Transcript chapter 22 ppt.

Postwar America
1945-1960
Chapter 22
Click the Speaker button
to listen to the audio again.
Why It Matters
Post-WWII:
* Economic prosperity
* Stronger middle class
* House in the suburbs
* More leisure time
* Television - favorite entertainment
* BUT... general prosperity did
not extend to some minority
groups!
Return to a Peacetime Economy
• The U.S. economy continued to grow after
World War II because of increased
consumer spending.
The GI Bill provided loans to veterans to help
them establish businesses, buy homes, and
attend college.
But...a greater demand for goods led to inflation
and triggered labor unrest!
• Workers went on
strike for increased
wages.
• President Truman,
fearing an energy
shortage, forced
miners to return to
work after a monthlong strike.
• In 1946 Americans interested in change
elected Republicans in both houses of
Congress.
• Congress wanted to cut the power of
organized labor; proposed Taft-Hartley Act.
• Act outlawed the closed shop. (Where
business owners could hire only union
members.)
• States could pass right-to-work laws
outlawing shops where workers were
required to join unions.
Bottom line….Union power was weakened!
• Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but
Congress voted to override the veto and
passed it in 1947.
Truman’s Domestic Program
• President Truman tried to push
many domestic measures through
Congress.
• Included expansion of Social Security
benefits; raising the minimum wage from
40 to 75 cents an hour; and a broad civil
rights bill protecting African Americans.
• His proposals met with little success with
Republicans and conservative Southern
Democrats.
• As the election of 1948 neared, it
looked as if Truman would not be
reelected.
• Truman criticized the “DoNothing Congress.”
• Truman won the election;
Democratic Party made a
comeback, regaining
control of both
houses of Congress.
The press was so certain that Dewey would
win in 1948, they printed the headline which
turned out to be wrong!!!
• Truman’s domestic agenda was coined the
Fair Deal.
• Congress did not support all of Truman’s
ideas. While the minimum wage was
increased and the Social Security system
expanded, Congress refused to pass
national health insurance or to enact
civil rights legislation.
The Eisenhower Years
• With the US at war in Korea, Truman’s
approval rating dropped. He chose
not to run again in 1952.
• The GOP candidate, Dwight
Eisenhower ran with the
slogan, “It’s time for a change!”
Eisenhower
• He promised to end the
Korean War.
Eisenhower won in a landslide with
his running mate, Richard Nixon.
Nixon
For the first time in 20 years, the GOPs
occupied the White House.
• Eisenhower described his political beliefs as
midway between conservative and liberal.
• He pushed for passage of the Federal
Highway Act, which provided $25 billion for a
10-year project to construct 40,000 miles of
interstate highways.
• Ike easily won his second run for the
presidency in 1956 as America transitioned
from a wartime to a peacetime economy.
• Americans focused their energy on
a decade of tremendous prosperity.
American Abundance
• In 1958 economist John
Kenneth Galbraith
published The Affluent
Society; claimed that the US
and some other industrialized
nations had created an
“economy of abundance.”
• New business techniques and improved
technology = a standard of living never
before thought possible.
• As the mechanization of
farms and factories
increased, many Americans
began working in whitecollar jobs, such as sales
and management.
• In 1956, for the first time,
white-collar workers
outnumbered blue-collar
workers – people who
perform physical labor in
industry.
• The rise in luxury products led to the growth
of more sophisticated advertising.
• The advertising industry became the fastestgrowing industry in the United States, using
new marketing techniques
to sell products.
• WHAT NEW
MARKETING
TOOL DO YOU
THINK WAS
USED MOST?
• Levittown, NY one of the earliest
suburbs; massproduced.
• Between 1947 and 1951,
other Levittown-type suburbs
were built all over the US.
• To some, suburbs symbolized
the American dream; others
saw them as an example of
American conformity.
The 1950s Family
• Larger families
• More women in the workforce.
• 1945-1961 known as the baby
boom; more than 65 million
babies born in the United States.
• Post-war couples ready to marry
and start families.
Technological Breakthroughs
• In 1946 scientists working for the U.S. Army
developed one of the earliest computers.
• Was called ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical Integrator and
Computer); it made military
calculations.
• Newer model called
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer) could handle
business data; led to a
computer revolution.
• Medical breakthroughs: development of
antibiotics; new drugs for arthritis, diabetes,
cancer, and heart disease; and advances in
surgical techniques.
• Polio epidemics
swept the nation in
the 1940s and
1950s.
• Jonas Salk
developed an
injectable vaccine
that prevented polio.
• New cases of polio
declined
dramatically.
• Albert Sabin later
developed an oral
vaccine for polio.
• Threat of polio
disappeared in the
United States.
• The Soviet Union launched the world’s first
space satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957.
• The United States
launched its own
satellite in January
1958.
The New Mass Media
• Television became more affordable.
• 1946 - 7,000 to 8,000 TV sets in the U.S.
• By 1957 - 40 million
sets.
• TV news became an
important source of
information.
• Advertising and sporting
events became more common.
• Categories of TV shows:
comedy, action-adventure,
variety-style entertainment,
and quiz shows.
• Ed Sullivan’s variety show
Toast of the Town provided a
mix of comedy, popular song,
dance, and acrobatics.
I Love Lucy
Father Knows Best
Leave It To Beaver
The Lone Ranger
• The movie industry lost
viewers.
• Moviemakers tried to lure
people away from TV sets.
Ex: use of 3-D glasses and
cinemascope.
• Movie roles for women
were stereotypical, often
as wives or girlfriends.
• Roles for African Americans
were often stereotypical or
one-dimensional.
• Radio had to find ways to get television
viewers to listen again.
• Recorded music, news, talk shows, weather,
public-service programs, and shows for
specific audiences were all used to
encourage people to turn on their radios.
The New Youth Culture
• Young Americans rebelled against
the conformist ideals of adult
society; looked to controversial
styles in music and literature.
• 1951 - radio DJ Alan Freed
played African American rhythm
and blues on the radio.
• Soon white artists were
copying the sound to form a
new style of music called rock
’n’ roll.
• In 1956 Elvis
Presley became a
rock ’n’ roll hero for
many teenagers.
• He eventually
became known as
the “King of Rock
’n’ Roll.”
• The music was popular with teens, but
parents disliked this new music.
• Several cities banned rock ’n’ roll.
• Led to what became known as a generation
gap, or cultural
separation between
children and
their
parents.
• A group of artists, who
called themselves the
beats, highlighted the
values gap that existed in
the U.S. in the 1950s.
African American Entertainers
• African American entertainers tried to find a
way to fit in.
• Most were shut out by television.
• African American rock ’n’ roll singers had an
easier time gaining acceptance.
• Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, and Little
Richard recorded hit songs.
Ray Charles
Chuck Berry
Little
Richard
• African American women’s recording groups,
including the Crystals, the Chiffons, and the
Shirelles, paved the way for future women’s
groups.
The Crystals
The Chiffons
The Shirelles
Poverty Amidst Prosperity
• 1959 - 30 million Americans lived
below the poverty line.
• Writer Michael Harrington
chronicled poverty in the U.S.
during the 1950s in his book The
Other America.
• He described how some
Americans lived in the
run-down and hidden
communities of America.
• The poor included
single mothers, elderly,
minority immigrants, etc.
• The wealthy moved to suburbs;
urban areas became home to
poorer, less educated minority
groups.
• 1950s: government began
urban renewal programs, in
which they tore down slums and
built high-rise projects.
• In 1958 African
American salaries were
only 51 percent of what
whites earned.
• NAACP and the
Congress of Racial
Equality pushed for
equality and economic
opportunities for African
Americans.
• They had little success.
• Through the Bracero program, some five
million Mexican immigrants came to the US
to help with agricultural needs.
• They struggled with poverty and worked in
unbearable conditions for very little pay.
• Native Americans - poorest group in the nation.
• Through the termination policy, the federal
government took away all official recognition of
Native American groups as legal entities and made
them follow the same laws as white citizens.
Juvenile Delinquency
• Social problem in the U.S. during the 1950s - a rise in
juvenile delinquency – antisocial or criminal
behavior of youths.
• Delinquency in the 1950s cut
across class and racial lines.
• Teens were stereotyped,
especially if they had long hair
and dressed in an
unconventional manner.
• As baby boomers started school, enrollments
increased greatly.
• Shortage of buildings and teachers.
• Because the USSR had launched the first space
satellites, the U.S. schools were criticized for a lack
of technical education.
• Response: efforts made to
improve math and scientific
education in U.S. schools.
Reviewing Key Terms
Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on
the left.
__
D 1. jobs in fields not requiring work
clothes or protective clothing,
such as sales
__
F 2. the right to license and to
market a company’s goods or
services in an area, such as a
store of a chain operation
__
B 3. a business that requires
employees to join a union
__
A 4. an agreement in which a
company agrees to hire only
union members
A.
closed shop
B.
union shop
C.
featherbedding
D.
white-collar
E.
blue-collar
F.
franchise
G.
baby boom
H.
generation gap
I.
urban renewal
J.
termination
policy
Reviewing Key Terms (cont.)
Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on
the left.
__
I 5. government programs that
attempt to eliminate poverty
and revitalize urban areas
__
H 6. a cultural separation between
parents and their children
__
E 7. jobs in the manual labor field,
particularly those requiring
protective clothing
C 8. practice of limiting work
__
output in order to create more
jobs
A.
closed shop
B.
union shop
C.
featherbedding
D.
white-collar
E.
blue-collar
F.
franchise
G.
baby boom
H.
generation gap
I.
urban renewal
J.
termination
policy
Reviewing Key Terms (cont.)
Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on
the left.
__
J 9. a government policy to bring
Native Americans into
mainstream society by
withdrawing recognition of
Native American groups as
legal entities
__
G 10. a marked rise in birthrate,
such as occurred in the
United States following World
War II
A.
closed shop
B.
union shop
C.
featherbedding
D.
white-collar
E.
blue-collar
F.
franchise
G.
baby boom
H.
generation gap
I.
urban renewal
J.
termination
policy