Chapter 27: The Postwar Boom
ERA 9: POSTWAR U.S. 1945-1970’S
US HISTORY
I Will Gain an Understanding of:
 1 . The economic boom and social transformation of
postwar United States
 2. American Life during the 1950’s
 2. Domestic policies after World War II
Section 1: Postwar America
CH27
Servicemen’s Re-adjustment Act, 1944
 Also known as the G.I.
Bill
 Huge impact on
American society &
economy in the 1950’s
 Opportunities for WWII
Veterans
G.I. Bill Offered …
 1. Money for University
education
 2. Money for Vocational
Training
 3. Small business loans
 3. Home loans
Universities Awarded 2x’s as many degrees in
1950
 as opposed to 1940
 8 million vets used G.I.
funds to attend Colleges
&Universities
The Baby Boom
 WII Veterans Got a
college education, got
married… and…
 Had lots and lots of
babies!!!
 50-75 million babies
born between 19461964
Housing Crisis
 Not enough homes for
returning veterans and
their new families!
 Led to construction of
mass produced homes
Growth of Suburbs
 Tract homes built en
masse in the 1950’s
 “Levittowns”emerged (planned
communities in suburbs)

Levitt Construction company- east
coast
Growth of Suburbs
 Average home price
1950’s:
 $7,000- $14,500 !
Lakewood, Ca- 1st Planned Community in L.A.
 Step 1 – prepare land
 Step 2- trace streets,
construct homes
Lakewood, Ca- 1st Planned Community in L.A.
 Step 3 – build
community shopping
center/ school
 Step 4- House completed
with driveway and back
yard
Section 2: The American Dream
in the Fifties
Who is the 1950’s The Middle Class?
 1. At least some college





education
2. Men work – white
collar jobs, or blue collar
management
3. Own 2 cars
4. Own suburban home
5. Stay at home wife, 2
kids
6. mostly white
1950’s Prosperity & Consumerism
 New Products for the
home – refrigerator,
toaster, oven, Television
 Buy Now, Pay later:
 Credit Cards: Diner’s
Club, American Express,
1958
 Good Economy =
Consumer spending !
What do these Advertisements tell us about American Society
in the 1950’s?
What do these Advertisements tell us about American Society
in the 1950’s?
Visions of the Future in the 1950’s
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VowfYuhx1-o
 1957 house of the future - @ Tommorowland
1950’s “Auto Mania”
 Cars Facilitated
movement, & road trips
 85% of homes built in
1950’s built in the
suburbs
National Highway Act 1956
 “Interstate” Highways
unified nation
 Cost: $40 billion
 41,000 mile construction
project
Popular Culture Along Highways
 The construction of
Highways allows for the
emergence of
 1. fast food chains
 2. motels
 3. shopping malls
Fast Food Restaurants in the 1950’s –
McDonald’s & In-N-Out
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNED_uiXzw
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnlcBQ1EFz4
 In N’ Out – Family owned
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuZerNezDhs
Section 3: Popular Culture
CH27
The Rise of Television Culture
 9 in 10 homes had T.V.
sets by 1960
 Facilitated the spread of
“fads”
 What impact did
television have on
American society?
Television Culture
 “at home” wives/mothers
depicted in popular
culture
 Did 1950’s T.V. shows
encourage stay at home
moms, or did T.V. shows
depict reality for women?
Rock N’ Roll Music on T.V. & Radio
 Term coined by DJ Alan




Freed- 1951
Controversial Music!
Society concerned about
teenagers
American Bandstandteaches teens dance
trends
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=b8dEn6qCe
cg
1950’sRock n’ Roll Music!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZm7EOamW
k
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQiIMuOKIzY
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPNcJhEYH0A
1950’s Fads (trends)
 Hula Hoops!
 Records!
 Barbie!
 Telephone booth
stuffing!
Teen Movies Emerge
 James Dean - “Rebel
Without a Cause”
(1955)
 Marlon Brando –
“ The Wild One” (1954)
the bad boy image
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=U1DEp8R9kw
g
Disneyland
 Opened in Anaheim, CA
1955
 Price of admission: $1$4
Disneyland Opening Day
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmguSaTYn64
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Gw0sTVLZc
Disneyland, 1950’s
The Construction of Disneyland
 Does Disneyland represent the social idealism of the
1950’s??
Section 4: The Other America
“White Flight”
 White, middle class
Moved to suburbs
 Loans denied to
minorities
 60% of Americans
owned homes by end of
50’s
Poverty and Urban Blight
 By 1960, 35 million
people lived below
poverty line
 Inner city deteriorated
into slums
 Reality of many ignored
1950’s Reality No one Talked about:
 1. Racism, discrimination, segregation
 2. Popular Culture depicted white middle class
experience only
 3. Poverty, urban blight, inequality
American Presidents ‘50’s & 60’s
 1. Dwight D. Eisenhower – (1952- 1960)
 2. John F. Kennedy – (1960-1963)
 3. Lyndon B. Johnson – (1963-1968)
ERA 9: Civil Rights Movement
1950’s – 1960’s
THE STRUGGLE FOR RACIAL EQUALITY
I Will Gain an Understanding of:
 1. Civil Rights Movement 1950’s-1960’s
 2. The struggle for racial and gender equality
 3. the struggle for the extension of civil liberties
 4. domestic policies
Paradox;
 Freedom for whom?
 Equality for whom?
Segregation in the South
 Jim Crow Laws




(1881)
Segregated public
facilities
“separate but
equal”
Adopted across the
South
SEGREGATION
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
 Man 7/8th’s white &
1/8th African
American tried to sit
in “whites only”
railway car
 Was Arrested
 He sued
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
 Supreme Court Ruled:
 that “separate but
equal” laws did not
violate 14th
amendment
 Supreme Court Ruling
gave South
permission to
discriminate!
Segregation in Schools
DISCRIMINATION ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Roberto Alvarez vs. Board of Trustees of the
Lemon Grove School District
 San Diego, California
 1931 School Principal
refused to allow Mexican
students entrance to his
school
 Separate School for 74
Mexican students was
built
 Court Ruled: “Racial
Segregation illegal”
Mendez v. Westminster School District
 1946, Orange County
California
 Parents fought to
“Desegregate” schools
 Racial discrimination
 Court ruling:
“segregation based
solely on national
origin
unconstitutional”
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
 Linda Brown- 1st
grader
 had to travel an hour ½ to
attend African American
School
 a white school was located
less than one mile away
from her home
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
 NAACP (The National
Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People)
 encouraged Brown
Family to sue the
Topeka, Kansas school
board
 Argument: Linda’s
equal rights had been
violated
Thurgood Marshall
 Represented Brown
family
 Later became 1st African
American to serve on
Supreme Court
 Argued 14th amendment
guarantees ALL citizens
equal protection under
law
 “equal opportunity”
Supreme Court Ruled:
 “ separate facilities
are inherently
unequal”
 Ruling Overturned 1896
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Decision
Supreme Court Ordered
 The desegregation of all public school facilities
 Not well received by Southerners
Little Rock, Arkansas 1957
 Governor of Arkansas
Orval Faubus
 Ordered National Guard
to bar the entrance
 Of 9 African American
students to an all white
High School
“Little Rock 9” - 1957
 9 African American
Students allowed entrance
by federal court ruling
 Violent protests erupted
 President Eisenhower
ordered federal troops to
the city
 To escort students to
school !
In Response, Orval Faubus
 Shut down all public
schools
 In order to rebel against
integration/
desegregation
Rosa Parks, 1955
 Montgomery, Alabama,
1955
 Refused to give up her
seat to a white patron on a
city bus
 Arrested & fined
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
 Organized bus boycott
 Until buses were
desegregated
 African Americans made
up 95% of Montgomery’s
bus riders
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
 & the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
 Challenged Jim Crow
Laws in South
 Believed in peaceful
protest or
 “Non-violent
resistance”
“Sit- Ins”, 1960
 1960, Greensboro
North Carolina
 Local High School &
College students
 Sat at a Woolworth’s
white’s only lunch counter
and
 Refused to leave until they
were served
“sit –Ins” =Non-violent Protest
 “Sit – in”
 Lasted 6 months
 Students took turn
rotating seats
 Formed the Student
non-violent
Coordinating
Committee
“Freedom Summer”, 1961
 a group of mostly college
students formed
 Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE)
 Boarded busses in North
and traveled South to
protest against
segregation
 Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders
 Showed support for
Desegregation of public
transportation
 When they arrived in
Alabama ,
 Faced firebombs
 Several “riders” were
severely beat
Attorney General
 Robert Kennedy
 Sent federal marshals to
protect freedom riders
 Signaled a victory for
CORE
Birmingham, Alabama 1963
 City closed all public




facilities as a protest
against integration
Dr. King
Staged a march- 1963
Was arrested & Jailed
“letter from
Birmingham jail”
Peaceful Protest in Birmingham
 Turned violent when
 Police Commissioner
ordered the use of dogs,
fire hoses against
 non-violent protesters
President John F. Kennedy (1960-1963)
 Actively began to seek




legislation to protect civil
rights
JFK’s “New Frontier”
addressed :
poverty
unemployment
racism
August 28, 1963
 Dr. King organized most
successful march in U.S.
history
 Washington, D.C.
 To show support of civil
rights legislation
 “I Have a Dream”
speech
I Have a Dream…
 “I have a dream that one day this nation will
rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: ‘we hold these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal’…”
November 22, 1963
 John F. Kennedy was
assassinated in Texas
 Lee Harvey Oswald lone
gunman
 Lyndon B. Johnson
became President
1. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, 1964
 outlawed segregation of public accommodations
 Est. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
 Made illegal discrimination based on race, gender,
religion, ethnic origin
2. VOTING RIGHTS ACT, 1965
 Outlawed literacy tests for voters
 Nationalized voter registration system
Lyndon B. Johnson
 Formally Elected




President, 1964
Platform: “Great
Society”
To expand civil rights
cut income taxes
rid society of poverty
LBJ’s Great Society Programs
 1. Economic Opportunity Act 1964:
 Job Corps, Head Start, Upward Bound Programs
 2. Medical Care Act 1965 :
 Medicare, Medicaid
LBJ’s Great Society Programs
 3. Housing and Urban Development Act:
1966
 To improve housing for poor & urban families
 4. Immigration Act of 1965 - repealed “quotas”
benefit to millions of immigrants from Latin
America & Asia
LBJ’s Great Society Program
 5. Higher Education ACT –1965 Scholarships &
low interest loans to needy students
 6. National Endowments for the Arts &
Humanities 1965 – promotes artistic & cultural
activities
 7. Truth in Packaging Act 1966- to protect
consumers from misleading claims
Native American Rights Movement
 “Native American”
became preferred term
over “Indian”
 Protested Columbus Day
 Staged sit- ins at
museums which housed
Native American remains
American Indian Movement (AIM), 1968
 Promoted traditional ways
of Native American life
 Wanted to prevent police
brutality and harassment
of Native Americans
 Wanted Textbooks to
include Native American
experience/history
American Indian Movement (AIM)
 November 1969
 Occupied Alcatraz Island
 Lived in island for 19
months as form of protest
Why Alcatraz Island?
 A symbol of conditions on
reservations:
 No running water,
inadequate sanitation
facilities, no
unemployment, no health
care , soil unproductive
AIM
 Inspired Native American to be proud of their
heritage
 1970 census: 800,000 people identified themselves
as Native Americans
 Many for the first time
Chicano Movement
 MECHA- Movimiento
Estudiantil Chicano de
Aztlan
 Led Chicano high school
students in boycott of
classes in East Los
Angeles
 Protested poor facilities,
instruction
 Also known as
“blowouts” 1968
Goals of Chicano Movement
 To Protest
 1. Poor educational
conditions in their schools
 2. Demanded bilingual
education
 3. Demanded Chicano
Studies classes in
colleges/Universities
Cesar Chavez
 Non violent resistance
 Fought for social change
mid 60’s
 Fought for immigrant
agricultural worker’s
rights
 United Farm Workers
 Organized consumer
boycotts of table grapes
Dr. King was Assassinated
 April, 1968
 In Memphis, Tennessee
Robert Kennedy
 Was Assassinated in Los
Angeles
 June, 1968
ERA 9: The Cold War (19451989)
9.2: HOW THE COLD WAR AND CONFLICTS
IN KOREA AND VIETNAM INFLUENCED
DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
What Is The Cold War?
Intense rivalry between the U.S. & Soviet Union
after WWII
What were the origins and developments of the cold
war?
 1. Ideological Differences: Communism vs.




Capitalism
(economic, political, philosophical disputes)
2. Competition for global power & Influence
3. Mutual Distrust
4. Atomic Weapons – “Arms Race”
The Cold WAR – Two Perspectives
 View #1: Stalin wanted world domination, U.S. had
no choice but to defend democratic, capitalist values.
 View #2: Truman adopted an aggressive foreign
policy, and sought to create American spheres of
influence throughout world
American Presidents – Cold War
 1. Harry Truman 1948-1952
 2. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1952-1960
 3. John F. Kennedy 1960-1963
Origins of Cold War – Rise of Soviet Union
 1. Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
 Established Spheres of Influence
 In Eastern Europe “Soviet Satellites”
Winston Churchill :
 “An iron curtain has descended across Europe” -
1946
Policy of Containment
 American President Truman wanted to“ contain
communism from spreading”
 Truman Doctrine (1947): funding to assist
countries in repelling a possible communist take over
Marshall Plan
 Economic assistance for
Western European
Countries
 U.S. gave $3 billion over
4 yr period
 Joseph Stalin Refused to
receive economic
assistance from U.S. to
help Eastern
European countries
The Atomic Race
 Competition of weaponry
 Soviet Union exploded
first A- Bomb 1949
 1952 U.S. developed
Hydrogen bomb
 1,000 X’s stronger than Abomb
Containment in Asia
 China’s Communist
Revolution , 1949
 1950 Mao Tse- Tung and
Joseph Stalin signed pact
 2 large nations created=
“communist block”
Korean War
 1945 Allies divided
Korea into two
 Border between
North & South 38th
Parallel
 North Korea =
communist
 China and Soviet
Union supplied
weapons
Korean War - 1950
 N. Korea invaded
South Korea, June
1950
 U.S. sent troops to
liberate South Korea
 Conflict ended in
“stalemate” – U.S.
removed troops
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 Became President, 1952
 American foreign
policy : He would
support nations who
sought liberation from
communism
Eisenhower’s Policies
 1. “brinkmanship” – U.S. would push aggressor
nation to the “brink “of nuclear war, forcing them to
back down
 2. “massive retaliation” – U.S. would release
arsenal of nuclear weapons on any threat
John F. Kennedy, 1960
 Elected President
1960
 Defeated Richard
Nixon
The Construction of the Berlin Wall, Germany
 Soviets began
construction, 1961
 To prevent East Berliners
from escaping to West
 West = Freedom
 East = Soviet
Dictatorship/totalitarianis
m
Castro Communizes Cuba
 Dictator Batista
overthrown by Fidel
Castro 1959
 Established communist
state
 Asked Soviets for Help
 U.S. cut off diplomatic
relations w/ Castro
Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961
 U.S. planned Invasion of
Cuba
 Attempted to overthrow
Fidel Castro
 Failure
 Embarrassment to
President Kennedy
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
 Fidel Castro &
Khrushchev joined forces
 U.S. spy plane discovered
evidence of the
construction nuclear
missile sites in Cuba
Kennedy Ordered …
 Removal of missiles
 U.S. enacted naval blockade against Cuba
 Khrushchev agreed to remove missiles if…
 U.S. agreed never to invade Cuba again , and remove
their missiles from Turkey
American “Red Scare” 1950’s - 1960’s
 Fear of communism,
spies, and nuclear war
Senator Joseph
McCarthy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
.
Wanted to uncover &
prosecute American
Communists
Used media to his
advantage
His accusations mostly
false
Hearings televised
Modern day “witch hunt”
Living in Fear…
 Threat of nuclear war
 Bomb shelters
 People purchased canned
goods/water
 “duck and cover” drills in
schools
Space Race
 1. Soviet Space Satellite
Sputnik launched 1957
 2. U.S. created National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
1958
 American Moon
Landing, 1961
The Stormy Sixties & Seventies
ERA 9.2: HOW THE COLD WAR AND
CONFLICTS IN KOREA AND VIETNAM
INFLUENCED DOMESTIC AND
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Vietnam – the “non-war”
 When: 1964-1973
 American Casualties:
 58,000 dead
 300,000 wounded
 2,600 missing in action
 Presidents involved :
Kennedy, Johnson,
Nixon
 Cost: $176 billion
Vietnamese Casualties
 2 million people
 Both military & civilian
 Dead and/or wounded
 How did this conflict
start?
Background info:
 Geneva Conference





(1954)
Territory was divided into
3 new countries:
1. Vietnam
2. Cambodia
3. Laos
Vietnam divided in
half 17th parallel
SEATO
 South East Asian Treaty Organization
 American pledge to assist Asian countries facing
“communist threat” (Eisenhower- 1950’s)
In the Early 1960’s
 John F. Kennedy was afraid Asian countries “would fall to
communism”
 He Increased financial & military assistance to Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin (1964)
 Lyndon B Johnson
 Announced north
Vietnamese gunboats
 attacked U.S. destroyers –
for no reason
(unprovoked)
LBJ Asked Congress
 For an increase in his authority to wage war in
Vietnam
 Without an actual war declaration!
 “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” increased power of
executive branch (President) to engage in war
Gulf Of Tonkin Incident…
 U.S. Destroyers were
assisting
 South Vietnamese in
attacking northern
neighbor
 Attacks were not
“unprovoked”
Tet (Vietnamese New Year) Offensive
 January 1968
 Vietcong forces surprised
American troops
 Attacked military bases,
capitals
 Psychological impact:
Most Americans now
opposed war
Back in the United States…
 President Richard Nixon
and Vice President Spiro
Agnew
 Elected 1968
 “Secret Plan to end
the war”
 500,000 unhappy troops
serving overseas
Nixon’s “Vietnamization”:
 “Vietnamization” –the
U.S. military instructed
the South Vietnamese on
how to fight war.
 Allowed for Number of
U.S. troops to be
decreased
Counterculture (Hippies)
 “Baby- Boomers” now




teenagers
Protested conformity
protested U.S.
involvement in war
Protested draft
“hell no! we won’t go!” -
Counter Culture Movement
 Free Speech
Movement (FSM)–
College students in U.C.
Berkeley
 Stage sit-ins, teach-ins
 “Hippies”
Counterculture Movement
 Hippies:
 Protested war
 Woodstock Music
Festival
 1969 New York
 Folk Singers- Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez sing protest
songs
March 29,1973
 North Vietnamese gained
control of the South
 U.S. agreed to pull troops
in exchange for POW’s
(prisoners of war)
 Vietnam War ended,
1973
The End of the Cold War Period
1945-1989
The 1980’s
 Ronald Reagan –Elected
President , 1980
Reagan & The Cold War
 Less $ spent on social
programs
 More $ spent on
military/weapons
 Example: Strategic
Defense System (SDI)
“Star Wars”
 Cost: billions
Reagan & Gorbachev
 1983 Reagan called Soviet
Union an “evil empire”
 Changed his mind by 1985
after meeting
 Mikhail Gorbachev the
new Soviet leader
Gorbachev’s Policies
 Glasnost- “openness”
 Perestroika- “reform”
 December 1987 Regan &
Gorbachev signed
agreement to eliminate
intermediate range
missiles
 “Frien-emies “->
Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
 “Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this
wall!”-Reagan
 Fall of Berlin wall
allowed for the
eventual
disintegration of the
Soviet Union
 As Soviet satellites
declared
independence 1989
Fall of Berlin Wall
 Oct. 1989
 The end of “Cold War”
 Soviet Union disbanded
1991