Goal #11: Recovery, Prosperity, and Turmoil (1945-1980),
trace economic, political, and social developments and
assess their significance for Americans during this period.
11.01: Describe the effects of the Cold War on economic, political, and social life in
America
11.02: Trace major events of the Civil Rights Movement and evaluate its impact
11.03: Identify other major social movements and evaluate their impact on U.S. society
11.04: Identify the causes of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and examine how the
involvement affected society
11.05: Examine how technological innovations have impacted American life
11.06: Identify significant political events and personalities and assess their social and
political effects
The World's Economic Superpower Emerges
Conformity: to be like everybody else – the post-war
period is seen as a time of conformity when several things
pressured Americans not to express their individualism or to
act in ways that challenged the dominant culture, a culture
that stressed consumerism, materialism, traditional gender
roles and morality. One reason for this is the prosperity that
the nation witnessed in the two decades following WWII.
After years of hardship, Americans could afford to buy
things again. Added to that, a firm belief that the Great
Depression was caused by a lack of consumer power
(demand-side economics) took hold. It was good to buy
“things” (cars, refrigerators, televisions): good because it was
fun and good because it kept people working making those
things and kept the economy humming.
Another reason was the rise of suburbia. All
the homes looked alike; you could walk into
a new friend’s suburban home that you had
never visited before and know the basic
floor plan (or notice how it differed from
your house) An impression of equality
emerged – you were basically the same as
your neighbor. But when your neighbor
bought something new, you might have
sensed that you were falling behind; so you
had to get that new thing, too. You had to
“keep up with the Joneses.” The media
helped foster these ideas, through
advertising or consumer magazines. The
political culture also created a culture of
conformity. In an era of “Red Scare,” it was
dangerous to hold different beliefs: you
could lose your job or be ostracized from the
community.
Such stifling of individualism helps explain not
only the culture of the 1950s, but also the
reaction to it in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1955
film, Rebel Without a Cause, exemplifies the
tension over conformity and individual
expression. In it, the young superstar James
Dean feels constricted by his middle-class
parents and upbringing. He has every material
thing he could want and his parents love him
and treat him well, but he is dissatisfied. He
needs to find his own character. But the
dominant culture dismisses his rebelliousness.
Life is good (better than it was for his parents in
the Depression and War). He has no “cause.”
The 1960s and 1970s offer innumerable “causes”
for which to rebel.
Ticky-Tacky Suburban Society:
The Culture of Conformity, 1945-1964
“The Fifties:” In 1957, U.S. News & World Report called the previous ten years a
“decade of miracles.” The U.S. had emerged as the world’s sole economic superpower.
America was “a nation on the move” with “millions of babies . . . millions of pupils . . .
millions of jobs . . . millions of households . . . [and for them] millions of new homes in
new cities.” The U.S. comprised 7% of the world’s population, but held 42% of the
world’s income and produced 50% of the world’s manufacturing output—43% of
electricity, 57% of steel, 62% of oil, 80% of automobiles. It held 75% of the world’s gold.
One big reason behind the boom was the continued spending of the federal government
to avoid a return to the Great Depression. In 1950, government expenditures reached $43
billion, more than four times 1939 levels. Spending included guaranteed mortgage loans,
on highway construction, on medical and scientific advancements, and the “militaryindustrial complex” of new weapons systems. Not all Americans shared in the bounty, of
course, and anxiety over the struggle against Communism abroad and at home made the
decade less than perfect. But economically, as a nation, there is no question that the U.S.
had become the world’s economic superpower.
The Baby Boom: The postwar years (1946-1962) witnessed the largest demographic
bubble in U.S. history—70 million babies, almost two-fifths of the 1960 population of
190 million. A rise could be seen as early as 1942, with the so called “furlough babies,”
but birth rates after the war rose from less than 20 per 1,000 in the 1930s to nearly 27 per
1,000 in 1947, the biggest year. The boom resulted not just from soldiers returning home
from overseas, but from a sizeable increase in marriages among a 1920s generation who
delayed marriage because of the Depression and war and from an increase in marriages
among younger people (early twenties) caused in part by rising standards of living. It did
not occur because couples were having more children, rather because more couples were
having children. The wealth of the era, the leisure time afforded to the young,
and the rise in population created a
specialized “youth market” of music
and movies in the 1950s and 1960s.
The boom ended with the advent of
the “birth-control pill” in the early
1960s, as couples married later, and
as divorce became more accepted.
The G.I. Bill: Shortly after D-Day, Congress enacted the
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the “G.I.
Bill of Rights” – G.I. stands for “general issue.” The Act stipulated
that any veteran who had served at least 90 days in the military
after September 1940 had the right to the following benefits:
1. access to a job finding program
2. unemployment benefits for a year
3. access to discount home mortgage loans
4. “education and training.”
The last “right” became the most significant over time – veterans
received up to four years of paid, full-time education, including
money for college. By 1956, about 8 million veterans had taken
advantage of the opportunities, including more than 2 million who
went to college or university. The WWII generation was the first to
have so many get beyond a high school education. The WWII law
was the first to include all veterans; earlier benefits packages
served only those disabled by wounds in war. Later “bills of
rights” expanded on the program after each war.
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947: The Labor Management
Relations Act, it represents the Republican party’s
alternative to the pro-Labor Wagner Labor Relations Act
of the New Deal. It was shepherded through the Senate
by Republican leader Robert Taft of Ohio. It gave more
explicit protection to some forms of labor organization,
but it also protected workers who did not wish to join a
union—rejecting the “closed shop.” It expanded the
federal government’s role in mediating labor disputes,
including enabling the National Labor Relations Board
to enjoin strikes in “vital industries.” It restricted the
participation of members of the Communist Party in
labor activities. President Truman vetoed the bill, but
the Republican-dominated Congress overrode his veto.
The lasting result of the law was to limit Labor’s ability
to coerce membership, reducing Labor’s power to
organize, and to ensure organized Labor would remain a
major constituency in the Democratic Party.
Election of 1948: The most surprising election in U.S. history. The Republican Thomas
Dewey was so sure he would win that he stopped campaigning in August. The reason he
was so sure was that the Democratic Party was split into three factions: the center—led by
POTUS Harry Truman; the left (the Progressives) – led by former Vice-POTUS Henry
Wallace; and the conservatives and South (States Rights Democratic Party, a.k.a. the
Dixiecrats) led by Strom Thurmond. Truman, however, continued to campaign and ending
up winning the Labor vote and enough of the urban black vote to win Illinois, Ohio, and
California. Truman won the election.
Election of 1948
Fair Deal: Harry Truman’s domestic policy agenda for his second term, building on
the New Deal and the large-scale entry of African Americans into the Democratic party
coalition. It called for: repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and a raise in the minimum wage
(to carry out the interests of Labor); expansion of public works utility projects and
federal housing projects (to grease the economy); offering federal aid to education for
the first time; expanding the social safety net by broadening Social Security and
creating a health-care program for the elderly; and, for African American voters, civil
rights (including desegregating the military).
Only housing, Social Security, and the minimum wages made it into law because a
coalition of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats blocked passage of other
parts of the Fair Deal. Where Truman had control, as with desegregating the military, he
was able to act.
“No man who owns his own house and lot can be a Communist.
He has too much to do.” – William Levitt
Levittown: First mass suburban tract built after WWII. Using construction techniques
developed to meet the need for temporary housing during the war, William Levitt and Sons
created an assembly line approach to construction that led to “modular housing.” The
houses were small by today’s standards (c. 1200 square feet) and in two styles, a Cape Cod
and a Ranch bungalow. The Cape Cod started at $6,990; the ranch slightly higher. Now,
according to a Levittown resident, “you can’t get a house [here] for less than $400,000.”
Levitt divided the building process into steps, performed in sequence by a crew that
repeated its same tasks on each home. Levitt claimed to finish a house every fifteen minutes.
The first Levittown, on Long Island, New York, had 17,500 houses and 82,000 residents.
Along with new construction techniques, postwar homebuilders and buyers took advantage
of new tax rules and low-interest loans sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration
and Veterans Administration to create the post-war housing boom.
“Little Boxes” Malvina Reynolds
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
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
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And they children go to summer camp
And then to the university
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same
And the people in the houses
All go to the university
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes all the same
And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers
And business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same
And the boy’s go into business
And marry and raise a family
And they all get put in boxes
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
“I Like Ike”: Truman’s problems in Korea and
the stress of his second term kept him from another
run for the presidency. He talked Illinois Governor
Adlai E. Stevenson II into running and Stevenson
won the nomination. Republicans, meanwhile,
considered Robert Taft (“Mr. Republican”), but
searched for a more likely winner. They found
Dwight Eisenhower. As hero of WWII, Eisenhower
was a shoo-in with the public. The only question
was whether conservative Republicans could be
coaxed along. They were, with the selection of
Richard M. Nixon as vice-presidential candidate.
A political moderate, Eisenhower did not intend to dismantle the New Deal. He did not
intend to do much of anything and that was what a conforming America wanted. Economic
prosperity continued thanks in part to major public works projects. Although his was
essentially a successful presidency, Eisenhower’s biggest oversight as POTUS was his slow
support for the growing Civil Rights Movement. He had a settling influence on the
American psyche despite the anxieties of the Cold War. And so is considered an “Above
Average” POTUS and ranked 9th among presidents in recent polls of historians.
“The interstate highway system is a wonderful thing. It makes it possible to go
from coast to coast without seeing anything or meeting anybody. If the United
States interests you, stay off the interstates.” Charles Kuralt
Interstate Highway System: Inspired by the German Autobahn,
created under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and championed
by President Eisenhower, it is a limited-access superhighway
system crisscrossing the U.S. It serves a dual-purpose:
to facilitate car and truck travel (commerce), and to
increase national security by providing roads that
could sustain tanks and military trucks. Costing an
estimated $129 Billions, it has transformed the
American economy, changed the relationship of the
federal government to the states as relates to transfer
payments and power, reshaped American cities, altered
the landscape, and even changed American culture.
Along with radio, television, other technology, and the
growth of the federal government, the Interstate
Highway System united the country and helped to
create a more uniform American culture.
Polio Vaccine: Invented by Jonas Salk in 1952,
it became available in the mid-1950s after several
clinical trials. It consisted of an injected dose of
killed polio virus. Albert Sabin produced an oral
vaccine in 1962. The research was funded publicly
and through the work of such organizations as the
March of Dimes and the vaccine all but eliminated
child paralysis (poliomyelitis), a disease that
affected 58,000 children in 1952 (killing 1,400) and
had paralyzed Franklin D. Roosevelt. By 1962,
there were only 910 recorded cases in the U.S.
Ending polio significantly boosted other disease
prevention research and gave hope that science
would eliminate other childhood diseases, as well
as cancer, heart disease, and stroke
Transistors: Semiconductors used for amplification and
switching—the key components in modern electronics.
Using less power and being much smaller than vacuum
tubes, they facilitated portable electronic devices, such as
transistor radios first developed by Texas Instruments in
1954. The pre-transistor portable radio was about the size of
a notebook computer and contained several heavy batteries.
By comparison, the “transistor,” as it became known, was
small and operated off a single 9V battery. Transistors
became popular with youth in the early sixties, when their
price came down from its original $50.
Television: Although invented much earlier, television receivers were not
marketed to any great extent before the end of WWII (besides there was nothing to
watch). In 1949, 2.3% of American homes had black-and-white sets on which to
watch the most popular viewing of the day—wrestling. By 1962, 90% of homes had
at least one TV and by the mid-1960s sets were color. In between, the two major
radio networks, CBS and NBC, transformed many of their popular radio shows
into television shows (Amos and Andy, The Lone Ranger, etc.) many shown “live.”
New TV stars established themselves—none bigger than Lucille Ball on I Love
Lucy. Many big-time recording stars had fifteen minute musical programs—Perry
Como and Nat King Cole. Game shows were extremely
popular, at least before being discredited in the “Quiz Show
Scandal” where viewers of Twenty-One and $64,000 Question
discovered that contestants had been given the answers before
hand. And viewers became riveted by news programs and
Congressional hearings involving McCarthy’s Red Scare and
the investigations into organized crime. Finally, while
important and cutting-edge dramas played on programs such
as Playhouse 90, most shows were family fare – light, moralist,
and suburban – blandly capturing the “American Dream.”
CinemaScope: One of the new film technologies developed
in the early 1950s to counter competition from television. It
reformatted film ratios to enable “widescreen” projection. Other
processes include Vistavision (similar to CinemaScope); 3-D
(where one sensed three dimensions on screen, action coming
right at you, if you wore bi-colored plastic glasses) and
Cinerama (a complicated playback involving three projectors
combining three different segments of the same shot. The last
two are seldom used today, but “widescreen” and its descendent
“70 mm” are commonplace now.
Hootenanny: In the late1950s, an acoustic folk music revival emerged
to challenge the frivolousness of “pop music” and rock-and-roll. It built
on work by “old folkies”, such as Woody Guthrie and The Weavers
(notably Pete Seeger who was blacklisted for membership in the
Communist Party USA). The breakthrough act of the revival was The
Kingston Trio whose “Tom Dooley” (about the hanging of Tom Dula in
Statesville for murder) exploded on the charts in 1959. For the next five
years, folk music merged with the civil rights movement and competed
with rock-and-roll for the youth market with artists, such as Peter, Paul,
and Mary, and Phil Ochs. It reached a new level in Bob Dylan.
“Tom Dooley” Frank Warner/John Lomax/Alan Lomax
(Spoken recitation over musical accompaniment)
Throughout history, there have been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This
next one tells the story of Mister Grayson, a beautiful woman, and a condemned man
named Tom Dooley. When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley must hang.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die.
I met her on the mountain. There I took her life. Met her on the mountain. Stabbed her
with my knife.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die.
This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Hadn't-a been for Grayson, I'd-a been in
Tennessee.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die.
This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Down in some lonesome valley hangin' from
a white oak tree.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die.
The Beats: Group of writers centered in San Francisco
that led the bohemian antiestablishment movement that
eventually developed in to the“counter culture”. Their
followers became known as “Beatniks” or “Hipsters.”
Coordinated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (author of the
most popular American book of poetry, A Coney Island
of the Mind), through his City Lights Book Store, they
erupted on the literary scene in the mid-1950s with the
publication of a poetry collection by Allen Ginsberg,
“Howl”. The book scandalized publishing because of
its shocking language and explicit sexuality and
Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg were indicted on obscenity
charges. When the local artistic community came to
their defense, they were acquitted. The case opened the
way for new and more provocative works to follow.
Although other writers had success, the most successful was Jack Kerouac, whose books On
the Road and Dharma Bums remain icons of 1950s rebellion. Several of the Beats got caught
up in experimentation with drugs, particularly LSD, in the early and mid-1960s (William S.
Burroughs, Ken Kesey, the Grateful Dead). Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti stayed at the center
of the counterculture when San Francisco, specifically Haight-Ashbury, became the Mecca
for hippies after 1965.
Camelot, 1961-1963
“Ask not”: John F. Kennedy’s presidency represented, as
he said, “a passing of the torch” from the WWI generation
(Eisenhower) to the WWII generation. His New Frontier
program was meant to spark the imagination of young
people by inviting them to volunteer to contribute to
society in various ways. “Ask not what your country can do
for you,” he declared in his inaugural address, “ask what
you can do for your country.”
Assassination of John F. Kennedy: On November 22,
1963, JFK traveled to Texas to raise money for the 1964 election.
As JFK rode through Dallas in an open limousine, Lee Harvey
Oswald shot and killed him. A couple of days after the murder,
Jack Ruby, claiming he wanted to avenge Kennedy, killed
Oswald. Oswald’s quick death left many questions unanswered
and led to speculation of a conspiracy
"Camelot": After the murder and funeral of President Kennedy, a mythology developed
that came to overwhelm the reality of the Kennedy years. In death, Kennedy became more
universally popular in America than he was in life. He became the symbol of hope that, as
the U.S. descended into disorder and careened from one disaster to another over the next
twenty years, became a symbol of lost innocence and a dream destroyed. Chief among the
mythmakers were his advisers, his staff, and his family. Shortly after the assassination,
historian and Kennedy adviser Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., asked Jacqueline Kennedy what life
was like in the JKF White House. Recalling the favorite Broadway musical of the day, she
said that it was like Camelot" -- "In short there's simply not a more congenial spot for
happ'ly-ever-aftering than here in Camelot." The myth stuck.
“The British Invasion”: In February 1964, as the U.S. dealt
with JFK’s murder, the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison, Ringo Starr) landed in New York to play the Ed
Sullivan Show. The crowd (mostly screaming girls) greeting them
at the airport was the biggest thing rock music had seen since
Elvis Presley broke on the scene. Over the next year, the Beatles
dominated American culture (music, dress, hair, even movies).
After them, came British acts of varying quality and popularity—
from giants (Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton) to the big
and then gone (Gerry and the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five,
Herman’s Hermits, Donovan, The Animals)—changing the face of
popular music. The synergy of the British invasion, America’s
musical response, the youth market, drugs, and the Vietnam War
helped expand the counterculture on both sides of the Atlantic.