social and
economic transition from
wartime to peacetime. How
would people’s lives change at
home when WWII ended?
2.) Truman said, “I am not asking for
As the service men and women came home they needed to find
jobs. Also the people wanted less control over the products they
could buy and how many they could buy.
912-913
Your opinion
social equality, because no such things
exist, but I am asking for equality of
opportunity for all human beings, and, as
long as I stay here, I am going to continue
to fight.” Do you agree with this
statement? Why or why not?
3.) What were the steps African
American leaders asked Truman
to support? How did Congress
respond?
Anti-lynching laws
Establish a board to prevent discrimination in hiring
Abolish Poll Tax- A fee charged to vote, made it impossible for poor
minorities to vote
914
4.) How do you feel about these
steps, are they reasonable
requests?
Your opinion
5.) Eisenhower said “I’ll tell you what
Your opinion
leadership is. It’s persuasion-and
conciliation-and education-and patience.
It’s long, slow tough work. That’s the
only kind of leadership I know or believe
in-or will practice” How does this
approach compare to how a leader you
admire leads? (This could be a coach, a
church leader, a teacher
6.) The National Defense
education Act pushed for better
math and science education in
America, so that we could
compete with the Soviets. Do you
think people are still interested
providing the best education
money can buy?
Your opinion
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Politics
Section 1
1.) What were two inventions
developed during the war that
were later used for civilian life?
(Hint: page 902-903)
2.) What was the GI Bill of Rights?
What did it offer to service
members?
Nuclear power and the transistor radio.
902-903
GI Bill of Rights gave military veterans low interest mortgages and
money to go to college
904
3.) What was the Interstate
Highway act (also called the
Federal-aid Highway Act)? How
much money was spent and
“theoretically” what did it allow
for?
4.) Besides what the “theoretical”
purpose how did the Highway
system benefit America? What
changed?
5.) From the “projected
Interstate Highway System,
1957” Map on page 905: Looking
at the map what geographic
region was projected to have the
most interstate highways? Why
might this area need or receive
more miles of highway?
The act provided $25 billion dollars to build a new highway system
over 40,000 miles long. In theory these highways could be used to
evacuate in case of a nuclear attack.
906
It created a “car culture” many people would have their social lives
revolve around the cars (Drive in movies and restaurants were
popular as well an increased interest in new models of cars.)
906
More people lives in the East with more large cities that needed to
be connected. Also more roads already existed their and were
converted to interstates.
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Politics
Section 2
1.) What was Tootle the Engine?
What kind of political message
does this story have?
It was a children’s story and the moral was to “Stay on track”. This
means to conform and to act normal and do what was right.
907
2.) How did the politics of the
Cold War change how people felt
about religion by the 1950’s?
3.) Women had very different
roles in the 1950’s compared to
men. Describe these roles.
Many people began going back to church because they saw the
communists as “godless” and America as a place of god. It also gave
people hope in a world full of nuclear weapons.
908
Women were expected to play a supporting role in their husbands’
lives. They cooked and cleaned while their husbands went off to
work.
909
4.) Betty Friedan challenged
conformity when she published
the feminine Mystique. How did
she view women’s expected roles
in politics in the 50’s? (Hint read
quote on page 909)
She said that because of the way they were treated women could
not see or understand anything outside the home. They saw
everything through the female experience.
909
5.) Compare your beliefs and the Your opinion
beliefs of your group members on
women’s roles in politics.
Global 4 Mr. Fields
[Type text] Name:___________________________
Politics
Section 3
1.) What actions did the
government take in July of 1946?
What effects did it have?
They lifted the economic controls set up to keep down war
inflation. When they did this the cost of goods went up 25%
912
2.) What was Truman’s response
to the Railroad Strike?
He later signed the Taft-Hartley act which allowed the president to
declare a 80-day cooling-off period during which strikers had to go
back to work.
3.) What was the name of
Truman’s program that he
molded after Roosevelt’s New
Deal? Describe what it was trying
to accomplish.
The Fair Deal. It was trying to increase the roll of government in
securing economic fairness to everyone.
4.) After the Election of 1948 the
Chicago Tribune ran a headline
that said, “Dewey Defeats
Truman.” How come there was
never a President Dewey?
The newspaper was so sure he would lose that they printed the
papers before the votes were counted. They had done their
political polling wrong, and Truman won the election.
5.) Richard Nixon was Eisenhower’s Vice
Nixon was accused of having a secret fund of money given to him as
illegal gifts. His response was to admit that he had received a gift,
his dog who his daughter named “checkers” and that he was going
to keep the dog.
President, and during the election of
1952 he gave his famous “Checkers”
speech. What was this speech about and
why did he have to give it?
6.) Describe Eisenhower’s
“Modern republicanism”. Do you
agree with these types of policies
or would you want thing done
differently?
913
915
Modern Republicanism: being Liberal on issues about people and
conservative on issues about people.