POSTWAR AMERICAN SOCIETY
Essential Question
- Were the 1950s a time of great peace, progress, and prosperity for Americans?
Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, 1944
(GI Bill)
- We learned our lesson from the Bonus Army
- Fed. Gov’t, supports returning soldiers with passage of the GI Bill
- Returning WWII soldiers get:
- $ for college
- $ for housing
- $ for business
ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT
- Transitioning from wartime production to peacetime production
- Takes time for supply to catch up with demand
- Prices jumped 25% after WWII
- Prices never go back to prewar pricing…
Baby Boom
- Population increase at the end of WWII
- 1957 = 1 kid every 7 seconds
- Babies become big business
IMPACT OF BABY BOOM
- Impacts businesses
- School Buildings, playgrounds, baby industry, etc.
- Growth of suburbs
- Babies need a place to live!!
- Standardization of culture
- House, yard 1 tree, 2.5 kids, gender roles…
- Consumer culture
- Note- Growth of suburbs did not include all people. Schools were legally segregated, therefore playgrounds were not part of all landscape.
- Dr. Jonas Salk: created the Polio vaccine
- Dr. Ben Spock: Wrote child care books
- “Common Sense Book of Baby & Child Care”
Growth of Suburbs
- To ease the housing crisis, companies began using the assembly line approach to building homes
- 1 house in 16 minutes
- 1st neighborhood on Long Island = Levittown
- All houses the same
- Led to the development of the suburbs
Racism in Levittown
- Lease/Deed to a Home in Levittown included:
- The tenant agrees to not permit the premises to be used or occupied by other persons than members of the Caucasian race
- Salesmen were known to tell African-Americans hopeful of moving to the suburbs:
- It’s not me, … but the owners of this development have not … yet decided whether they’re going to sell these homes to Negroes
- Levittown was not the only suburb to promote and utilize discriminatory practices in it’s housing practices
White Flight & Urban Decay
- Name given to movement of whites to suburbs and out of urban centers
- Money invested in suburbs, not cities
- Urban areas began to decline
1948 Election
- Dixicrats ( Southern Democrats ) unhappy with Truman’s stance on Civil Rights nominated their own candidate for election
- Strom Thurman of SC
- On election day, it appeared NY Gov. Dewey had won the election
- Election polls showed a comfortable lead
- “Dewey Defeats Truman”
- Truman won the election & proves election polls can be wrong
Interstate Highway Act, 1956
- Enacted by Pres. Eisenhower to help connect the nation
- Socially, Economically, & Politically
- Allowed more people to move to the suburbs
- Led to the increase in car culture
Impact of Interstate Highway Act
- Quicker transportation around country
- Suburbinization
- Environmental destruction
- Small towns experienced “Death by Interstate”
TV NATION
- The must have communication / entertainment luxury
- Replaces the radio!
- TV shows mirrored the ideal American Life
- White, suburban culture
- Leads to more conformity
Rock ‘N Roll
- Mainstream teenagers challenging society
- drew heavily from African American rhythm & blues
- Elvis Presley - most defined singer for the new white teenage culture
- Rock & Roll → Juvenile delinquency???
- concern over musical integration (black & white kids mingling) mirrored civil rights struggle