Chapter 20
The Postwar Years at Home
(1945 – 1960)
Section 1
The Postwar Economy
Setting the Scene
• items were rationed
or not produced at all
during the war
• people were eager to
acquire everything
the war and the
Depression had denied
them
• began to spend large
sums of money on
recreation
Businesses Reorganize
• per capita income – the average annual
income per person increased
• with research and development funded by
the government, new products were
produced
– Ford
– Chrysler
– General Motors
– General Electric
– Westinghouse
• conglomerate – corporation made up of
three or more unrelated businesses, that
is better able to defend itself against
economic downturns
– International Telephone and Telegraph, Avis
Rent-a-Car, Sheraton Hotels, Hartford Fire
Insurance, & Continental Baking
• franchise – business that contracts to
offer certain goods and services from a
larger parent company
– use the company’s name, suppliers,
products, and production methods
• McDonald’s
Technology Transforms Life
• Television
– live broadcasts
made shows exciting
to watch
– average American
family watched 4-5
hours a day
– also became a
powerful new
medium for
advertisers
Father
Knows Best
American Bandstand
The Mickey Mouse Club
Howdy
Doody
I
Love Lucy
• The Computer Industry
– Grace Hopper – pioneered creation of
software & coined term debugging when she
removed a moth from a relay switch
– transistor – tiny circuit device that amplifies,
controls, and generates electrical signals
• also took up less space and generated less heat
• Nuclear Power
– nuclear fission – produce heat to generate
steam and drive electrical turbines
• first nuclear-powered submarine (USS Nautilus)
• first nuclear power plant
• Nuclear Power Plant in Glen Rose, Texas
– approx 87 miles from Gatesville
• Advances in Medicine
– Dr. Jonas Salk & Dr.
Thomas Francis developed a polio
vaccine
• introduced on the Tenth
Anniversary of FDR’s
death
– antibiotics like
penicillin introduced
– new era of surgical
advances to correct
heart defects
Changes in the Work Force
• new machines began
to assume many of
the jobs previously
performed by people
– automation
• demand for more
people to keep
growing organizations
running
• growth of the service
industry
• Advantages
– buildings were
clean
– offices were bright
– physically work was
less exhausting
– not as dangerous
– could rise into
executive positions
• Disadvantages
– less connection
with products &
services company
was providing
– pressure to dress,
think, and act alike
Suburbs and Highways
• the baby boom
• Moving to the Suburbs
– retreated from aging cities
to the suburbs
– GI Bill of Rights – gave
soldiers low-interest
mortgages to purchase
new homes and provide
them with educational
stipends for college or
graduate school
– William J. Levitt – built houses in just weeks
instead of months
– some complained that the developments all
looked too much alike
“Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.”
- Malvina Reynolds, “Little Boxes”
• Cars and Highways
– stores began to move from cities
to shopping centers located in the
suburbs
– new car designs every year
– Interstate Highway Act – to build an
interstate road system more than 40,000
miles long
• theoretically allowed for the evacuation of major
cities in the event of a nuclear attack
– gas stations, repair shops, parts stores
– drive-in movies and restaurants
– vacations at national parks, seaside resorts,
and amusement parks
The Growth of Consumer Credit
• gas companies began offering credit
cards to loyal customers
• consumer credit debt rose from more
than $8 billion (1946) to $56 billion (1960)
– used credit to purchase washing machines,
vacuum cleaners, and television sets
Section 2
The Mood of the 1950s
Setting the Scene
• Americans began to value security over
adventure
• happy with the apparent harmony
between individuals and groups
Comfort and Security
• Tootle the Engine
– young train
engine, who
thought it was
more fun to play
in the fields than
stay on the tracks
• “Always stay on
the track no
matter what.”
• Youth Culture
– little interest in the problems and crises of
the larger world
– more children able to complete secondary
school
– expected to stay in school, only part-time
jobs (baby-sitting)
– businesses began selling to the youth market
– bobby socks / poodle skirts / letter sweaters
– teenage girls collected items such as silver
and linen to prepare for marriage, often just
after high school
• A Resurgence in Religion
– people began to flock back to churches
– found hope in the face of the threat of
nuclear war
– Dial-a-Prayer
– growth of evangelists
– 1954 – Congress adds “under God” to the
Pledge of Allegiance
– “In God We Trust”
Men’s and Women’s Roles
• roles defined by social and religious
traditions
– men – go to school, find a job and support
wives and children
– women – supporting role of keeping house,
cooking meals, and raising children
Challenges to Conformity
• Women at Work
– norm was for women to leave work after
they got married (not all did)
• secretaries, teachers, nurses, sales clerks
– Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique
• Tupperware Parties
– home-based sales were less intimidating than
door-to-door
• Youthful Rebellions
– some young people
rejected the values
of their parents
– Rebel Without a
Cause – James Dean
– The Catcher in the
Rye – J.D. Salinger
• struggles to
preserve own
integrity despite
the fierce pressure
to conform
– Alan Freed – radio
disc jockey who
began playing black
rhythm-and-blues
• “Moondog Rock ‘n’
Roll Party”
– Chuck Berry, Little
Richard, Fats
Domino, Bill Haley
and the Comets,
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Buddy Holly
Chuck Berry
Fats Domino
Bill Haley and the Comets
Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly
Little Richard
– Elvis Presley
• “Don’t Be Cruel”
• “Hound Dog”
• “Heartbreak
Hotel”
– rock-and-roll
• felt that it threatened many who were
comfortable with racial segregation
• didn’t like the idea of black and white teenagers
going to the same concerts or dancing to the
same music
– “Beat Generation” – beatniks
• promoted spontaneity or acting out at a moment’s
notice without planning
– Jack Kerouac – On the Road
– Allen Ginsberg – “Howl”
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets
at dawn looking for an angry fix; Angel-headed hipsters burning for the
ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of
the night.
–Allen Ginsberg – “Howl”
Section 3
Domestic Politics and Policy
Setting the Scene
• 1950s called the conservative years
Truman’s Domestic Policies
• had a scattershot
approach to
government
• offered a new set
of proposals in
every speech
• The Peacetime
Economy
– reconversion – the
social and
economic
transition from
wartime to
peacetime
– wages failed to
keep up with
prices
– strikes in various
prominent
industries
– began to limit the
power of unions
– Taft-Hartley Act – allowed
the President to declare
an 80-day cooling off
period during which
strikers had to return to
work , if the strikes were
in industries that affected
national interest
– required union officials to
sign oaths that they were
not Communists
– vetoed by Truman, but
passed by Congress
Senator Robert A. Taft
• Truman’s Fair Deal
– 21-point program designed to promote full
employment, a higher minimum wage,
greater unemployment compensation,
housing assistance, national health insurance
program, control atomic energy
• Truman on Civil
Rights
– “I am not asking
for 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
the fight.”
– federal anti-lynching law,
abolish the poll tax, board
to prevent discriminatory
practices in hiring
– biracial committee
formed on Civil Rights
– banned the discrimination
in the hiring of federal
employees
– end to segregation and
discrimination in the
armed forces
The Election of 1948
• Truman ran against
Republican Thomas E.
Dewey
– campaigned against the
Republican Congress
(80th ‘Do Nothing’
Congress)
– almost all experts and
pollsters had picked
Dewey to win
– Truman wins in an
astounding upset
• 22nd Amendment
– limited
presidents to two
terms (1951)
Eisenhower and the Republican Approach
• Ike - nickname
• “K1C2” – Korea,
Communism,
Corruption
• promised to end
the Korean War
• Vice-President
Richard Nixon
• The Checkers Speech
– during the election, Nixon was accused of
receiving illegal gifts from political friends
– many proposed Eisenhower dump him from
the ticket
– Nixon gave a
televised speech
where he admitted
that he had
received one gift, a
little cocker spaniel
they named
Checkers
– people demanded
Nixon continue
• Eisenhower
as
President
– worked
behind the
scenes
– won
reelection
in 1956
• Modern Republicanism
– wanted to limit the President’s power and
increase the authority of Congress and the courts
– cutting spending, reducing taxes, and balancing
the budget
– “dynamic conservatism”
– Eisenhower’s Cabinet
• favored big business
• successful businessmen, plus one union leader
– “eight millionaires and a plumber”
– attempt to balance the budget backfired,
but maintained a mood of stability
– minimum wage increased from 75¢ to $1.00
• Meeting the Technology Challenge
– National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) – formed in 1958, as
an independent agency for space exploration
– National Defense Education Act – improve
science and mathematics instruction in
schools to meet the scientific and technical
challenge of the Soviet Union
– money to build science and foreign language
facilities for schools